Hundreds of passengers who were stuck for 30 hours at sea on a Marine Atlantic ferry sailing to Newfoundland are finally on dry ground.

The Atlantic Vision, which had been waiting off Port aux Basques since 6 a.m. Wednesday because of high winds, docked Thursday morning just after 9 a.m.

The ship had left North Sydney, N.S., for the 6½-hour trip just before midnight Tuesday.

Marine Atlantic spokesperson Tara Laing told CBC News the company would combine some sailings to get back on schedule and to deal with a backlog of about 250 passengers.

The Atlantic Vision, which has only been in service for eight months, has run into a number of problems.

The latest incident happened last week when the ship had to be taken out of service for a day-and-a-half after it was punctured as it docked in Port aux Basques. During final approach, high winds smashed the vessel against the dock's fender system.

Don't blame the ferry

Laing said this week's delay shouldn't be blamed on the vessel, but rather the winds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence that seem to be blowing hard for a longer time, something ferry officials haven't seen much of in the past.

"There's a little bit of a change in the weather pattern in the Port aux Basques area and probably in the North Sydney area as well," Laing said. "Our weather systems that are coming through are sustaining winds a little bit longer than normal."

She said the captain decided the safest thing to do would be to wait out the winds.

"It's a new vessel to us, this is the first winter. The winds were up above 40 knots, so the captain decided to wait until the winds subsided.

"He is responsible for that vessel and everything on it, and the key thing is we need to ensure the safety of our passengers, so we're going to support him."

One of the passengers, Everett Pitts of Springdale, isn't so understanding.

Pitts believes the Atlantic Vision is the wrong vessel to have on the run from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland during the winter months.

"It's like buying a semi-trailer to put in your garage that's built for a pickup," he said. "The harbour's too small, the boat is too big. She probably would have made a great summer boat, but for the winter time she should be taken off the run."

Pitts said Marine Atlantic provided passengers with some food, but he said communication was poor, with people given little information about when the vessel would be able to dock.

Marine Atlantic expected the vessel to make a fast turnaround and head back to North Sydney by early afternoon.