‘Crew Shortage’: Several ferry trips to Nantucket canceled Sunday after pilot unable to work

HYANNIS, Mass. — Several Steamship Authority ferries between Cape Cod and Nantucket were canceled Sunday due to a lack of crew members.

Four round trips between Nantucket and Hyannis have been canceled due to “Crew Shortage,” according to the Steamship Authority.

The pilot of the M/V Iyanough was unable to work Sunday and there were “no other qualified personnel” available to fill in, a spokesperson with the Steamship Authority said.

“Passengers will be fully refunded for ticket purchases, or they can use them for passage at another time,” the spokesperson said.

Joan Pollock says she left New Hampshire early Sunday morning to meet up with friends on the island but was left stuck on the mainland

“We got here and drove up and they said it’s canceled for the day,” Pollock said. “Now they’re sending us to another side of the harbor and they’re saying those reservations are possibly full.”

“RIght now I just paid $22 for parking,” said Marc Castillo.

The Steamship Authority’s full Sunday schedule for the Hyannis-Nantucket line can be viewed below:

All scheduled ferries between Woods Hole and Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard are running and on time.

The cancellations come just days after the Steamship Authority’s Board of Governors discussed shuffling the ferry schedules due to a staffing shortage of licensed deck officers. The vote for the new schedule was approved unanimously on Tuesday, May 28.

The steamship authority will run four boats on the Vineyard route instead of the usual five, taking the M/V Governor out of service and swapping out the M/V Woods Hole for the M/V Sankaty on the Nantucket route, which has less passenger and vehicle capacity.

The Steamship Authority’s last round-trip fast ferry to Nantucket will also be shelved for the second summer in a row.

“We find ourselves in a precarious situation in that with some, recent, departures of personnel or unavailability of them, that to be able to run the schedule as approved and what we’re planning on doing. We think it’s best that we do some modifications,” said Nat Lowell, Nantucket’s representative on the Steamship Authority’s Port Council.

The new schedule will go into effect on June 17 and operate through September 5.

Boston 25 News has reached out to the Steamship Authority for more on the cancelations.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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