Stena ferries on the Holyhead/ Dun Laoghaire route were cancelled again yesterday due to the adverse weather conditions, but the improved weather could mean a resumption of Stena services for passengers today. Ferries on the Rosslare to Fishguard route, the 13.15 and the 18.00, also did not sail yesterday. Mr Eamonn Hewitt, spokesman for Stena, said they had managed to put people on other later ferries at Rosslare and in Belfast. They had used their own ferries and those of the opposition. Mr Hewitt said he was hopeful services would be back to normal today as the weather forecast looked more favourable.
Over the weekend, hundreds of Stena passengers were stranded. The high-speed catamaran operated by Stena Line on the Dun Laoghaire route is not allowed by international maritime rules to leave port when the waves are more than four metres high. A spokeswoman for Irish Ferries, however, said that all services had been running normally on its Dublin to Holyhead and Rosslare to Pembroke routes.
She said that Irish Ferries had all-weather ferries and it was only in the severest weather that they did not go out, at the discretion of the captain.
In Northern Ireland, ferry services to Stranraer and Cairnryan from Belfast and Larne, Co Antrim, were cancelled because of the severe weather conditions.