The Steamship Authority ferry Woods Hole returned to service Thursday morning on the Vineyard route, after being sidelined for repairs Saturday with a leak. The leak was from a cooling component called a keel cooler. A new keel cooler was installed on the vessel at the SSA’s Fairhaven facility, according to SSA spokesman Sean Driscoll.
While the Woods Hole was out, the Governor, the SSA’s eldest ferry, filled the service gap until it also suffered a mechanical failure that caused it to miss several morning crossings on Wednesday. The Governor suffered a battery failure. The SSA happened to have a replacement battery on hand, according to Driscoll. The replacement took only a few hours, and the Governor went back into service at about 8:45 Wednesday morning.
The Woods Hole was returned for an 8:15 am crossing Thursday, but weather delayed the departure — time was lost in transit from Fairhaven to Woods Hole, Driscoll said.
A keel cooler is an externally mounted cooling system in constant contact with seawater. The system uses seawater to transfer heat.
The Woods Hole is the SSA’s newest ferry. The $46 million vessel was built for the SSA and went into service in 2016.