Storm Henk in English Channel hampering ferry sailings

But it is hoped the weather will calm down enough to allow sailings later in the week.

Condor has been trying to run services during calmer weather periods after Christmas, but the high numbers of passengers travelling over the festive period has made it a challenging time.

Storm Gerrit swept across the UK last Wednesday, with 70mph winds causing damage and travel disruption.

And the UK Met Office issued amber wind warning yesterday as Storm Henk brought winds of about 80mph to the UK.

A Condor Ferries’ spokesman said conditions in the English Channel were also difficult.

‘The continuing spell of strong winds up to 65mph and 7m waves caused by Storm Henk is causing disruption for rail, air and ferry operators across the British Isles,’ he said yesterday.

‘We are therefore rescheduling and cancelling conventional and high speed sailings today [Tuesday] and tomorrow [Wednesday] morning. While conditions are unpredictable, the weather forecast suggests an improvement during Wednesday.’

Yesterday’s Clipper rotation from Portsmouth and the Voyager’s St Malo rotation were both cancelled, and this morning’s Goodwill freight boat was also cancelled.

Today’s Islander Portsmouth rotation and the Voyager’s St Malo rotation were also cancelled, while the Clipper service from Portsmouth was due to be operating with freight only.

The spokesman said Condor was hopeful of operating the Goodwill and Islander overnight tonight instead, and the Clipper tomorrow morning.

To help cope with the backlog, Condor has scheduled an extra sailing for Thursday, with the Liberation fast ferry due to sail from Poole on Thursday morning.

The Voyager rotation between St Malo and Guernsey tomorrow has been cancelled and an extra sailing has been scheduled for Friday.

‘Passengers and freight clients affected are being notified and reaccommodated subject to availability.’

The Liberation fast ferry has been in Poole since 22 December, as Condor looks to focus on using its two conventional ferries – Islander and Clipper – on the winter schedule for cross-Channel services.

There are only four fast ferry services between Guernsey and UK during January.

The latest disruption follows severe ferry disruption right after Christmas.

The Voyager St Malo services and the Islander UK services were cancelled on Wednesday 27 December, as well as the Clipper UK sailings last Thursday and Saturday. Other services did run last week, but many were delayed.

n Channel Chieftain V was the only vessel that arrived into St Peter Port Harbour yesterday, according to Guernsey Ports arrivals board.

The sturdy vessel managed to sail from Jersey to Guernsey with the national newspapers. However the rough weather took its toll, with the boat leaving Jersey at 3am and arriving into Guernsey just after 6am.

The crew generally manages to sail between the islands in all but the worst weather.

n Storm Henk caused severe disruption to Aurigny’s Alderney flights yesterday.

The strong winds made it unsafe to operate to operate the airline’s 19-seater Dornier 228 aircraft and as of 4.30pm no Dorniers had flown yesterday.

There were due to be three flights yesterday.

Aurigny has said it was looking to operate an extra services today to help catch up.