The temporary space capacity charter agreement between Irish Ferries and Stena Line significantly did not go to plan, particularly this weekend, as only a single sailing took place between Rosslare and South Wales due to weather and no ferries being available, writes Jehan Ashmore.
Disruption to passengers and freight was caused by adverse weather conditions that led Irish Ferries to cancel all of Saturday’s Rosslare-Pembroke Dock sailings, with the exception of the 02:45 crossing by cruise ferry James Joyce from South Wales, in which Afloat took this crossing.
This continued today (Sunday, 6 Dec) with cancelled sailings on the Ireland-Wales link and on Stena Line’s Rosslare-Fishguard route, forcing customers to divert between Dublin and Holyhead ports, where the North Wales port was initially forced to shut down completely due to ferry incidents damaging the terminal that took place just before the peak of storm Darragh a year ago in December, 2024, and finally reopened fully some seven months afterwards.
During the writing of this report, Holyhead, which is one of the UK’s busiest ferry ports, has again been beset by damage to one of its terminals following a "berthing incident" caused by severe weather conditions, reported BBC News this afternoon, which has more on this latest development. The port remains partially open, as it has two berths, and the port authority said it will remain temporarily closed to ensure safety but added the port "continues to facilitate the full sailing schedule for ferry operators."
On the theme of weather, Met.ie’s forecast on Friday, 4 Dec, at 12 noon for Rosslare Harbour had winds of 60 km/h plus and stronger 80 km/h gusts on Saturday night, and so Irish Ferries customers were no doubt eager in advance to get yesterday’s early hours sailing from Pembroke Dock. In addition, customers booked with Stena Line but, as part of the agreement, were automatically transferred from the Fishguard route, which has been closed due to the port’s planned maintenance and the routine dry-docking of ropax, Stena Nordica, at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, where it still remains dry-docked on Merseyside (see related update further below). Also at the facility’s nearby Tranmere Wet Basin is the freight ferry Stena Hibernia (see related Birkenhead story).
On completion of James Joyce sole sailing this weekend as part of its relief stint role and space-charter agreement, the ferry departed Rosslare on Saturday afternoon bound for Holyhead, from where last night it resumed routine duties to Dublin. Meanwhile, the southern route’s routine cruise ferry, Isle of Innisfree, has had a planned dry-docking at Dunkirk, France, since last month, but Afloat tracked its move out of dry dock last Thursday to where it has remained in port.
It remains unclear as to what delayed the Isle of Innisfree’s return to Rosslare, given its Thursday dry-dock departure; perhaps it was the weather too leading up to the ongoing absence of all services between Ireland and South Wales this weekend. Afloat will have more to report about whether there were any operational reasons aside from the timeframe to reposition the cruise ferry through the English Channel.
According to Irish Ferries, however, in a sailing update (at the time of writing today), the next sailing is to take place tomorrow (7 Dec) by the ‘Isle of Innisfree,’ departing on the route but from Pembroke Dock with the 02:45 sailing from South Wales. But this cannot be feasible given the cruise ferry remains in situ at the northern France port. In addition, the weather conditions so far for Rosslare tomorrow have forecast increased winds that are twice those compared with today.
In the meantime, Stena Line’s replacement vessel and service for the Rosslare-Fishguard route was scheduled to run until this morning (6th Dec) by running James Joyce on the Irish Ferries Rosslare-Pembroke connection. Its first sailing at 0845 was scheduled from Rosslare to Pembroke; from there James Joyce would have then gone off-service and repositioned with a passage off west Wales to Holyhead today.
The Isle of Man Steam Packet’s reserve ropax, Ben-My-Chree, which Stena chartered to provide cover initially on the Rosslare-Fishguard route and during the dry-docking of Stena Nordica, which itself gave cover on the Holyhead route, saw Irish Ferries using space on the Manx ferry when on Dublin-Holyhead. Originally, it was to be followed by a second stint of service on the Rosslare-Fishguard route from last Wednesday; however, it is with speculation that with the delay of Isle of Innisfree from France, the larger capacity James Joyce remained on the link but may also have been forced to return to Holyhead earlier due to the latest berthing incident at Anglesey and so assist capacity as the Ben-My-Chree left service as outlined below.
According to the Stena Line sailing updates (also at the time of writing), the company had ‘No sailings,’ citing the reason for cancelled sailings on the Rosslare-Fishguard route was also down to adverse weather. In addition, due to the space-charter agreement, Stena also gives information on Irish Ferries, with sailings also cancelled on the Rosslare-Pembroke Dock route and for the same reason.
Interestingly, the Stena sailing update still refers to the Ben-My-Chree; however, given the disruption caused by the weather, and with James Joyce back on the Dublin-Holyhead route, coupled with the charter period ceasing early next week, the Manx-flagged and former flagship returned to its owners’ homeport yesterday afternoon. Its presence on both Irish Sea routes marked a unique period for all companies concerned.
