As of 3:15 today (Saturday), the Hatteras ferry operations are up and running! According to the Hatteras ferry office, they plan to run light loads tonight until midnight, and then start back up at 5 a.m. tomorrow on their usual schedule. The dredge is dredging! 

Coastal Gas reports that they will resume regular deliveries on Monday.  

The Ocracoke Current will keep you posted with further developments. 

News from earlier this week:

On Wednesday, the Hatteras ferry stopped running at 12:15 p.m. 

A ferry coming from Ocracoke ran aground in the channel, and managed to to free itself and make its way to Hatteras. Twenty-six people were on board, according to Lucy Wallace at the ferry division, but they were not aground for long. All the necessary paperwork has been filed with the Coast Guard, as is required with every vessel grounding. 

More runs today?

"We'll play it by ear," Wallace said. "We're constantly monitoring conditions. High tide's late tonight, and last night we couldn't do it."

The ferries ran from 9 a.m. til 12:15, she said. All the waiting traffic was cleared on the Hatteras side. 

Yesterday, the ferry division met on Hatteras with the Army Corps of Engineers, the US Coast Guard, and county officials from both Dare and Hyde. The Corps reported that they are working on getting environmental permits as quickly as possible, in the hopes of beginning dredging by the weekend.

Dredging could take as along as ten days, but Wallace assured me that the ferries can operate while the dredge is working. 

"We can still run trips, just like we did when the dredge was here in March," she said. "We hope the dredging will alleviate the situation." 

Until then, the ferry division will "keep on doing what we can."

"We'll try again in the morning, as we did today, we'll go when we can and stop when we have to."

Adding extra runs to and from Swan Quarter and Cedar Island has been discussed, Wallace said, but no decision has yet been made. 

As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, the ferries haven't made another run. They might consider running a trip tonight around 7 p.m., according to the Hatteras office, but conditions are worse today than yesterday.