The ferry Island Home made her way down Vineyard Sound from Fairhaven and into the Vineyard Haven harbor Thursday afternoon, signaling a possible return to normalcy for the Steamship Authority after three straight weeks of crippling breakdowns and unprecedented disruptions in service on the Vineyard route.

The ferry Woods Hole was due to return to Vineyard Haven later in the day from Hyannis where she had been undergoing trials on the Nantucket route.

Vineyard SSA governor Marc Hanover told the county commission Wednesday that he will call for an independent review by outside consultants.

Mark Alan Lovewell

Vineyard SSA governor Marc Hanover told the county commission Wednesday that he will call for an independent review by outside consultants.

Mark Alan Lovewell

The ferry Martha’s Vineyard had been back in service since Monday.

And by Friday morning the boat line was expected to be running on a regular schedule, SSA general manager Bob Davis told the Gazette Thursday morning.

“We expect to be back to full strength by tomorrow,” he said.

“It’s been a hell of a two weeks,” Vineyard SSA governor Marc Hanover told the Dukes County commissioners, who are his appointing authority, at their meeting Wednesday afternoon. “What concerns me most is we’ve lost the trust of our customers.”

Mr. Hanover has called for an independent review of boat line affairs by an outside consultant.

“I want to get someone in there who can give an overview of the entire operation and make suggestions,” he told the county commission.

The avalanche of ferry mishaps began in mid-March when the Woods Hole briefly ran aground near the slip in the Vineyard Haven harbor. The incident was believed to be brief and isolated, but the following day the ferry was abruptly pulled from service due to an operating system problem.

One day later the ferry Martha’s Vineyard, which had recently returned from a major refurbishment project, lost power on her last run of the evening to Woods Hole and had to be towed back to Vineyard Haven by tugboats. The ordeal lasted until the wee hours of the morning, stranding passengers on board for some five hours and prompting a Coast Guard investigation. The ferry was cleared for return to service the following day but then went out again with a generator problem.

Two days after that, the Woods Hole was out again for more inspections after console warning lights had gone off.

One day later the Martha’s Vineyard was out again with another electrical problem.

Meanwhile the Island Home, which was in drydock for routine maintenance, saw her return delayed by a bow thruster problem.

Freight ferry Katama has been working overtime during period of crippling breakdowns in SSA fleet.

Mark Alaan Lovewell

Freight ferry Katama has been working overtime during period of crippling breakdowns in SSA fleet.

Mark Alaan Lovewell

Crippled by the loss of three main ferries for unrelated reasons, the boat line cobbled together service using freight ferries and contracting with Seastreak, the private company that operates summer high-speed passenger service between the Vineyard and New Bedford, to carry passengers between Woods Hole and the Vineyard on a fast ferry.

Standby lines were closed, opened and closed again. Car reservations were mired in confusion. Highlighting the relatively new era of technology in marine propulsion and operating systems on ferries, technicians were flown in from Mexico, Vancouver and Denmark to help diagnose the problems.

And the boat line drew darts for poor communications with the public.

At the monthly port council meeting in Hyannis on Wednesday this week the breakdowns were the main topic of discussion. There was general consensus that the events of the past month were a “perfect storm” of events that could not have been foreseen and are highly unlikely to recur.

“This is never going to happen again,” said Nathaniel Lowell, who represents Nantucket on the council. “This was like a meteorite landing — it’s crazy.”

Mr. Davis told the council that the boat line has had a contingency plan for replacing a vessel that goes out of service unexpectedly. “We just never had a contingency where we anticipated two vessels being out at the same time,” while other boats are undergoing scheduled maintenance, he said.

There are 10 vessels in the SSA fleet: The Island Home, Martha’s Vineyard, Woods Hole, Nantucket, Eagle, Iyanough, Sankaty, Katama, Gay Head and Governor. The latter four are freight ferries. The Eagle and high-speed Iyanough operate solely on the Nantucket route.

At the port council meeting Wednesday Carl Walker, director of engineering and maintenance for the boat line, was blunt in his assessment.“People have called it a perfect storm, but there’s no excuses. We have to do better,” Mr. Walker said. “Some of this was within our control, some wasn’t, but we need as managers to deal with this.”

Some Vineyard customers enjoyed temporary service provided by private high-speed passenger ferry, but SSA said it is unlikely that it would run such a service permanently.

Mark Alan Lovewell

Some Vineyard customers enjoyed temporary service provided by private high-speed passenger ferry, but SSA said it is unlikely that it would run such a service permanently.

Mark Alan Lovewell

He thanked the boat crews and his fellow managers for pulling together during the service emergency. Mr. Davis also had warm words for terminal neighbors in Woods Hole, where ferries have been making extra-early and late trips to catch up with the demand.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t thank our neighbors for being so understanding. We apologize for the noise that may have been generated during those late night and early morning hours,” he said.

In a telephone interview with the Gazette early in the week, Mr. Davis was also apologetic.

“The Island people rely on us to operate on schedule and we take pride in doing that,” he said. “It’s embarrassing to have this happen and it’s been a frustrating time for everyone.”

He said he expects to give a full update at the next monthly meeting of the boat line board, set for April 23. The meeting was due to be held in new Bedford, but arrangements are being made to move it to the Vineyard if possible, Mr. Davis said.

“We will be providing an update on what’s transpired and where we stand,” he said. “We are looking to see if logistically we can move the meeting to the Vineyard.”

Mr. Davis also acknowledged the recent customer enthusiasm for the convenient high-speed passenger service which has now come to an end. He said it is possible but unlikely that the SSA would provide such a service, given costs and other logistics.

“We’ll look at it, but based on our experience with the high speed service from Nantucket, in order to pay for that cost of service we do have to charge more,” he said.

“Right now we’re focusing on getting the Martha’s Vineyard boats back up and running on schedule.”

Louisa Hufstader, Sara Brown and Landry Harlan contributed reporting.