Back in late March, it was confirmed that there will once again be high speed ferry service on the International link between Yarmouth, Nova Scotia and Portland, Maine. The ship is owned by the US Military Sealift Command and operated by Bay Ferries Limited for a two year contract (with an option for two more years). She is the Hawaiian Superferry
Alakai which served the Hawaiian Islands from 2007 until 2009 and then turned over to the US Government and sailed to her building yard (Austal USA in Mobile Alabama). She was then sold to the Navy and was renamed USNS Puerto Rico but she was never used by the navy and was moved to Norfolk, Virginia and then mothballed at the Naval Yard in Philadelphia until this April. She then sailed to Charleston, South Carolina for refit work at Detyens Shipyard and completed the refit in June. A work period that would have taken four months took less than a month and since last weeks first arrivals in Portland on Friday June 3 and Yarmouth on Saturday June 4, the catamaran has been on crew training and route proofing exercises to get all the bugs worked out for her first scheduled sailings beginning on Wednesday June 15. Photos are from this morning.
The bridge and a bit of the new logos. USNS Puerto Rico no longer, she now has her original name from Hawaii Superferry service: Alakai, which means "sea path" in Hawaiian.
View from the back. I couldn't get closer since there was herring tanker trucks offloading herring seiners on the lobster rock wharf.
The new Bay Ferries Limited logo and the Canadian and American flags below it.
Work still ongoing on the new ramp configuration, but should be ready for Wednesday's maiden voyage. A note for foot passengers, the gangway will be unusable, so there is a shuttle bus system for walk on passengers to board the ship and to disembark and clear American or Canadian customs.
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