SAILING UPDATES: 2019 Latest News

[Gareth]

This is the thread for Sailing Updates for 2019.

Updates from 2018 can be found here:

 

[Cabin-boy]

Thanks Gareth. And thanks to all the mods for their hard work to keep things running smoothly. 

And a Happy New Year to everyone on the forum. 

Ed

[Fine Whine]

And the same from me...!

Bonne Année 

Chris

[Danielf]

HI,

My ferry from Cork to Santander tomorrow has been cancelled last minute. Any idea how I can get in touch with Brittany Ferries urgently as I need to get to Spain for work.

[Jim]

Just now, Danielf said:

HI,

My ferry from Cork to Santander tomorrow has been cancelled last minute. Any idea how I can get in touch with Brittany Ferries urgently as I need to get to Spain for work.

You can find their number on the BF website, or in the text they should have sent advising of cancellation

[TonyMWeaver]

[Cabin-boy]

11 minutes ago, Jim said:

You can find their number on the BF website, or in the text they should have sent advising of cancellation

I think their Twitter feed is still working today but with a reduced service until tomorrow morning. You could try contacting them via that. Ed. 

[wortley]

1 hour ago, Danielf said:

HI,

My ferry from Cork to Santander tomorrow has been cancelled last minute. Any idea how I can get in touch with Brittany Ferries urgently as I need to get to Spain for work.

Fly from Dublin if it's urgent. Skyscanner.net will help you

[ferrymancork]

Strangely she has just left Cork at 8PM bound for Santander and is currently heading south at 21.4 kts.    The next sailing is showing as from Cork on Monday 07 Jan and from Santander on Thur 10 Jan.  

[JohnMustow]

16 minutes ago, wortley said:

Fly from Dublin if it's urgent. Skyscanner.net will help you

Or Cork to quite a few destinations in Spain and Portugal.

[neilcvx]

2 hours ago, TonyMWeaver said:

2 hours to make alternative arrangements 😟

[Chef]

3 hours ago, ferrymancork said:

Strangely she has just left Cork at 8PM bound for Santander and is currently heading south at 21.4 kts.    The next sailing is showing as from Cork on Monday 07 Jan and from Santander on Thur 10 Jan.  

Which means she has to return to Cork for for the departure to Spain on the 7th even though there is no scheduled departure from Spain to coincide with it . She's hardly making an empty /unscheduled return trip , and if so why bother doing it at such a speed . Very strange indeed .

[Cabin-boy]

What sort of technical problem requires a 48+ hour round trip to another country but carrying no passengers or freight either way and costing a substantial amount of money? Could her owners have demanded an inspection or does she need to be given the new 'economie' look? She only left 15 hours ahead of schedule according to my calculations so you'd have thought they could have contacted the passengers booked and asked if anyone wanted to take the earlier sailing. If Danielf needed to be in Spain urgently he might have been able to travel. A clear example of when that corporate jet could be put to good use (and to generate customer goodwill). I'm looking forward to the explanation for this one. Ed. 

Edited January 2, 2019 by Cabin-boy

[Chef]

Is there a technical problem with any of the other BF ships on the Santander to UK route that she may be filling in for . 

[Chef]

I noticed that  Baie De Seine has been in Santander on layover since Sunday, and scheduled for departure this afternoon . Could the technical issue be with her during some maintenance work . Connemera's  sailing  from Cork today may have been light and and so her sailing was sarcraficed .

[Gareth]

I very much doubt BF would contemplate using the non-French-crewed Connemara on any of their mainstream routes.  The inflammatory effect on union relations would not be worth it.

[Chef]

55 minutes ago, Gareth said:

I very much doubt BF would contemplate using the non-French-crewed Connemara on any of their mainstream routes.  The inflammatory effect on union relations would not be worth it.

Good point , and a sailing notice would have been issued for a delay due to the fact that Connemara won't arrive in Santander till 10 pm tonight ( about 6 hours after Baie De Saine's scheduled departure  time ) and no delay has been announced .

[TonyMWeaver]

'Connemara' due in Santander at 21:30 tonight, departing at 05:30 tomorrow morning.

[wortley]

20 hours ago, Danielf said:

HI,

My ferry from Cork to Santander tomorrow has been cancelled last minute. Any idea how I can get in touch with Brittany Ferries urgently as I need to get to Spain for work.

So does anyone know why the ferry departed 15 hours early leaving this man stranded ? 

[Gareth]

I don’t think we’ve had an answer to that one yet, but we are waiting for the explanation with interest.  Her departure back from Santander has been brought forward considerably from the scheduled time, so that must have something to do with it I guess.  Not good form, is it, failing to offer customers the earlier departure.  I am sure that in Danielf there is one of many customers whose goodwill BF has just lost.

[Cabin-boy]

There doesn't seem to be any storm forecast as far as I can see that would justify it. What would also be interesting to know is if there were in fact any unaccompanied trailers on board that they did transport south but then failed to wait for (and honour the bookings made for) the accompanied freight (if there was any) and passengers. Ed. 

[Chef]

It appears she left from the cargo / container berth across from the ferry terminal , so no link span .

[Cabin-boy]

So either she had something large and cumbersome craned onto her outer deck or went down empty and is bringing something time-sensitive or extremely bulky back up. We'll have to see where she goes on arrival in Santander. Ed. 

[jonno]

1 hour ago, Chef said:

It appears she left from the cargo / container berth across from the ferry terminal , so no link span .

There is a smaller linkspan on the deep water berth but I think the area is fenced off from the passenger terminal and ferry marshalling lanes.

[ferrymancork]

No she left directly from the Deepwater berth (where she was on layby) so she did not return to RoRo terminal to load anything - and further strangely she was accompanied out the harbour by two tugs.   From what I could see she did have 1 trailer onboard (but this could have been loaded when she discharged from her last Santander arrival, and before she shifted to layby  (we used to load unaccompanied trailers onboard the SuperFerry and Julia well before sailing time if this saved time on departure day).