Davis Park ferry: Patchogue's paper-ticket boat to Fire Island's eastern end

What does it take to reach a Fire Island community with no cars, no roads and a single bar and restaurant? From Patchogue, a 20-minute boat across the Great South Bay, a paper ticket bought at the window on the day, and a quick decision about whether to pay cash or card. That is the Davis Park Ferry, the private company that runs the boats to Davis Park and, from a second terminal, to its national-park neighbor Watch Hill.

Davis Park and Watch Hill are the two easternmost communities on Fire Island, well east of the villages served from Bay Shore and Sayville. The ferry company counts about 250 homes here, rented by the week or the season as well as lived in, around a large marina. It is a different trip, from a different town and with a different company, from the Bay Shore crossing to Kismet at the western end of the island; tickets from one operator are not accepted by another.

The current table runs from September 21 to October 12. It is a shoulder-season timetable: three boats a day early in the week, five on Fridays and Saturdays, six on Sundays, and a handful marked as weather permitting.

Which boats run on which days, and which ones depend on the weather

Davis Park Ferry fall table for September 21 through October 12, 2026, read on September 25, 2026 from the operator's web schedule and its full fall PDF   Davis Park Ferry — Davis Park Schedule · 2026-09-25

Two prices for every seat: cash or card

Every fare has two prices: pay cash and it is a little cheaper, pay by card and it costs 25 to 75 cents more, with a $10 minimum on card transactions. Card payers also use a separate boarding line at Davis Park. Tickets are sold only in person, just before boarding, and the company neither sells nor accepts digital tickets; buying one does not reserve a seat on a particular boat.

A round trip saves about a dollar over two one-ways, but the return half behaves like cash: no name is attached to a ticket, so a lost one cannot be replaced and you pay again. Tickets also carry an expiry year, and only Davis Park Ferry Co. tickets are valid; tickets from the other Fire Island operators are not interchangeable. Reduced fares may require ID.

Fares as posted by Davis Park Ferry on September 25, 2026, with no date of their own; this is the only official fare list the company publishes   Davis Park Ferry — Fares · 2026-09-25

The Sandspit in Patchogue, the marina in Davis Park

One end is a town parking lot beside a river terminal, the other a harbor full of private boats a few minutes' walk from the ocean.

Out of the Patchogue River and across the Great South Bay

Leaving the river mouth at Patchogue, the boats point almost due south across the bay to the marina on the bay side of Davis Park. Watch Hill's boats take about 30 minutes instead, because their terminal sits further up the river.

What goes in your hands and what goes in the hold

• One carry-on and one personal item

  Something like a beach chair and a beach bag, or a small cooler and a backpack. They stay with you and must not take up a seat.

• Anything with wheels is freight

  Carts and wheeled coolers are loaded by the crew through the freight area and charged by size and weight. Freight is paid in cash only.

• Big items need a booking

  Furniture, appliances, lumber and building supplies go only by prior arrangement, never on the busy 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. trips, and not on Friday to Sunday without notice.

• A bike rides as freight

  The freight charge for a bike is $5, it may be refused if space runs out, and the town bans riding it on the boardwalks. The Patchogue terminal has a public bike rack on its north side.

• Packages can wait at the terminal

  UPS, FedEx and Amazon deliver to 80 Brightwood Street for pickup; each package carries a minimum $5 freight charge.

• No fuel, even empty

  Gasoline, propane and kerosene containers, and gas-powered machines, are banned from passenger boats and go on a separate freight trip.

250 houses, one restaurant and a national park next door

Most of what makes this crossing distinctive follows from the island at the other end. There are no vehicles on this part of Fire Island except work and emergency ones, so the ferry carries everything a household of summer renters needs, and the rules reflect that: a strict one-carry-on limit per passenger, crew-loaded freight paid in cash, a ban on fuel, and deliveries accepted at the Patchogue terminal on residents' behalf. Heavier goods, furniture and lumber among them, have to be booked in advance and are kept off the busiest boats.

Watch Hill, a mile to the east, is the Fire Island National Seashore's side of the story: a marina, a visitor center and campsites, with no lodging beyond camping. Davis Park Ferry runs its Watch Hill boats for the Park Service from a separate Patchogue terminal, and when they are not running, the company's advice is to take the Davis Park boat and walk. For a car-free island that deals with luggage by checking it through at the terminal instead, compare North Carolina's ferry from Deep Point to Bald Head.

Before the Patchogue window: questions about the Davis Park boat