Skye triangle vessel, MV Hebrides, has finally departed her extended annual overhaul.
All going well, she is due to pick up her timetable with the 2.30pm out of Uig on Saturday.
The Hebrides has been off station for nearly seven weeks the need for further repairs discovered while she was in Birkenhead.
The CalMac ferry was delayed in getting floated out of the drydock unit last week
when she was due to transfer to a lay-up berth for further work and final formal
inspections.
Tugs requested to tow the ship out of the dry dock were cancelled so the Hebrides remained high and dry until the boats were available.
She relocated to Birkenhead Docks last Friday for the final stretch of work ahead of formal surveys. Official clearance was granted over Wednesday and she sailed on the high tide yesterday, avoiding the hazardous sandbanks along the Mersey Estuary into open water. A stop is expected at Oban today.
Knock-on impacts from her drydock delays has seen the Clansman remaining on the Tarbert
and Lochmaddy runs and unable to release MV Lord of the Isles from the Tiree and
Coll route to operate on Islay’s service alongside MV Isle of Arran.
Islay vessel, MV Finlaggan, has yet to undergo her annual maintenance programme.
Only when the Finlaggan returns from drydock - best scenario is by mid-May - can
MV Lord of the Isles eventually transfer to her own South Uist timetable while MV
Isle of Mull moves to a repair yard for a substantial schedule of works to install
a new passenger life raft chute evacuation system after the current equipment was
condemned.
MV Hebrides is homeward bound
25 April 2025
MV Hebrides is heading home
