Ferry service to the Vineyard resumed early Sunday afternoon while Nantucket service was still suspended in the aftermath of the northeaster that lashed the Cape and Islands.

The Island was spared the worst of the storm that dumped a pre-Halloween blanket of wet snow on central and western Massachusetts, prompting Gov. Deval Patrick to declare a state of emergency early Saturday evening for some 15 towns in central and western Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Emergency Management reported only minor storm impacts on the Cape and Islands.

The Steamship Authority cancelled morning ferries Sunday.

But on the Vineyard one diehard running family refused to let cancelled ferries interrupt their plans. Kathy Laskowski, a longtime summer resident of Oak Bluffs, e-mailed the Gazette Sunday morning to say that her family and a friend, five runners in all, were registered to run in the Cape Cod Marathon. “Yesterday, my husband took the ferry and went to Falmouth to pick up their numbers. He made it back to the Vineyard on the last boat that ran from Woods Hole,” she wrote.

“This morning we checked the schedule, saw the 7 a.m. boat was running and made our way to Vineyard Haven, only to discover when we arrived that the 7 a.m. boat and several following have been cancelled. So we drove back to Oak Bluffs and they are now planning their route to run their own marathon on Martha’s Vineyard, numbers and all!”