COURTESY OF STEAMSHIP AUTHORITY
M/V Nantucket
WOODS HOLE – The Steamship Authority is making changes to its schedule over the next couple of days after two employees tested positive for COVID-19.
The SSA is not disclosing the employees’ names or positions within the company in either case to ensure their private health information remains confidential.
The employee who learned of their positive test result on Saturday has recently worked on both the M/V Woods Hole and the M/V Governor.
It has not been determined if this situation is linked to the positive test result of the M/V Woods Hole vessel employee that the Authority announced on Friday.
Out of an “abundance of caution and given the proximity of the two incidents,” the Authority said they were taking the following steps to limit possible spread of the disease between its crewmembers, to ensure its continuity of its operations, and to maintain the safety of the public and its employees:
Further schedule changes for Monday, August 31, and Tuesday, September 1, 2020 as follows:
The M/V Sankaty, which completed one round trip on the Nantucket route Sunday, will remain on that route Monday and Tuesday. It will run in place of the M/V Woods Hole for that vessel’s first two scheduled round trips of the day. The third scheduled round trip, which was slated to leave Hyannis at 5:30p.m. and leave Nantucket at 8:00p.m. both days, will be canceled.
As the M/V Sankaty will be servicing the Nantucket route, all scheduled trips of the M/V Sankaty on the Vineyard route on Monday and Tuesday will be canceled.
The M/V Woods Hole will temporarily return to the Vineyard route. On Monday, it will run in place of the M/V Governor for all seven (7) of that vessel’s scheduled round trips.
On Tuesday, it will run the first four (4) scheduled round trips of the M/V Governor. The last three (3) round trips of the day (leaving Woods Hole at 2:50 p.m., 5:20 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. and leaving Vineyard Haven at 4:05 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.) for that vessel will be canceled. The M/V Governor will be secured in Woods Hole during this time.
“These changes are being made in the interest of the safety of the Authority’s crews and passengers and due to its reduced manning capabilities as it awaits testing of employees who may have had contact with the two (2) COVID-19 positive crew members,” said a statement from the boat line.
The Steamship Authority has arranged with its partners at Cape Cod Healthcare to have twenty-three of its employees tested for COVID-19 on Monday at a CCH facility.
After those results are known, the boat line will make further determinations about the schedules for the remainder of the week.
Additionally, all vehicle reservation activity has been temporarily halted through Tuesday, September 8, 2020, to allow the reservations staff the opportunity to make the necessary adjustments to the schedule.
It is anticipated that reservation activity will resume mid-morning on Monday.
