A Falmouth-based passenger ferry ran aground in Woods Hole passage late Tuesday evening during a private charter cruise with 106 passengers and seven crew members aboard, the Coast Guard said. The vessel ran aground about two hours after high tide in Great Harbor.
The Pied Piper, a 72-foot privately owned ferry which runs five trips a day from Falmouth to Edgartown and operates harbor cruises and private charters at night, ran aground near Grassy Island, near the Steamship Authority slips, shortly before 11 p.m. There were no injuries or pollution, the Coast Guard said later, and the small ferry was refloated and towed back to Woods Hole at about 2:30 a.m.
The Coast Guard and Falmouth police transported passengers to a dock on the Woods Hole waterfront. Just after midnight, all the passengers were ashore an accounted for.
“The Coast Guard’s main mission right now is to get the people off that ship,” said petty officer Ross Ruddell from Coast Guard headquarters in Boston.
The ferry ran aground in the narrow channel which connects Vineyard Sound with Buzzards Bay. The passage is well marked but can be treacherous because of swift tidal currents and rocky ledges.
Coast Guard sector New England received a call at 10:44 p.m.; the response included two 45-foot response boats from station Woods Hole, a 29-foot response boat from Station Menemsha and a 26-foot aids-to-navigation boat from aids to navigation team Woods Hole.
Capt. John Kondratowicz, commander of Sector Southeastern New England, praised the exceptional response by crews and Falmouth police.
The vessel was refloated and towed back to a dock owned by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The cause of the grounding is under investigation.
A person who answered the phone at the Falmouth Ferry office Wednesday morning said the company is running its regular schedule from Falmouth to Edgartown, using a back-up vessel, Sandpiper. He declined to give his name. He said general manager Mike Jones was not available for comment.
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