Isle of Wight ferry cancellations amid Fishbourne port works

Some Isle of Wight ferry crossings will be cancelled this weekend (September 2-3) as a million-pound investment to replace fenders at Fishbourne aims to be completed this autumn.

This article first appeared in the Isle of Wight County Press – https://www.countypress.co.uk/news/23763054.isle-wight-ferry-cancellations-amid-fishbourne-port-works/

Across this weekend, preparation work will take place ahead of the fender replacements, affecting some morning and evening car ferry sailings.

The cross-Solent travel provider says this has been scheduled to take advantage of ‘extremely low tides’.

Today (Saturday, September 2), the 6am and 6pm sailings from Portsmouth and the 7am to 7pm crossings from Fishbourne have been cancelled.

Meanwhile, tomorrow (Sunday), the 6.40pm and 7.20pm ferries from Portsmouth and the 7.40pm and 8.20pm from Fishbourne will also be cancelled.

At the end of this month, the final three fenders will be replaced with divers and contractors supporting Wightlink staff.

The Portsmouth to Fishbourne route will be closed overnight from 12.01am to 5.40am from Tuesday, September 26, to Sunday, October 1.

In addition, there will be extra FastCast sailings at 4.15am from Portsmouth and 4.45am from Ryde Pier from September 26-29.

Keith Greenfield, Wightlink chief executive, said: “This is a major investment by Wightlink in our round-the-clock Portsmouth to Fishbourne route.

“Our car ferries use the fenders dozens of times a day to berth safely, and it is now time to replace all of them.

“We will endeavour to keep noise and disturbance to a minimum.

“However, some sailings will need to be cancelled and we are sorry if customers are inconvenienced by this essential work.”