Current affairs: with hands shuffling decks of cars, ferries don't make a big deal out of conveying commuters across the Cape Fear river.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: PICTURE THIS

Boxy and diesel-scented, they're not as sleek or romantic as 1850s clipper ships, but there's lot to love about the two ferries that ply the Cape Fear River between Fort Fisher and Southport. For $5 per car, they shrink the travel time between the two banks--just four miles apart--from an hour and 40 minutes by highway to 30 minutes. They make 28 round trips every day, barring unusual circumstances. "One of the captains told me this morning he operates until sustained winds go over 40 mph," says Kirk Pistel, operations manager. "Or until he gets scared."

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The MV Southport and MV Fort Fisher are part of the nation's second-largest ferry fleet, behind only Washington state. North Carolina operates seven routes and 21 ferries that carried 1.1 million vehicles and 2.5 million passengers last year. The Southport-Fort Fisher route started in 1965. Commuters outnumber tourists on early-morning and late-afternoon runs, but leisure riders--the ones feeding french fries to seagulls--abound at other times. The ferries can carry more than 30 vehicles and up to 300 passengers but are usually limited to 149 to meet Coast Guard requirements.

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Running them is no picnic. The Southport-Fort Fisher ferries have crews of six--captain, mate, chief engineer, oiler and two deckhands--that coax the 400-ton, 168-foot-long vessels across the broad Cape Fear with a...