CONDOR is warning of ‘significant disruption’ over the next week as Storm Ciarán – and a second storm this weekend – are set to have an unprecedented impact on cross-Channel sailings.
All high-speed services between Wednesday and next Tuesday are set to be cancelled and conventional services are likely to be either cancelled or disrupted from Thursday.
The company is altering sailings, transferring passengers to earlier crossings and evaluating options for maintaining the provision of food and medicines to the Islands.
Storm Ciarán is set to bring 85mph winds to the Channel Islands and 26ft waves in the English Channel.
Elwyn Dop, Condor’s operations director said: ‘We have obviously experienced spells of adverse weather affecting sailings in the past, but I doubt there has been such risk of disruption which may last for over a week, and also where conditions could be outside the safe operating limits for all of our vessels.
‘We are proactively contacting passengers and freight clients to notify them of the likely changes and making plans as best we can, given the current forecasts. Our importance to the food supply chain is also understood so every effort will be made to ensure we continue.’
Liberation and Voyager’s sailings on Tuesday from Poole and St Malo will run but to revised routings and timings, while Wednesday’s departures from France to Jersey and Guernsey are both being cancelled.
Passengers on these services are being transferred to Tuesday.
Goodwill and Clipper are scheduled to operate on Tuesday and Wednesday, with cancellations likely and significant disruption to timings from and including Thursday.
Mr Dop added: ‘The weather is obviously unpredictable so we monitor forecasts constantly and suspect may end up making further changes over the period.’
Jersey Met is currently forecasting storm-force-ten winds for overnight Wednesday and Thursday morning.
The UK Met Office has also warned of widespread disruption.
