Cuttyhunk ferry: two winter days a week to the last of the Elizabeth Islands

Seen on a map, the chain makes sense at once. Nonamesset and Uncatena hug Woods Hole, Naushon runs on for miles, then come Pasque, Nashawena and Penikese, and finally Cuttyhunk, with Buzzards Bay on one side of the chain and Vineyard Sound on the other. All of them together make up the Town of Gosnold, and town government sits on Cuttyhunk, the only island with a village.

The boat does not leave from Woods Hole, the obvious corner of Cape Cod, but from New Bedford, across the bay on the mainland. The Cuttyhunk Ferry Company's M/V Cuttyhunk sails from the northeast corner of State Pier and takes about an hour to the island's harbor. Every seat and every parcel has to be reserved first, through the company's online system.

October changes the rhythm. Columbus Day, October 12, closed out the fall table. Its replacement, in force from October 13, 2026, keeps the boat working with one round trip on Mondays and Fridays. The first winter trip is Friday, October 16, and the pattern holds until April 25, 2027.

Monday and Friday only until late April

Winter 2026–27 table, October 13, 2026 – April 25, 2027, read from the operator's schedule page and checked against its booking calendar on October 13, 2026. The spring 2027 table has not been published.   Cuttyhunk Ferry Company — Schedule · 2026-10-13

Two price lists from the same company after October 1

A notice at the top of the company's reservation site says ticket prices went up on October 1 because of record diesel costs. The two sets of numbers the company publishes have not caught up with each other. Its Ticket Info page still lists an adult at $46 one way and $68 for a same-day return, and a child of 12 or under at $36 and $53. The reservation system, which is where you actually pay, quotes $53 and $78 for an adult and $42 and $61 for a child on every winter sailing through April 2027.

We do not put either set in the table. Expect to pay what the booking system shows, and ask the office if the difference matters to you. Both sources agree on one thing: children 2 and under ride free, provided the office is told about each one when you buy.

Fees as listed on the operator's ticket page on October 13, 2026; passenger fares are not tabulated because the operator's two price lists disagree (see below)   Cuttyhunk Ferry Company — Ticket Info · 2026-10-13

A container office on State Pier and a town wharf in the harbor

Neither end is built for crowds. On the mainland the company works out of a temporary-looking office at the edge of a busy state cargo pier, and on the island the boat lands at the wharf the Town of Gosnold keeps in its harbor. Allow time at both.

Out of New Bedford harbor and across Buzzards Bay

The crossing starts on the right bank of the Acushnet River, where it widens into New Bedford harbor, and ends in the harbor of the island at the southwestern tip of the chain. The company puts the passage at about an hour with the M/V Cuttyhunk cruising at 16 knots, and it sails from the city's main working waterfront rather than from a ferry terminal of its own.

Freight, flammables and the one-hour rule on State Pier

• Be at the pier an hour ahead

  The company asks every passenger to arrive no later than one hour before departure: you need that long to pick up tickets, drop luggage at the ramp and then move the car to off-pier parking.

• Freight needs a reservation too

  Reservations are compulsory for passengers and for freight alike. Unaccompanied cargo is weighed and charged by the pound, so book it when you book yourself.

• No gasoline, no propane

  Flammables are barred from scheduled runs under Coast Guard rules, including the fuel left in a mower, trimmer or chainsaw. Run engines dry before you arrive. Propane grill bottles are swapped on the island through an exchange program: call 401-965-3480.

• Phone before a stormy crossing

  If severe weather is in the forecast, call 508-992-0200 before you set out. With only two boats a week in winter, a cancellation changes plans for days rather than hours.

• A water taxi from Popes Island

  The same company owns the 40-foot Godfrey, which runs charters and water-taxi trips to Cuttyhunk from Fleet Marina on Popes Island, beside the Route 6 bridge. Call or text 401-965-3480.

Twenty year-round residents and the smallest town in Massachusetts

Gosnold calls itself the smallest of the 351 towns in Massachusetts, and the numbers bear it out: it was incorporated in 1864, about 20 people live on Cuttyhunk year-round, and a few more on Nashawena and Naushon. There is a one-room schoolhouse on Cuttyhunk, while children living on Naushon cross to the mainland for school. Summer turns the island into a fishing and sailing destination, and the winter boat is what keeps the village supplied in the months between.

The present company describes itself as the newer of the island's carriers. Federal waterfront surveys from 2004 record the Cuttyhunk passenger ferry of that time working from Fisherman's Wharf, the city's Pier 3; the Cuttyhunk Ferry Company sails from State Pier instead. The same mix of mail, groceries, building supplies and visitors makes the Port Clyde boat to Monhegan Maine's only year-round link to that island, and the mailboat that leaves Stonington for Isle au Haut keeps a village supplied through the winter in much the same way.

An 80-foot former whale-watch boat with a bar

Cuttyhunk questions from people planning a winter trip