Disruption to sailings continues, with departures up to 8 hours late, as Stena Line’s charter of a ferry from DFDS attempts to catch up with its scheduled timetable, writes Jehan Ashmore.
This evening, Afloat caught up with Patria Seaways, which is in the English Channel, having departed Rosslare Europort last midnight but six hours late. The ropax was expected to arrive in Cherbourg at around 2100 (Irish time) but actually managed to arrive just over an hour earlier.
As for those booked with the corresponding sailing to Ireland will too be affected, as at the time of writing, Stena has continued to cite delays down to ‘operational reasons.’ The scheduled sailing from Cherbourg at 1900 hrs to Rosslare tonight is subject to a delay of approximately 8 hours, which would mean a departure in the early hours of tomorrow (22 March) at 0300 hrs.
Click here for the latest details on sailing updates from Stena Line, which apologises for the inconvenience.
The scheduled arrival to Rosslare (22 March) is 1200hrs, but with this update so far, the delayed departure from France is to see an evening arrival at the Irish port estimated at 2000hrs
Afloat is awaiting a response from Stena as to the background of such travel disruption since Tuesday's introduction of the chartered DFDS ferry, causing long delays to travellers and holidaymakers in the early spring. Initially, Patria Seaways was to enter service the previous week on 13 March, then the company stated 'technical issues' for the deferred introduction.
Patria Seaways' charter is to continue up to 14 April while the route’s routine ropax, Stena Horizon, is currently on the Dublin-Holyhead route before it too goes for dry-docking and its eventual return to Rosslare.
In the meantime, Patria Seaways, given the operational reasons, is also at a disadvantage with its time-keeping as it has a modest 17 knots compared to Stena Horizon’s faster turn of speed of 23.5 knots.
