Replacement ferry Saaremaa 1 to enter service between P.E.I. and N.S. on Saturday

MV Saaremaa 1 will take its first paying passengers on the Northumberland Ferries run between Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia on Saturday, the company announced late Friday.

The vessel has been docked at Caribou, N.S., since making the journey from Trois-Rivires, Quebec, after the July 22 fire aboard MV Holiday Island.

Northumberland Ferries has spent the last few weeks making sure the replacement vessel is a good fit for the loading and unloading facilities at its docks on either side of the Northumberland Strait.

"The vessel is expected to arrive in P.E.I. at approximately 11:15 [a.m.] tomorrow and sailing at [noon] with any traffic offering," company VP Don Cormier told CBC News in an email Friday evening.

"Her published departures will start on Monday."

Those departures will boost the number of vehicles and passengers on the busy summer run. Northumberland Ferries had cut back the schedule of MV Confederation, itsother ferry, to just four round trips a day so that crews could get training on the Saaremaa 1.

The Transportation Safety Board continues toinvestigatethe cause of the MV Holiday Island fire.

There were no serious injuries afterpassengers and crew had to abandon ship when flames broke out in the vessel's engine room on a July 22nd late-morning run.

The company still has the damaged Holiday Island docked in a berth at Wood Islands.Saaremaa 1 will be homeported in Caribou until further notice.

• FULL COVERAGE: Our past stories on the MV Holiday Island fire.