Both Red Funnel and Wightlink suffered cancellations in early January when the area was struck by Storm Henk, with wind speeds of up to 94mph recorded at The Needles. Even in the more sheltered Southampton Water and Solent there were problems for Red Funnel, with the Southampton-West Cowes Red Jet high-speed passenger operation-’s sailings suspended for almost six hours from mid-afternoon into the evening on 2 January. There were more problems when Storm Jocelyn passed through on 23 January.
Red Jet 7 (2018/363gt) should have returned from annual refit on 24 January, but there was a fiveday delay. With Red Jet 4 hit by a technical failure to her starboard engine, a revised schedule using Red Jet 6 (2016/36gt) was extended until 26 January.
Wightlink sailings from Portsmouth were less badly hit. With St Clare (2001/5,359gt) already away for refit, St Faith (1989/3009gt) had to be taken out of service on 7 January after smoke was detected in one of her passenger saloons as she arrived at Portsmouth. This meant the Portsmouth-Fishbourne service was down to a single ship, run by the fleet’s largest vessel, Victoria of Wight (2018/8,200gt).