Living the "fast" life on the Iyanough and Grey Lady
BY SAM TOOLE INDEPENDENT INTERN
If you live on Nantucket, or visit it often, chances are you are well versed in the means of travel on and off the island. The first and fastest way is the airport. Fifteen minutes on a plane and you have arrived at your destination quickly and without much hassle. This mode of transportation, however, is around $50 a pop. So, if you are looking for something less expensive, the docks are the place to go.

The traditional service, or the slow boat as most people call it, is the least expensive way to travel from the island at $15. The only problem is that it takes roughly two hours and 15 minutes to make the crossing. Right in the middle in terms of both price and length, the high speed ferries are the way to go. Both the Hy-Line and Steamship Authority boats take approximately an hour to reach Hyannis and provide basically the same services. I decided to ride both ferries back-to-back last week to see if I could glean anything about their differences.

I started on the newer and larger Steamship Authority's MV Iyanough and arrived around 9 a.m. to make sure I could get a ticket for the 9:30 a.m. boat. After buying a ticket for $29.50 I loaded onto the boat and found a seat. The new Iyanough was built by Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding Duclos Corporation in Somerset, Mass. and launched this year. The boat is large and has room for 393 passengers between the two decks.

One of the first things I noticed when I boarded were the flat screen televisions on the walls. There are four TVs upstairs and five downstairs that play programming, without sound, for the entire ride. After I had settled into my seat and checked my email on my computer with their free Wi-fiInternet connection, I decided it was time for a snack.

I walked down one of the outside staircases to the snack bar to check out the selection. It had all of the likely subjects you would expect to find at a small snack bar: breakfast pastries, salads, sandwiches and an assortment of drinks. I opted for a muffin and water and then went to explore the rest of the boat. Compared to the Steamship's old fast ferry, the Flying Cloud, the Iyanough is much larger and feels much more spacious. The size of the aisles and, more importantly, leg room has grown, and I found myself dozing off on the last leg of the trip. Soon, the loudspeaker woke me up announcing we were about to dock in Hyannis. I got off the boat, grabbed some lunch and walked over to the Hy-Line's Grey Lady, a boat I am very familiar with.

The Grey Lady is a smaller boat that can fit approximately 270 passengers between its two decks. She was also built by Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding Duclos Corporation. The current Grey Lady is the third of her generation and was brought to the island in 2003. After I purchased a ticket for $38 I boarded the boat and grabbed a seat across from a couple who hailed from Boston. Soon we were off and I decided to go outside to their rather large outdoor seating area that also includes a snack bar. I grabbed a Coca-Cola and enjoyed the view as we pulled out of Hyannis Harbor. I made small talk for a while with some tourists and then went downstairs to check out the snack bar to see if it was different from the Iyanough. As I expected it was very similar except for the fact that they had Nantucket Cookie Company products that I was very pleased to find. After this I went back to my comfortable seat and soon found myself dozing off again. Then the loudspeaker crackled and just like that my hour-long trip home was over.

My conclusion after a very exciting adventure is that the boats are very similar, not only in time and accommodations but also in comfort and food choices. So I know that the next time I take a high-speed ferry the only thing that will influence me is the time

of departure. I