Among the many speeches given at the commissioning of the new ferry Island Home last Saturday, Boyd (Butch) King's was both the briefest and most touching.

Trying to get people\'s thoughts on the new Island Home ferry
during its maiden voyage Monday afternoon was kind of like asking a
child what they thought of their new stepmom or stepdad the same day
their parents got divorced.

Someone referred to her as the Islander on steroids. Others called her the cruise ship. One Steamship Authority worker, gazing up at the huge bulk of the ferry Island Home tied up at Woods Hole, simply called her a monster.

Whatever the metaphor, you get the picture. This is a big boat.

The ferry Island Home is set to make the long trip home.

Steamship Authority general manager Wayne Lamson said this week that the double-ended, $32 million car and passenger ferry is due to leave the VT Halter shipyard at Moss Point, Miss., this weekend to make the 2,000-mile trip to the Steamship Authority maintenance facility in Fairhaven.

The Island Home was originally due for delivery in June of 2006, but construction was set back some seven months by Hurricane Katrina, which hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, just after work had begun on the ferry.

The new double-ended ferry Island Home pulled into the Steamship Authority wharf in Fairhaven on Monday afternoon, a few minutes before sunset, after a seven-day trip from Pascagoula, Miss. The $32 million, 255-foot vessel's 2,000 mile maiden voyage to her new home was mostly uneventful.

The bright white ferry glittered in the late afternoon sunlight as she came through the New Bedford-Fairhaven Hurricane Barrier. Passing through the gate, the vessel's senior captain, Sean O'Connor, gave the ferry horn a quick loud toot.