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Displaying items by tag: Sailings Cancelled

Today’s night-time Brittany Ferries sailing on the Rosslare-Cherbourg service is cancelled, this was to have been the third and final France-Ireland weekend roundtrip operated notably by Normandie in a relief role, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The operator’s website sailing update does not outline as to why this weekend’s crossings are cancelled, though the forecast is of a Status Yellow - Gale warning for all Irish coastal waters and the Irish Sea, with south to southwest winds to reach gale force 8 at times.

In addition as of Sunday, is the arrival of Storm Isha which has been issued with a Status Orange warning, and is set to bring very strong winds coupled with damaging gusts over the next few days.

The reason for the use of the English Channel serving cruiseferry Normandie that runs Portsmouth-Oustreham (Caen) was due to a major engine issue of the Ireland-France route’s ropax, Cotentin which is currently undergoing repair in Brittany.

It was on Saturday, 6 January, when Afloat during routine tracking noted with much surprise the Normandie in Rosslare Europort, as seen above, on the cruiseferry’s first ever time to an Irish port.

The unexpected inaugural call was forced, as Normandie had to be deployment so to stand in for the Cotentin. This led the ropax to head for the repairs in Brittany with an arrival to Damen Shiprepair Brest (DSB), where the facility features several quays (with the ropax alongside) and three dry docks, the largest being 420 x 80m, is one of the biggest in Europe.

Cotentin which has been the route’s main ship of the last two years, has been supported with other ferries of the E-Flexer class cruiseferries chartered from Stena.

Occasionally, the freight-orientated vessel built for Brittany Ferries in Finland, has operated just on the English Channel leaving the Irish route to a single-ship service, but also at times operating from France to both Ireland and England on a rotational basis. Either way this is in competition on the Ireland-France route as Stena Line also operates a service.

Next week’s sailing schedules, sees Brittany Ferries second introduced E-Flexer, Salamanca operating the service and the return of Cotentin, should this all go according to plan.

Published in Brittany Ferries

#FerryNews - Ulysses, Irish Ferries cruiseferry on the Dublin-Holyhead route has sailings cancelled today (2 May) and up to Friday (4 May). 

According to the operator's website this is due to technical reasons. All of the cruiseferry's operated sailings in both directions on the Ireland-Wales route are cancelled. 

Passengers instead can be accommodated on the route's fastferry, HSC Dublin Swift and the ropax ferry Epsilon.

For updated sailing information click the link here and also for contact details.

The 50,938 gross registered tonnes flagship Ulysses is the largest ro-ro ferry operating on the Irish Sea. Since introduction in 2001, the cruiseferry has held a strong reliable track record of service maintaining the core short-sea route. 

The cruiseferry is no longer docked at Dublin Ferryport Terminal 1 having proceeded upriver to berth in Alexandra Basin.

 

Published in Ferry

Galway Port & Harbour

Galway Bay is a large bay on the west coast of Ireland, between County Galway in the province of Connacht to the north and the Burren in County Clare in the province of Munster to the south. Galway city and port is located on the northeast side of the bay. The bay is about 50 kilometres (31 miles) long and from 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) to 30 kilometres (19 miles) in breadth.

The Aran Islands are to the west across the entrance and there are numerous small islands within the bay.

Galway Port FAQs

Galway was founded in the 13th century by the de Burgo family, and became an important seaport with sailing ships bearing wine imports and exports of fish, hides and wool.

Not as old as previously thought. Galway bay was once a series of lagoons, known as Loch Lurgan, plied by people in log canoes. Ancient tree stumps exposed by storms in 2010 have been dated back about 7,500 years.

It is about 660,000 tonnes as it is a tidal port.

Capt Brian Sheridan, who succeeded his late father, Capt Frank Sheridan

The dock gates open approximately two hours before high water and close at high water subject to ship movements on each tide.

The typical ship sizes are in the region of 4,000 to 6,000 tonnes

Turbines for about 14 wind projects have been imported in recent years, but the tonnage of these cargoes is light. A European industry report calculates that each turbine generates €10 million in locally generated revenue during construction and logistics/transport.

Yes, Iceland has selected Galway as European landing location for international telecommunications cables. Farice, a company wholly owned by the Icelandic Government, currently owns and operates two submarine cables linking Iceland to Northern Europe.

It is "very much a live project", Harbourmaster Capt Sheridan says, and the Port of Galway board is "awaiting the outcome of a Bord Pleanála determination", he says.

90% of the scrap steel is exported to Spain with the balance being shipped to Portugal. Since the pandemic, scrap steel is shipped to the Liverpool where it is either transhipped to larger ships bound for China.

It might look like silage, but in fact, its bales domestic and municipal waste, exported to Denmark where the waste is incinerated, and the heat is used in district heating of homes and schools. It is called RDF or Refuse Derived Fuel and has been exported out of Galway since 2013.

The new ferry is arriving at Galway Bay onboard the cargo ship SVENJA. The vessel is currently on passage to Belem, Brazil before making her way across the Atlantic to Galway.

Two Volvo round world races have selected Galway for the prestigious yacht race route. Some 10,000 people welcomed the boats in during its first stopover in 2009, when a festival was marked by stunning weather. It was also selected for the race finish in 2012. The Volvo has changed its name and is now known as the "Ocean Race". Capt Sheridan says that once port expansion and the re-urbanisation of the docklands is complete, the port will welcome the "ocean race, Clipper race, Tall Ships race, Small Ships Regatta and maybe the America's Cup right into the city centre...".

The pandemic was the reason why Seafest did not go ahead in Cork in 2020. Galway will welcome Seafest back after it calls to Waterford and Limerick, thus having been to all the Port cities.

© Afloat 2020