There was one point last night when no ferries were able to run due to the weather, but then Wightlink decided to run through the night on a trip by trip basis. This in from them, in their own words. Ed
Wightlink Ferries kept on sailing to and from the Isle of Wight on Valentine’s night 2014.
Captain Tom Vincent (an experienced Captain in his first year as a Wightlink Captain) and the crew of the St Faith braved the worst of the winds gusting at more than 70 miles an hour and carried more than 700 passengers across the Solent when all other ferries had stopped running.
Ferry held in the Solent for two hours
Earlier in the evening, another of Wightlink’s ferries, the St Clare was forced to wait outside Portsmouth Harbour for two hours at 7.30pm because conditions were too difficult for her to enter the port. St Clare then took her passengers back to Fishbourne and tied up there.
Captain Vincent and his crew then came to the rescue and managed to take the passengers back across the Solent, mooring safely at Portsmouth’s International Ferryport, further into the harbour, before resuming overnight sailings from Wightlink’s port at Gunwharf.
Listen to Captain Tom talking about the experience
