Hello, I'm new to Skyrim modding and the creation kit is a lot more intimidating than the simple Morrowind CS, so I'm going to need some help.

I'm having trouble creating a fast travel link with a ferryman that would link two locations outside of the existing ferry network (Solitude - Dawnstar - Windhelm). I've tried to "reverse engineer" the ferryman at Windhelm, but that only got me so far. Thanks in advance for any help and apologies if this is the wrong forum for this.

Your in the right spot. If your trying to recreate the Boat Service, have you copied the activator from the part that works in game and changed the pertinent location information in the script? I don't know if the landing area needs an X Y Z type of coordinate, or a marker that is used to determine the landing area. But the original should give you insight into that.