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Displaying items by tag: Trips Can't Do

Customers of ferry operators have complained that outstanding payments are being deducted for trips that, due to travel restrictions, they are unable to take.

While ferries continue to sail between Ireland, the UK and France, both to maintain supply chains and cater for essential journeys, the Irish Government is advising against all non-essential travel "until further notice".

That puts leisure passengers with imminent sailings in a bind.

Last November, for example, customer Padraig Murphy says he booked June sailings to France with Irish Ferries for two adults and five children.

He paid a €100 deposit, with the balance of €1,413.50 due on April 23.

"When Covid hit, we contacted Irish Ferries on March 23 to see what the options were. We were advised that nothing had changed and they would contact us if there were any changes..."

"Clearly everything did change."

For more from the Independent.ie including a response from Irish Ferries. In addition to how Brittany Ferries and Stena Line are dealing with the impact of Covid19, click here. 

Published in Ferry

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.

Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King became a trailblazing solo sailor.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk-rigged schooner he designed himself.

After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.

Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.

The round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.