A revised timetable of services being offered on the Uig triangle route today (Friday 5 August) is fully booked up, according to CalMac.
A single departure from Tarbert early this morning was operated by MV Isle of Mull, which has been taken off the Craignure-Oban route to fill in for the cross-Minch service.
She’ll be working through the rest of today on return services between Uig and Lochmaddy, and CalMac said this morning: “We can confirm that Friday's sailings on the above routes are now fully booked. Please note that these are the only sailings that will operate on this route on Friday.”
The desperation of passengers to reach their destinations has been felt at Uig, where the planned 9.40am departure for Lochmaddy was delayed by 22 minutes due to a high volume of traffic.
Meanwhile the resulting disruption is also being felt elsewhere in the network, with MV Coruisk and MV Loch Frisa operating the Craignure-Oban crossing, leaving it with reduced capacity.
Restrictions on operation of MV Coruisk mean there can be no services outside daylight hours and the last sailings of the day have been cancelled.
CalMac said this afternoon: “We have explored all options available to operate these sailings, including deploying another vessel, but due to vessel and berth availability this was not possible.”
Motorhomes and caravans are being redirected to travel via the Lochaline-Fishnish route, where MV Lochinvar is working a shuttle service to transport as much traffic as possible.
But day-trippers to Mull are being advised to postpone their visit to another day, with CalMac unable to guarantee their return sailing.
CalMac has promised a further update on Saturday's services on the Lochmaddy-Uig-Tarbert route ‘as soon as possible’ today.
To add to the ferry company’s woes, the Small Isles service operated by MV Lochnevis was delayed this morning after a reported engine issue on the vessel.
Picture shows MV Isle of Mull taking up service in Tarbert yesterday (Thursday 4 August). Picture by Mark Nicolson via Western Isles Weather.