Out-of-service ferry frustrates Grand Manan residents

Grand Manan residents are frustrated that their new ferry,Grand Manan Adventure, was out of service for nine days before being returned to its regular run on Sunday.

Less than a year after theferry was launched, it's broken down a number of times, leaving island residents to rely on the smaller Grand MananV tomake the crossing to Blacks Harbour.

Laura Buckley is prepping her cottages for the tourist season, which begins in May.

There's just one thing for which she can't preparethe new ferrybringingguests.

"May tourism and June tourism tend to be more about people travelling at the spur of the moment, drop-in weekend business, more local clientele than people from further away. So all that would be affected by decreased access," Buckley said.

Mayor Dennis Greene was keeping in touch with the company that operates the ferry Coastal Transportand the provincial government, which owns the ferry.

"Rumours are rampant on what it is, how long the ferry is going to be off," Greene said on Saturday.

The ferry was returned to service on Sunday morning, Coastal Transport officials confirmed.