South Uist ferry passengers endured a fruitless twelve voyage yesterday after a Cal Mac ship was unable to berth in bad weather.
Departure time from Oban was brought forward to 5am in an effort to run ahead of incoming bad weather.
But storm force winds on arrival at Lochboisdale presented great difficulties for the MV Isle of Arran.
The ship found it too hazardous to berth safely in the wild conditions.
The Arran was forced to head back to Oban. She arrived at around 5pm last night, some 12 hours after departure.
In last night’s heavy rain and breezy conditions, two cars came off the ferry and no foot passengers disembarked.
The incident follows three days of weather disruption on the South Uist route.
Wednesday’s sailing from the island was brought forward a day to take place on Tuesday.
But there was no return voyage and an adverse forecast also prevented a sailing to the island the following day.
Meanwhile, the chances of a service today (Fri) was last night looking doubtful with another band of strong winds forecast.
Caledonian MacBrayne advised people to travel on Thursday, by longer alternative land and sea routes as yesterday’s direct ferry service was cancelled.
Cal Mac told passengers: “Due to adverse weather, vessel was unable to berth at Lochboisdale and is returning to Oban.”
The shipping firm added: “Due to weather forecast, (Friday’s) service is liable to disruption or cancellation at short notice.
“Customers are advised to travel on Thursday if possible.”
Last month shock figures revealed that the number of CalMac ferry sailings hit by delays has more than doubled in the last decade.
There has been a 119% rise in the number of services delayed, while the number of cancellations on the network has soared by almost half.
Among the hardest hit routes have been Uig to Tarbert and Lochmaddy, where there has been around a seven-fold increase in both delays and cancellations between 2007/08 and last year.
Delays on four of the six routes from Oban – to Colonsay, Castlebay, Coll/Tiree and Lochboisdale – were all up by more than 145% in the period, while cancellations on the Oban to Lismore route had doubled.
