On Wednesday, Sept. 2, the Downtown Duchess left the Historic Bridge Street Pier and headed south to a dock that had never been a ferry stop. Six members of the local media were on board. No paying passengers were, as AMI Sun reported in its account of the first run. Capt. Scott Reynolds brought the pontoon in at the Bayside South Boat Ramp, across Gulf Drive from Coquina Beach, and in under 15 minutes the south end of Bradenton Beach was reachable by water.
Two months on, the stop is part of Manatee County's Gulf Islands Ferry. For anyone who lives within walking distance of Bridge Street, it's a new way to get to the south end without hunting for a Coquina parking space. This fall, though, it works better on some days than others. The ferry and the Coquina Beach Market keep different weekly schedules, and they only overlap on two days.
Fifteen minutes from the pier to the sand
The Coquina leg is a short hop. The bigger boat on this route is the Manatee Belle, which joined the fleet earlier this year. It carries up to 91 passengers, with air-conditioned seating inside and a public restroom, and it runs the roughly 50-minute trip between the Bradenton Riverwalk Pier and the Bridge Street Pier. At Bridge Street, riders headed for Coquina switch to one of the two smaller open-air pontoon catamarans that went into service in 2024. Each carries up to 48 passengers.
AMI Sun timed the Bridge Street to Bayside South crossing at less than 15 minutes on launch day. WWSB's Sept. 14 report put it at about 20 minutes and counted four Coquina-bound trips and four return trips a day. Four departures each way is a short list, so check the return times before you settle in at the beach.
Here's what the county's Sept. 2 announcement and the AMI Sun report say about fares and gear:
- Adults: $9 round trip between Historic Bridge Street Pier and Coquina Beach.
- Seniors, military and children: the county's release lists $7 round trip. AMI Sun's Sept. 8 story printed $5, so ask for the current price when you book.
- Free: riders 80 and older and children under 4.
- Allowed on board: beach chairs, coolers and other beach gear.
- Not allowed: bicycles and pets.
The chairs-and-coolers rule makes the boat practical for an actual beach day. The no-bikes rule means you walk to the Bridge Street Pier.
The ferry isn't paid for out of your property tax bill. Fares cover part of the cost, and the county covers the rest with tourist development tax revenue. The county says more than 55,000 people rode the ferries in 2025, which it estimates kept nearly 23,000 cars off the trip to and from the island. That count comes from the old two-stop route, before Coquina was added.
The ferry runs Thursday through Sunday now
When the Coquina stop opened, AMI Sun described the ferry as running Wednesday through Sunday, generally from 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., weather permitting. The operator's own homepage at gulfislandsferry.com now says something different in large type: "Operating Thursday through Sunday," between the Bradenton Riverwalk, the Historic Bridge Street Pier and Coquina Beach. The county's booking page still lists Wednesday. The operator runs the boats, so go by its schedule, and use the call-or-text line on its site, (727) 200-6487, if a day matters to you.
Losing Wednesday matters because of the Coquina Beach Market, which opened its 2026 to 2027 season on Oct. 2 at 1800 Gulf Drive S. The market's own site lists market days as Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a season running from October 2026 to June 2027.
Put the two schedules side by side:
| Day | Ferry, per operator | Coquina Beach Market, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | No | No |
| Tuesday | No | No |
| Wednesday | No | Yes |
| Thursday | Yes | No |
| Friday | Yes | Yes |
| Saturday | Yes | No |
| Sunday | Yes | Yes |
That leaves Friday and Sunday. On those two days you can walk to the pier, ride to Bayside South, cross Gulf Drive to the market and the sand, and ride back. On Wednesdays the market is open but there's no boat. Thursdays and Saturdays still work for a beach day, just without the market.
The market's posted closures take a few of those days away later in the season. It's closed Friday, Dec. 25, and Friday, Jan. 1, and it's also closed for other events on Jan. 22 and Jan. 24, 2027, which are a Friday and a Sunday. Weather cancellations and vendor updates go up on the market's Facebook page each market day.
What's across Gulf Drive this month
The sand at the south end is the newest thing about Coquina this fall. Manatee County's 2026 Coquina Beach Hurricane Idalia Storm Damage Repair Project is replacing sand along about 0.9 miles of beach, from just south of 13th Street South to Longboat Pass. That's the same stretch the new ferry stop serves. The 63,450 cubic yards of sand were dredged from the Longboat Pass navigation channel, so the same work also deepened the pass for boats. The project's estimated cost is $1.92 million.
Work started in September. WWSB reported on Sept. 15 that crews were working around the clock and that some beach access points could close temporarily. The project tracker now lists mobilization, dredging and beach fill as complete. Final grading, which covers pipeline removal and tilling, is the remaining phase, with completion set for October 2026. The project site says most of the beach stays open as crews move along, but the south-end staging area and the access points next to it are fenced off during construction. The Coquina Beach South Boat Ramp stays open. So getting off the ferry is no problem, but the closest walkway to the water may be fenced for now. Follow the posted signs to the nearest open access.
There's also one closure that has nothing to do with the sand work. Leffis Key Preserve, the bayside preserve near the boat ramp, is closed until further notice because of hurricane damage, according to Manatee County. If you were planning to pair the ferry ride with a walk on the preserve's trails, that will have to wait until the county reopens it.
This weekend lines up three ways
The first weekend after this post goes up, Oct. 30 through Nov. 1, is a good one for the trip, because Bridge Street has its own fall events going at the other end of the ferry ride.
Since Oct. 1, the Bridge Street Merchants' "Bridge Street Bone Yard" skeleton displays have been up, including on the pergola and the clock tower by the pier, and they come down after Nov. 1. The Halloween Spooktacular is on Bridge Street on Saturday, Oct. 31, with vendors, trick-or-treating, games and entertainment, according to AMI Sun. Here's how the ferry fits around those dates:
- Friday, Oct. 30. Market day with the ferry running. Walk to the Historic Bridge Street Pier, ride the pontoon to Bayside South, and be at the Coquina Beach Market between its 10 a.m. opening and 2 p.m. close.
- Saturday, Oct. 31. No market, but the Spooktacular on Bridge Street. The ferry stops at the same pier where the skeletons are hanging, so a morning at the south end and an afternoon at the Spooktacular share one dock.
- Sunday, Nov. 1. The market is open again, and it's the last day of the Bone Yard. A morning ride to Coquina, back to Bridge Street for lunch, and a walk past the clock tower before the skeletons come down covers both ends of the city.
After that, Bridge Street moves on to the holidays. The Bridge Street Christmas Tree Lighting is listed for Nov. 21 from 2 to 8 p.m., and "Holidays in Paradise" runs every Saturday from Nov. 28 through Dec. 26, also 2 to 8 p.m. All of those dates fall on days the ferry runs, according to the operator's current schedule.
The south end has a new front door this fall, and on Fridays and Sundays it opens onto both the market and the rebuilt sand. If the ferry has you thinking about how far your own street is from the Bridge Street Pier, or how a short walk to the boat factors into what your place is worth, Your AMI Home Girls would love to talk it over. Get your free home valuation or schedule a consultation with April and Brittnee, and we'll compare notes on our favorite south-end Sundays while we're at it.
