Ship sails on by

BarrAtlantic - Barra’s biggest private employer- is suffering "huge problems" over the ferry crews' industrial action.

To islanders' astonishment and anger, sailings out of Barra were cancelled and will not be back to normal until Sunday.

To make matters worse, despite a huge load of shellfish waiting to be uplifted, the MV Isle of Lewis - despatched to operate an one-off temporary sailing for the island - steamed straight past Castlebay and stayed in Oban overnight.

Donald Maclean of BarrAtlantic seafood said: "We didn’t know what was happening from Cal Mac until going on 5pm Wednesday afternoon."

Mr Maclean added: “I had 14 pallets of frozen prawn tails to go out, ten pallets of fresh prawns, scallops and fish for UK and continental markets.

“In the end, Cal Mac said they would take our lorry to Lochbosidale and (onward) to Mallaig.

“But there’s repercussions there too as we have to drop the air in our trailers to get through the low bridges” on that route.

Rather than a direct sailing to Oban with a onward trip to Glasgow and further south, BarrAtlantic’s wagon had to cross over to Eriskay, then burn fuel to keep the onboard fridge “running all night when it could have been in our factory until the morning."

He queried: “Why didn’t the MV Isle of Lewis call into Castlebay to clear the Barra traffic.”

The MV Isle of Lewis sailed to Barra on Wednesday but did not return to the mainland until this morning (Thurs).

There will be no more mainland-bound ferry sailings from Castlebay until Sunday.

Frustration as ship sails on by

24 June 2015