To the editor,

I read Ms. Stoesselπs and Mr. Raskins comments (How Two Islands View Boat Line 6/30/03) with some concern. Ms. Stoessel should either take ≥Spiderman≤ out of her DVD player or drop the Nietsche and hop on the Eagle.

After its recent refitting, the Eagle has ceased to look like a dirty, floating bus-stop. Instead, it looks like a paint-smeared, rusty, floating bus-stop. Floor tiles have been ripped up, paint is spilled, spattered, and peeling, the bathrooms are either stopped up or reek, and rust drips down the occasionally functional bow doors. The refitting was so successful, the Eagle dropped a rudder in Davy Jonesπ Locker. Even better, the boat made several more trips before anyone, besides the captain, noticed.

The people who notice are the ones who drop almost $200 to bring their car over and $200 to send it back. Those folks are on their way to vacation, drop some money, catch some fish, and play with their kids. They donπt want to have to back the car off the boat and wait in Hyannis because it was a bad day to be a bow door or a rudder. Perhaps Ms. Roessel could inform those folks about ≥improving the general atmosphere.≤ Mr. Raskin could follow that up with a soft-shoe version of ≥Moving forwardä(away from) extraneous issuesπ I am sure everyone waiting on the pavement will applaud.

Should either Mr. Raskin or Ms, Stoessel make it to Nantucket, they could stop in the town building and ask if we think Mrs. Grossman or Mr. Ranney are mis-representing us. I would think that all of the resounding votes supporting them in town meeting would be enough. But if Mr. Raskin wants more proof than that, I am sure we could muster a few thousand folks. Perhaps he would be better served to look at the Hy-Line and the airplanes and ask what those passengers think.

Those passengers cause Flint, Grace, the town, and I some alarm because the money that Island Air makes is money that Nantucket and Marthaπs Vineyard loses. The fares that the Hy-Line takes in are fares that the SSA doesnπt. When money is tight for the SSA and it comes to skin and bone, it is always our skin and bone.

I believe that the Vineyard has a much more sanguine view of the Steamship Authority because it has a much more sanguine vessel: The Islander. Venerable and stout, the Islander pushes its way from Vineyard Haven to Woodπs Hole, day after day, 45 minutes a trip. The Islander is so famous that artists paint pictures of it and musicians include it in songs.

Perhaps Vineyarders would share our view of the boat line if we were to switch boats. The Eagle can rest rudderless in Woodπs Hole for a few days while the Islander trudges around Brant Point.

Bob Barsanti

Nantucket