Maritime News Thread

It looks like James Joyce has been moved to the Rosslare to Pembroke - currently sitting in Rosslare after doing one crossing already. Isle of Inisfree sitting off Rosslare. Ulysses on route to Cherbourg. W.B.Yeats sitting in Dublin. Stena Estrid on the way back from Liverpool and Stena Adventurer sitting off Dublin after making a trip to Holyhead earlier in the day.

Edit, I should say an unsuccessful attempted crossing to Holyhead.

Am I correct in remembering the W.B.Yeats a Rosslare route in the past?

Adventurer only went to Holyhead to perform a crew change.

When in Holyhead she berthed on the aluminium jetty (which is not suitable for Ro-Ro).

Would be fine except the booking is for Irish Ferries this time ☹️

I'm pretty sure there's a court case requiring Stena to let IF in on equal terms.

That one berth must be on its last legs too though.

So ultimately big investment required.

Maybe the Irish government can buy a shareholding of it.

Same as we had a terminal in Heathrow / landing slots once AFAIK.

The U normally goes to drydock in January so a criss cross of smaller boats and ports should keep the show on the road until the spring.

Irish ferries plan seems to be loading everyone onto Rosslare to Pembroke but I was on a sail rail so that wasn’t a runner. Will take a refund. The train times are terrible from there. At least Fishguard meets the ferry times.
Really seems like Holyhead has been running on a wing and a prayer infrastructure wise and the remaining deck of cards has collapsed

Stena are doing a Dublin - Fishguard run for passengers in the short term….

Not sure what connections are like in Fishguard re road/rail, but I can see it being a busy enough town over the next few weeks!!

rail is ok. A lot slower than Holyhead which is two track and feeds directly into the GB mainline network.
Road is ok dual carriageway from St Clears onwards. Road to from Pembroke is better and shorter

Sounds lke HH could be a gone for a while.

Irish Ferries actively seeking another berth somewhere.

The dolphins at Pembroke being questioned.

From what I've read elsewhere Pembrokes linkspan will fit either JJ or IOI.

Or else they would need to keep adjusting it between sailings which might take too long.

After that I'd say they are talking to everybody other port.

Stena seem to be running Dublin Fishguard quite well so it's going to start costing IF money

Weren't they built as river tankers , and not suitable for use at sea in any sort of rough weather ?

I was thinking about Mostyn myself. The biggest ferries might not be able to dock there but modest sized ones have done so in the past.

https://www.niferry.co.uk/po-ferries-in-surprise-mostyn-return/

She is indeed on her way to Dublin

Indeed the dredging situation is a a factor thanks to its proximity to the Dee estuary. Irrespective of its location and the factors that mitigate against it's use, it has been used previously and perhaps could be again now that Holyhead is to remain shut for who knows how long.

Or maybe passing on the extra costs. A 3 1/2 hour run to holyhead will use a lot less fuel than a 5/6 hour run to Fishguard