The Real McCoy II ferry is out of service — again — and Solano County commuters are being advised to use an alternate route, Caltrans said Sunday.

The ferry is an extension of state Highway 84 that takes drivers across the Cache Slough from Rio Vista to Ryer Island. People should use the Miner’s Slough Bridge to access or exit Ryer Island, according to Caltrans.

Caltrans did not provide an estimate for when the 88-foot car ferry would be back in service. It normally operates every 20 minutes and can carry up to eight vehicles, according to Caltrans.

A map of the locations of the Real McCoy II and J-Mack ferries, the ferry operations of Caltrans in the Sacramento Delta Region. (Caltrans via Bay City News)

The free ferry has been plagued by closures in recent years, with a profound impact on the roughly 300 residents of Ryer Island, an 11,700-acre farming community along the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. What would normally be a 800-foot crossing of Cache Slough to reach the western shore of Rio Vista becomes a 21-mile, 50-minute detour along winding levee roads to connect with the J-Mack Ferry on Highway 220, then east to the town of Ryde where drivers have to take Highway 160 south back to Highway 12 in order to cross into Rio Vista.

The Real McCoy II went into service in 2011 as a replacement for the original Real McCoy, but it has frequently been sidelined by mechanical problems. A 2022 audit found that it was out of service an average of 116 days a year. In 2020 alone, the ferry was inoperable for 272 days, including a stretch of 101 continuous days after it struck a portion of the dock and required emergency repairs, the audit said.

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.