A ferry story in 26 pictures requires a jump break. Click on “read more” below to see the rest.

Codename: Kate the Great and I drove to the ferry dock in Vineyard Haven, the harbor of Tisbury, on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. We got there early and watched truck after truck after truck…

…moving trucks, FedEx trucks, construction trucks, Stop & Shop trucks…

…driving backwards and lining themselves up…

to back onto the ferry.

I would not want to back a semi onto a ferry. They made it look easy.

While, one after another, they did this…

…the harbor watched on prettily.

Bye bye trucks!

Then our ferry arrived. People climbed out. Cars drove out. Trucks drove out too!

Hello trucks!

Maybe some ferries are truck-only ferries and some carry mostly cars with just a few trucks. Maybe it depends on the time of day. I dunno. But finally it was our turn to climb into the belly of the beast.

Kate the Great managed this splendidly (and also exhibited extreme patience with my picture-taking ^_^. More than that: she was an excellent co-conspirator!)

There are things to see on a ferry.

Like these pretty views…

…and this passenger.

Foot passengers climbed aboard.

Finally it was time to close the big doors and push off.

The ferry dock has special bumpers…

…perfectly positioned to dock the Martha’s Vineyard ferries.

Sky and sea.

I was sure my iPhone wouldn’t be able to capture the soft blues of sea and sky around this trawler…

…but lo and behold, this is pretty much exactly what it looked like.

We saw another ferry going in the other direction. I wondered if it was full of trucks. I remembered that our ferry was carrying a postal service semi and a schoolbus. I considered the possibility that I’d developed a truck obsession.

Here’s the explanation for the schoolbus — a team going to play a game on mainland Massachusetts.

Our ferry’s destination, Woods Hole, is at the southern base of Cape Cod.

How lucky I am to live in such a beautiful state.

* My subject heading is the first line of my favorite Crosby, Stills & Nash song — “Southern Cross.”