Hamnavoe due back in service on Thursday

Serco NorthLink have a “high degree of confidence” that the Hamnavoe will be back in service tomorrow, Thursday.

The ship made a return to Orkney waters on Monday, after steaming north from Rosyth where the fitting of a replacement crankshaft took the ship off the Pentland Firth route for a month.

However, despite engine trials going well off the Fife coast following the completion of the repairs to the starboard engine, checks on arrival in Orkney revealed further damage, this time to the vibration damper.

It had been planned that the ship would resume her service on Tuesday, three days earlier than originally announced by the company, however the ship left Orkney and headed for Scrabster instead.

Stuart Garrett, managing director of Serco NorthLink Ferries, said this morning: “Our technical team worked overnight to fit the starboard main engine vibration damper on the MV Hamnavoe. We will shortly be carrying out sea trials from Scrabster, with the intention of resuming full service tomorrow as originally planned.”

“Once again we apologise to customers for any inconvenience.”