MV Hebrides – which was involved in an incident on North Uist on Sunday – successfully sailed from Lochmaddy harbour shortly after 3pm today.
She will now undertake the passage from the Western Isles to the Clyde under her own power and will enter dry dock in Greenock at the weekend.
Her move frees up the linkspan at Lochmaddy and later today MV Clansman will be the first vessel to dock at the port since Sunday when she berths at 6pm.
She will be closely followed by MV Isle of Lewis at 7.10pm. Both ships will help to ease the backlog of traffic, particularly freight. MV Isle of Lewis will also drop off and embark lifeline loads for Barra which, due to some sustained adverse weather, has had sailings cancelled this week.
Tomorrow, with MV Clansman completing her move north to Tarbert on Harris and MV Lord of the Isles transferring to Oban, the full Tarbert, Uig and Lochmaddy triangle service will resume as normal. In addition to the full triangle timetable, there will be an additional Lochmaddy to Uig return sailing, leaving Lochmaddy at 2005 and arriving Uig 2150, before departing 2210 and arriving back at North Uist at 2355. MV Clansman’s usual routes to Coll, Tiree and Colonsay will be covered by MV Lord of the Isles.
These contingencies will remain in place for at least a week. Passengers are advised to check CalMac’s website at www.calmac.co.uk and the company’s social media channels regularly for updates.