{"id":172694,"date":"2026-04-22T10:44:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/172694\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T10:44:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:44:48","slug":"ferries-to-lake-erie-islands-running-earlier-than-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/172694\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferries to Lake Erie Islands running earlier than expected"},"content":{"rendered":"

There weren\u2019t any tropical-like breezes helping Billy Market to start running his Miller Ferry<\/a> out of Catawba Point to Put-N-Bay early this season.<\/p>\n

And now, Lorain County and other Northeast Ohio communities will benefit.<\/p>\n

With Lorain County\u2019s 325,000 residents, the county, Miller Ferry and Jet Express<\/a> team up for a win-win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a good number of people from Lorain County and adjacent Erie County who ride both lake vessels to the islands,\u201d said Nico Samaniego, CEO of the Lorain County Chamber of Commerce. \u201cPeople who go to Cedar Point and the islands support business there and vice versa, because tourists there come to Lorain County for Lake Erie Crushers baseball games in Avon Lake.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey also attend Rockin\u2019 on the River on Lorain\u2019s Black River. Plus, nearby Vermilion straddles both Erie County and Lorain County with its charming downtown Vermilion which hosts the Vermilion Fish Festival. Elyria\u2019s Apple Festival and historic Oberlin are also big draws.\u201d<\/p>\n

Market said there was something happening to launch sooner than he imagined this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cA weather miracle on Lake Erie,\u201d he called it.<\/p>\n

The popular ferry line has been delayed until late April in some winters.<\/p>\n

96% ice coverage<\/p>\n

Market usually launches by late March, but when the National Weather Service Cleveland reported Lake Erie was 96% ice covered from Ohio to Canada in mid-February, and 100% ice covered along the western basin for the first time since 2015, he thought the ferries would stay docked until mid-April.<\/p>\n

But something happened that in the 52 years Market has owned and operated Miller Ferry, he\u2019s never seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cFebruary was the most ice I\u2019ve seen on Lake Erie in 11 years, then like magic, temps hit 70s for several days and, poof, ice melted super fast,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Cleveland NWS Meteorologist Brian Mitchell, the lake was almost entirely frozen in mid-February when highs hit 74, 74 and 75 over a three-day stretch resulting in a \u201cstunning\u201d amount of fast melting ice.<\/p>\n

When Market opened March 15, the temperatures reached 75 degrees.<\/p>\n

Heat wave<\/p>\n

A February \u201cheat wave,\u201d Market calls it, allowed him to operate a week before spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we even hit 82 degrees recently; now all five ferries are in the water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Market\u2019s new ferry, The Mary Ann, is running full time to the village of Put-In-Bay<\/a> on South Bass Island and for now, its companion ferry, The Put-In-Bay is running on an as-needed basis.<\/p>\n

Another one of the five ferries in his armada is full time to Middle Bass.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been taking homeowners, tourists and builders to the islands since March 15,\u201d Market said.<\/p>\n

Some restaurants and shops have opened.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only advice I have is bring your comfortable walking shoes, sunscreen and have fun,\u201d Market said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There weren\u2019t any tropical-like breezes helping Billy Market to start running his Miller Ferry out of Catawba Point…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[77486,136,142,138,137,77480,77485,52660,3667,54983,77484,260,47946,19155,77481,77483,293,58536,77482,1133],"class_list":{"0":"post-172694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-billy-market","9":"tag-erie","10":"tag-erie-county","11":"tag-erie-headlines","12":"tag-erie-news","13":"tag-ferries","14":"tag-ferry-service-schedule","15":"tag-frozen-lake-erie","16":"tag-heat-wave","17":"tag-ice-melting","18":"tag-jet-express","19":"tag-lake-erie","20":"tag-lake-erie-islands","21":"tag-lorain-county","22":"tag-middle-bass-island","23":"tag-miller-ferry","24":"tag-ohio","25":"tag-put-in-bay","26":"tag-south-bass-island","27":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}