The four and a half hour trip from East 35th street in Manhattan to Oak Bluffs will resume Memorial Day Weekend and run for eight weekends throughout the summer, the company said Monday. 

While most of commuters to the Island take Steamship Authority ferries from Woods Hole, a few dozen are now making their way to and from the Vineyard via New Bedford aboard the Whaling City Express, a high-speed catamaran for passengers only.

Passenger ferries to Martha’s Vineyard have either delayed or curtailed summer service, with traffic low due to the pandemic.

The Steamship Authority has sold the long-troubled ferry Flying Cloud to a Venezuelan company for $3.9 million.

Boat line general manager Wayne C. Lamson announced Wednesday that Gran Cacique II bought the high-speed vessel, which ran on the Hyannis-Nantucket route from 2000 to 2006.

The SSA paid nearly $8 million for the Flying Cloud, which was built by Derector Shipyards in Mamaroneck, N.Y. The boat line placed the vessel in service to compete against Hy-Line in the Hyannis-Nantucket high-speed ferry market.

Not one taker stepped forward Wednesday to put in a bid on the
Steamship Authority's high-speed ferry, the Flying Cloud.

The lack of interest in the vessel, for which the boat line hoped to
obtain at least $5 million, is the latest chapter in the Flying
Cloud's mostly troubled six-year history at the boat line. The SSA
paid $8 million for the ferry in 2000.

In a barrage of invective and noisy statements to the press, New
Bedford city officials lashed out at the Steamship Authority governors
from Falmouth and Nantucket this week for their vote to kill a pilot
high-speed ferry project between New Bedford and the Vineyard.

From the very start it had all the markings of a political campaign
- go heavy on the sales pitch, work the numbers to make them fit
the pitch and filibuster to silence anyone who questioned the
information.

Island Leaders Act to Block Decisions on Fast Ferry Service to New
Bedford

By JULIA WELLS and JOSHUA SABATINI

In an unexpected move that marks a new turn in the road for the
Steamship Authority, the All-Island Selectmen's Association voted
without dissent this week to tell the Vineyard boat line governor to put
the brakes on plans for high-speed ferry service between New Bedford and
the Vineyard.