Long Beach Island ferry set for inaugural summer season

For the first time in over 100 years, a ferry will run between the mainland and Long Beach Island.

The free pontoon ferry will begin service on July 6, running every weekend and Monday through Labor Day, according to the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce.

The ferry will also operate during  special fall events like the Ocean County Decoy and Gunning Show (Sept. 28-29) and Chowderfest (Oct. 5-6). While free, passengers can reserve a round-trip voyage for $10.

The 25-seat boat will depart from the mainland Tuckerton Seaport, cruise through the Tuckerton Creek, and head across the bay to Beach Haven’s Taylor Avenue Municipal Dock.

Service was originally set to begin last August, but officials with the Tuckerton Seaport said the ferry was late to arrive because of multiple required safety inspections in Florida followed by Hurricane Florence’s floodwaters delaying shipping north.

It’s named the Pohatcong II, a nod to the Pohatcong, a steam powered paddle wheeler that ferried passengers from a train station in Tuckerton to Beach Haven in the late 1880s.

Regular ferry service between the mainland and Long Beach Island was last offered during the early 1900s.

The ferry is the result of a public-private partnership between the boroughs of Beach Haven and Tuckerton, the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce, the Ocean County Planning Department, and the Tuckerton Seaport Museum.