The ferocious storms that rattled across the United Kingdom over the Christmas and New Year period created havoc on lifeline ferry services serving the Scottish Islands as well as other routes to Ireland, across the North Sea, to the Isle of Man, Isle of Wight etc, and even on cross-river services such as the King Harry Ferry in Cornwall.

The disruption was so bad on the CalMac services that the 499gt/2013 built Hallaig and 5,506gt/2001 built Hebrides undertook sailings on Christmas Day to get people and supplies to their destinations. Meanwhile the Mallaig trial service is proving unreliable due to restrictions on entering Mallaig in a swell. There have also been a lot of cancellations by the 3,504gt/1989 built Lord of the Isles affecting the Barra and Uist services and the pre-Christmas storm trapped her in Lochboisdale for a time.

Among other efforts to counteract the storms, the 7,606gt/1998 built Clipper Ranger ran an additional sailing to clear a backlog of freight. The worst of the storms also caused cancellations on cross channel/Spanish services from Portsmouth, Poole and Plymouth, cross-Solent ferries and Irish Sea routes. The cancellation of sailings on Christmas Eve also saw the 12,747gt/1998 built Ben-My-Chree operate an additional 2100hrs departure from Douglas on 24th December that returned from Heysham at 0300 on Christmas Day morning. The relentless bad weather took its toll on the ship with her fin stabilisers being damaged. It was announced on 9th January that she would require dry docking on two occasions to remove and refit the stabiliser. The provisional dates were 17th-20th January and 8th-10th February. Ro-Ro cover will be provided for one round trip on 19th January and 9th February whilst the 5,743gt/1998 built Manannan will provide passenger services, weather permitting.

Technical problems have also added to CalMac’s woes with the 3,296gt/1994 built Isle of Arran fouling a propeller leaving Colonsay on 4th January resulting in her withdrawal at Oban for repairs. The 5,626gt/2011 built Finlaggan maintained services in her absence.The 6,753gt/1995 built Isle of Lewis then missed a trip on 6th January due to a fuel pump failure. The poor weather also disrupted Brodick-Ardrossan sailings whilst the 5,499gt/1998 built Clansman deputised for the regular vessel, the 5,221gt/1993 built Caledonian Isles. The ship was diverted to Gourock when poor weather apparently made Ardrossan inaccessible thus stirring up a storm with the locals. The introduction of the Hallaig on 25th November was not without incident as she only managed two runs on her debut, tried again on 29th and eventually entered full service on 2nd December. The 4,719gt/1988 built Isle of Mull received a £450,000 refit in December at Aberdeen.