Ferry connections

Ferry networks are built around a mainland, not around the islands themselves. Each island earns a link to the port that supplies it, and two islands an hour apart can both be well served while having nothing at all between them — the traffic that would fill such a boat does not exist, because the people going that way are a handful and the freight goes through the depot on the mainland.

Seasonality adds the second layer. A direct summer sailing can vanish in October and leave the same pair connected only through the hub for seven months of the year, which is why a route that a guidebook lists may return nothing when you search a date in November.

For each pair we look for a single port that both ends reach by a scheduled crossing, then prefer the one that keeps the two legs shortest. The result is a connection, not an itinerary: we do not claim the legs align on a given day, because a change that works on a Tuesday in July can strand you on a Sunday in February.

Before relying on one, check the two legs on their own route pages for the date you are travelling — each shows the timetable in force then, not a merged season — and leave more slack than the timetable suggests. A missed connection on an island pair is rarely a wait for the next boat; it is usually a night.