When it came to the end, many islanders felt prepared to let bygones be bygones and pay a fond farewell.
Suddenly Condor Ferries didn’t seem that bad after all.
We’ve had thanks paid to captains, crew and check-in staff, and a few tears shed at the departure of Liberation and the Clipper.
In Jersey, Lyndon Farnham seems to acknowledge that Lyndon Trott had a case to be annoyed with his political colleagues and officers, but has urged him to draw a line under the unhappy tender process and move on. Maybe it’s time for all of us to do that.
Guernsey travellers appear to be seeing today as a new dawn in sea travel. We await for clarity over an uncertain future for inter-island sailings – surely the sorriest casualty of the whole affair, even if the Islands Unlimited option proves its worth – but Guernsey sailors seem buoyed by the prospect of travelling with a new operator, but with that degree of comfort of knowing the ships.
There’s no energy wasted in contemplating an electrified fleet and considering emissions while islanders face paying higher fares.
We islanders now need to embrace our new Francophile future with Brittany Ferries.
It won’t all be plain sailing, we’re sure, but let’s hope that the next 15 years, and all that it may bring, will work out for us all.
