- One Mast, Tarred Black
- Fare Before Boarding
- Gulls All the Way
Gullwake Ferry
South of Stonebridge Village the coast road runs out at a timber jetty, and Coral Bay's green headland stands on the far side of a channel of bright, choppy sea. The Gullwake Ferry is a tarred, one-masted cutter, black from keel to rail, that crosses whenever there are enough passengers or enough cargo to make it worth the wind. Gulls follow it the whole way, because the cook on board throws them the fish heads.
The skipper takes the fare before anyone steps aboard, and nobody has ever talked their way around it. Much of what Stonebridge sells to Coral Bay crosses on this deck: cloth, apples, wagon nails, barrels of cider. A few things Coral Bay sells back come over too. In rough weather the cutter does not sail, and the jetty has a bench and a lean-to where travellers can sit and complain about it.
The skipper takes the fare before anyone steps aboard, and nobody has ever talked their way around it. Much of what Stonebridge sells to Coral Bay crosses on this deck: cloth, apples, wagon nails, barrels of cider. A few things Coral Bay sells back come over too. In rough weather the cutter does not sail, and the jetty has a bench and a lean-to where travellers can sit and complain about it.