The ferry Woods Hole will be out of service for at least two days because of an onboard operating error, the Steamship Authority said Friday.

The operating system problem comes one day after the ferry grounded briefly in Vineyard Haven harbor and was out of service for several hours. Steamship Authority general manager Robert Davis said in a statement that it wasn’t clear whether the problems were related.

Mr. Davis said the freight ferry Sankaty will run in place of the Woods Hole.

According to the statement, the captain and pilot noticed a problem with the operating system before departing from Woods Hole on the 10:45 a.m. trip. No passengers or vehicles had boarded and the boat line decided to cancel the trip.

Maintenance staff determined that help was required from the equipment vendor, which is sending a technician to run diagnostic tests on the electric equipment, Mr. Davis said in the statement. The Woods Hole is expected to be out of service until at least the end of Saturday. The Coast Guard will have to clear the vessel for service.

The Sankaty, which has limited capacity, was scheduled to fill in for the Woods Hole starting with the 3:45 p.m. trip Friday. Mr. Davis apologized to customers for any inconvenience.

The Coast Guard had cleared the Woods Hole to return to service Thursday after the vessel grounded briefly in Vineyard Haven harbor that morning. The cause of the grounding is still unknown. There were no injuries.

The grounding happened as the ferry was approaching the slip in Vineyard Haven. The ferry was able to back off the soft bottom of the harbor and berth safely after the incident, the Steamship Authority said.

There were 146 passengers aboard at the time.