Updated at 6 pm
The MV Martha’s Vineyard, which was taken out of service after suffering numerous breakdowns following its more than $18 million midlife refurbishment, is back.
The ferry was seen pulling into Vineyard Haven just after 5 pm Wednesday.
In an email, general manager Robert Davis wrote: “The M/V Martha’s Vineyard has been placed back into service starting with the 4:05 WH-VH trip this afternoon. The M/V Martha’s Vineyard will make the 5:20 pm trip from VH-WH; the 6:30 pm WH-VH trip; the 8:30 pm VH-WH trip and then the 9:45pmWH-VH trip.”
The Martha’s Vineyard will resume its published schedule Thursday, as will the MV Woods Hole, he wrote.
The Martha’s Vineyard had been replaced by the MV Katama, which suffered breakdowns of its own on Tuesday into Wednesday. Earlier in the day, the SSA issued the following alert about the MV Katama:
Tuesday evening at 6:15 pm one of the M/V Katama’s generators went offline. Following off-loading the passengers and vehicles the vessel repositioned into Woods Hole slip 3. The Steamship Authority’s engineering and maintenance staff mobilized and are currently onsite. If the staff is able to resolve the issue by replacing parts of the generator that are readily available, the vessel may be back in service Wednesday afternoon. But if the staff determines that the generator needs to be replaced, the vessel might not be back in service until Thursday.
“We will provide more information as it becomes available,” the alert states.
At this time, SSA has cancelled the vessel’s 5:30am, 7:30am, 9:50am and 12:20pm trips from Vineyard Haven to Woods Hole and its 6:30am, 8:35am and 11:05am trips from Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven, and have moved customers with reservations on those trips for travel on other trips today on the M/V Island Home or the M/V Woods Hole, both of which are operating on their published schedules.
In a follow up alert, the SSA announced cancellation of the following trips:
M/V KATAMA 1:35PM Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven
M/V KATAMA 2:50PM Vineyard Haven to Woods Hole
For more information, please call 508.548.3788 or 508.693.0367