6-HOUR DELAYS AS WIGHTLINK RACES TO FIX BROKEN FERRY

Wightlink customers have spoken of delays in excess of 6 hours following the withdrawal of St Clare from service, with disruption continuing to cause chaos on the Fishbourne-Portsmouth route today (Friday).

Just 1 ferry – St Faith – is in operation this morning due to a double engine failure on board St Clare and the unavailability of Victoria of Wight due to annual maintenance.

A shuttle service is now operating to and from the Isle of Wight with the smallest ferry in the fleet, leading to lengthy delays on both sides of the Solent. It comes as many enjoy a February half-term break.

Wightlink is advising of 6 hour delays to its scheduled sailings but several customers have said they spent more than 7 hours trying to get home to the Isle of Wight last night.

The cross-Solent operator says its engineers are working to fix the problem and bring St Clare back into service as soon as they can, but there is no indication if that will be today. It follows several days of issues with St Clare.

Those stranded in Portsmouth were advised to leave their cars and head back to the Island, for free, on the Fastcat.

There are already delays of 30 minutes on the Ryde-Portsmouth passenger route this morning due to the absence of an essential crew member, compounding Wightlink’s problems.

Wightlink’s Yarmouth-Lymington service is operating to timetable but is understood to be fully booked.

Those looking to travel across the Solent are being told to cancel their sailings for a full refund.

UPDATE @ 08:52 – Wightlink has confirmed that a shuttle service is to continue throughout today with no signs of St Clare returning to service yet.

All sailings to and from Portsmouth Gunwharf are fully booked.

It has been revealed that the fault with 2 of St Clare’s engines are thought to be linked. Engineers are working to fix the problem.

To help alleviate the issue, extra sailings are being put on the Yarmouth to Lymington route overnight.

UPDATE @ 16:33 – St Clare has re-entered service, with the first sailing being the 17:00 from Fishbourne.

Read more at https://www.islandecho.co.uk/engineers-fix-st-clare-but-free-cancellations-still-on-offer/.