Weather continues to wreak havoc with ferry timetable

NorthLink’s sailings both north and southbound have been cancelled tonight because of persistently bad weather.

The ferry operator has highlighted continuing forecasts indicating more severe weather, with south easterly gales and high seas throughout the week.

“This is highly likely to adversely affect our services, particularly from Lerwick and Aberdeen from Wednesday through to Friday. We will continue to review forecasts and updates will follow,” the company has said.

The upshot is the Hjaltland, which only berthed in Aberdeen just before 10.30am today, will now not leave for the isles as planned.

Similarly, tonight’s south-bound sailing of the Hrossey has also been called off.

There will be no freight boat coming up tonight, either.

The Hildasay was due to leave Aberdeen for Lerwick at 6pm, but her sailing has been cancelled, as has the south-bound service from the Helliar.

Services across the Pentland Firth are expected to continue as normal, with minor weather-related delays.
Sailings to and from the isles tomorrow are under review.

Meanwhile, the linkspan at Ulsta is out of action, meaning the service is still for foot passengers only. following a failure of hydraulic systems overnight.  Council engineers are currently working to replace hydraulic fittings and restore normal operation of the linkspan for use by vehicles, as a priority.

The problem follows a failure of hydraulic systems overnight. Council engineers are working to replace hydraulic fittings and restore normal operation of the linkspan for use by vehicles, as a priority.

• Update, 2.50pm – Council engineers have completed repairs to the hydraulic systems on the linkspan at the Ulsta ferry terminal. Services on the Yell Sound route have returned to normal operation.