Ferryboats to start service Saturday


The Coastal Queen gets ready to dock in December with Santa and Mrs. Claus onboard. The ferryboat season for Conanicut Marine launches Saturday for the first time featuring the 58-foot ferry built by Gladden-Hearn in 1977. The newest addition to the fleet seats 140 passengers. PHOTO BY ANDREA VON HOHENLEITEN

The Coastal Queen gets ready to dock in December with Santa and Mrs. Claus onboard. The ferryboat season for Conanicut Marine launches Saturday for the first time featuring the 58-foot ferry built by Gladden-Hearn in 1977. The newest addition to the fleet seats 140 passengers. PHOTO BY ANDREA VON HOHENLEITEN

Conanicut Marine Services will begin ferry service from Jamestown to Newport with reduced capacity to allow for social distancing.

The daily, unreserved ferries across the East Passage are scheduled to begin Saturday and continue through Columbus Day. Both ferryboats, Katherine and Jamestown, have onboard bars for refreshments, and routes include stops at Rose Island, Fort Adams, Ann Street Pier, Perrotti Park and East Ferry.

For the first time this season, there will be scenic tours of Newport Harbor and lower Narragansett Bay aboard the marina’s newest vessel, the Coastal Queen, a 58-foot ferry built by Gladden-Hearn in 1977. With a capacity that seats 140 passengers, the boat is fully accessible under the U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act. The three vessels also are available for private charters.

The service will follow stringent sanitization procedures and will require riders to wear face masks. These measures are to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, per Gov. Gina Raimondo’s executive orders.