In the early hours of yesterday (8 Dec), the first ferry sailing in three days took place between Ireland and South Wales due to adverse weather; however, with Storm Bram underway, it’s a case of deja-vu with further disruption, writes Jehan Ashmore.
At the time of writing, Met Éireann has issued a status red storm warning from Carnsore Point to Roche's Point to Loop Head with south to southwest winds that will occasionally reach violent storm force 11.
All of today’s Irish Ferries sailings on the Rosslare-Pembroke Dock route operated by the recently returned Isle of Innisfree, fresh from planned dry-docking in France, have been cancelled due to adverse weather conditions, with passengers accommodated on the Dublin-Holyhead (see update) route instead. In addition, according to the time of writing, tomorrow’s (10 Dec.) Pembroke-Rosslare scheduled sailing at 02:45 from Wales has also been cancelled.
With Isle of Innisfree back on the Rosslare-Pembroke route, the 28,000-ton ferry resumed service yesterday from Pembroke in the early hours with the 0245 sailing; however, it was delayed by an hour and a half, resulting in arriving at Rosslare not at 0646 but just after 0800.
All subsequent sailings took place on the southernmost ferry route between Ireland and the UK, following Isle of Innisfree’s repositioning passage from Dunkirk East, which departed on Saturday through the English Channel, not to Rosslare but instead headed to Pembroke Dock in South Wales.
It was at the port in Pembrokeshire where the last sailing took place between Ireland and Wales last Friday by one of the company’s Dublin-Holyhead cruise ferries, James Joyce, which was covering the absence of ‘Innisfree’ on the 4-hour, 15-minute route with the scheduled 0245 sailing from Pembroke, albeit somewhat delayed. Passengers and vehicles were no doubt eager to get on board before adverse weather set in, leading to the subsequent disruption with cancellations.
Also during the weekend, there were no sailings available on Stena Line’s Rosslare-Fishguard route (as highlighted last month) given the delayed return to service of the route’s Stena Nordica. Since 21 November, the ropax has remained for routine maintenance at Merseyside’s Cammell Laird facility at Birkenhead.
As such, Stena Line has also cancelled all sailings today due to the weather, in addition to tomorrow’s (10 Dec.) 0815 sailing from the Co. Wexford ferry port. A sailing from Fishguard to Rosslare, in the early hours of tomorrow (10 Dec) at 0130 from the Pembrokeshire port, is also cancelled due to technical problems. The next available sailing is tomorrow (10 Dec); at 1400 from Wales; however, it would be advised, like all routes, to check in advance.
Afloat has sought a comment from Stena as to the reason for the technical issues before the Stena Nordica's resumption on the St. Georges Channel route, where no sailings have taken place since the chartered Isle of Man Steam Packet’s reserve ropax Ben-My-Chree prematurely ceased its first stint of service on 18 November. Where once again sailings have been affected due to adverse weather, causing cancelled sailings. The charter forms part of the unprecedented temporary space capacity charter agreement between Irish Ferries and Stena Line, which saw cooperation between the Irish Sea’s main rivals.
With the Ben-My-Chree off Rosslare-Fishguard duties and the ‘Nordica’ dry-docking, the Manx-flagged ferry was then transferred to Dublin-Holyhead, making a debut as part of the charter agreement. Its initial replacement service across the St. George’s Channel as part of the space-capacity agreement saw Stena Line customers automatically transferred to Rosslare-Pembroke, initially served by Isle of Innisfree until James Joyce took over. The former Baltic Sea ferry has since returned to the Irish capital-North Wales route, where fleetmate Ulysses and Stena’s Adventurer and Estrid serve.
When Ben-My-Chree served on the Dublin-Holyhead route, it served a further relief role, as it was used to replace James Joyce whilst that cruise ferry covered Rosslare-Pembroke duties, and Stena Nordica had its turn to dry dock this winter, before the space-capacity charter agreement ceases tomorrow.
Initially, sailings by the Ben-My-Chree on the central corridor route were operated as normal; however, the Ben’s role became a freight-only mode, thus providing a dedicated service for hauliers on the core Ireland-UK sea corridor. But it is understood that this took place following disruption to its routine schedule as outlined below.
The charter of the Ben-My-Chree on the Dublin-Holyhead did not go particularly well; due to weather at the Welsh port, it was forced to take shelter off Moelfre on east Anglesey on two occasions. During this stint the ‘Ben’ was used notably by Irish Ferries to replace the roster of James Joyce; however, due to the weather-related cancellations, customers had to transfer to Stena Line’s E-Flexer class cruise ferry Stena Estrid, somewhat defeating the purpose of the cooperation between both companies to assist each other during dry-docking of ferries and permitting passengers to automatically transfer onto different services.
It seems that the decision not to send the ‘Ben’ back to the Rosslare-Fishguard route since last Wednesday may be down to the weather delaying its return to South Wales, coupled with the fact that the second stint was only to have taken several days. In addition, as the 'Innisfree' was still away, the larger capacity James Joyce continued on the Rosslare-Pembroke route and easily accommodated all traffic at this quieter time of the year and in advance of the festive season.
As the ‘Ben’ returned to its Manx owners homeport last Friday, the same day of the last sailing between South Wales and Ireland, this led the James Joyce to reposition to Holyhead and reenter on the Dublin route. This enabled the resumption of routine freight capacity on the central route, but at the expense of the southern corridor route until its fleetmate Innisfree returned yesterday.
