SAILINGS on 12 of CalMac's 29 ferry services were suspended this morning through a mixture of bad weather and a ferry breakdown.

Services provided by state-controlled ferry operator to Islay were cancelled for the rest of the day due a technical issue with 12-year-old MV Finlaggan’s starboard main engine.

Island service had already been badly hit at the end of last month because of issues with the same engine. Then, repairs were said to have been successful to allow a resumpton of crossings.

That comes six months after CalMac apologised after services were cancelled due to problems with Finlaggan's turbo charger.

One of Scotland's busiest lifeline routes to the Isle of Cumbrae is suspended after the 16-year-old MV Loch Shira, which can carry 36 cars and 250 passengers was also out of action because of a sewage system problem.

CalMac said engineers were working to resolve the issue.

The ferry operator has attempted to reposition an alternative vessel to Largs but said this has not been possible due to weather conditions.

One of Scotland's busiest lineline routes to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis was suspended "due to continued strong westerly winds and associated sea swells". The vital 10.30pm freight sailing from Stornoway has also been cancelled.

Due to forecast bad weather the service to Barra, Port Askaig on Islay, Uig on Skye, Berneray, South Uist and the small isles of Eigg, Muck, Rum and Canna Out for the same reason is the Skye to North Uist, and Armadale to Mallaig crossing.

Adverse weather was directly blamed for a suspension of the service to Kerrera A further 10 services have seen one or more sailings disrupted with CalMac reporting wind speeds of up to 63mph affected the service to Mull.

Only the service to Coll and Tiree was operating normally.

CalMac said: "Cancelling a sailing is a decision we do not take lightly. We know it will inconvenience our customers and the communities we serve. However, the safety of our customers and crew must come first. In this instance, the Master of the vessel has judged it is necessary in response to the assessment of adverse weather conditions."

It comes the day after the transport minister refused to immediately commit to providing extra vessel support for Scotland's beleaguered ferry service as concerns rose over previous disruption which has led to a failure to deliver vital supplies to Scots islands.

Jenny Gilruth, spoke out after Rhoda Grant, the shadow cabinet secretary for the rural economy and tourism called for extra cargo capacity and the purchase of new ferries saying the fault for the chaos was at the door of the SNP government "which has shown itself to be incompetent".

It comes after an unprecedented period of disruption due to a perfect storm of weather, technical issues, Covid restrictions and extended scheduled dry-docking which had severely limited available tonnage across the network.

The Herald revealed that the only grocery store on Colonsay had said it had to go without supplies for at least eight days as a mix of bad weather and vessel issues have slashed lifeline services.

The general store lodged a complaint over a failure in communications with the state-controlled ferry operator CalMac.

Ms Grant said: "Ms Gilruth is new to her role, but given the catastrophic management of ferry networks over the last 15 years she does not have the luxury of a grace period and I have  stressed to her that communities are being failed now.

"While I fully understand that there has been particularly difficult weather this winter, technical issues, Covid restrictions and scheduled dry-docking have also combined to severely limit available tonnage across the network."

Western Isles council leaders warned that a lack of resilience in the services are hitting the delivery of essentials to the islands.

A fortnight ago it emerged issues with short cabling were expected to add further delay and increase costs over the already put back delivery of two green vessels at the centre of Scotland's ferry fiasco.

The Herald:

The ferry destined to serve the Isle of Arran as part of a bid to support Scotland's ageing ferry fleet will be delayed even further after a “blunder” with internal cabling was discovered.

Both Glen Sannox (Hull 801) and Hull 802, being built at the nationalised Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow, rely on a “complex network” of more than 9800 cables.

The cost of both vessels has doubled to around £200m while their delivery is nearly five years late.

CalMac has said unforeseen ferry faults had been partly to blame for disruption along with the impact of recent storms.

Last week it emerged that substantial amount of emergent steelwork had been discovered on one of the ageing ferry fleet's elderly statesman, the 25-year-old MV Clansman in dry dock, and this has had delayed her return.

CalMac confirmed on Monday that MV Lord of the Isles would be covering for Clansman on the South Uist route until at least March 3.

The ferry operator confirmed many sailings could not go ahead on Monday because of winds of up to 51mph.

The only ferry crossings that were classed as operating normally out of the 29 on Monday were the crossings to Uig on the Isle of Skye and the island of Kerrera.

Captain Calum Grains, chief executive of Lerwick Port Authority responded: “We are maintaining an open dialogue with Shore Operations Department staff members on their terms and conditions and contributing positively towards all the discussions around improvements that can be made.”

The department employs around 12 of the authority’s 50 staff and are the only ones hourly paid.

Captain Grains added: “All agree, the department staff’s terms and conditions need to be streamlined. We have made what we believe is a fair and constructive proposal, including bringing their terms and conditions in line with salaried employees, as requested.

“We continue to make every effort to address the issues raised and avoid dispute through the ongoing process of meaningful negotiations.”