The Ben-my-Chree is back in service after essential repairs to one of its vehicle car decks forced the cancellation of Friday’s earlier sailings.

This evening’s Douglas to Heysham trip will go ahead as scheduled at 7.15pm, but the return journey from the Lancashire port will now depart at 1am instead of 1.45am with adverse weather forecast. Passengers are asked to check-in no later than 12.15am.

Steam Packet Company managing director Brian Thomson said: ’We’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to all those who have been affected. We fully appreciate the inconvenience of changes to travel plans and work hard to minimise disruptions. Ben-my-Chree has an excellent reliability and punctuality record over many years of service (2021: 96.9% reliability and 94.3% punctuality) and all the ship’s crew and shore-based teams work round-the-clock to maintain that record by having her back in service as quickly as possible.

’MV Arrow was on standby to help with freight over the weekend in case the essential repairs were to take longer, again demonstrating the importance of fleet resilience in meeting the unique demands of the Isle of Man’s sea services’ needs.’