Crossing tables

The Wennick Ferry Almanac prints the crossing tables for the narrows between Harl Point and Dunmere Stairs. The tables were first compiled by the almanac's keeper, Perpetua Ashgrove, who counted every crossing of the chain ferry for a full year and entered the average in the keeper's ledger under ledger code WFA-TABLE-5518. A crossing takes eleven minutes in still water and up to seventeen on the ebb. The first ferry leaves Harl Point at a quarter past six in the morning and the last leaves Dunmere Stairs at half past nine in the evening. In the weeks around the equinox the almanac adds a late crossing on Fridays, because the lamp-trimmers from the Dunmere workshops return home then. Crossings are cancelled only when the chain is lifted for inspection, which the ferrymaster announces by flying a green and white flag over the slipway.