A Portadown woman, who was stranded on a ferry for over 15 hours amid Storm Darragh, has thanked ‘amazing’ Stena Line staff for managing the “terrible” situation.
Debbie Webb and her partner had been in London on holiday, before travelling to Cairnryan to catch the ferry home to Belfast.
However, little did they know that Storm Darragh was going to kick off on Friday night, bringing widespread disruption across the UK and Ireland, and resulting in a rare ‘red’ weather warning for parts of the UK.
As winds raged, their two hour boat ride quickly turned into 17 hours, as the ferry was unable to dock in Belfast due to the inclement weather.
Debbie has since spoken to Armagh I about the experience that she, and other passengers, faced just off the Belfast coast.
“The rain was terrible,” she recalled. “We’d been getting really bad weather warnings on the radio down the road the whole day, so we assumed Stena Line was going to cancel. We still got on but we ended up stranded just before we were due to get off. It was crazy!”
Debbie says the staff onboard helped keep everyone and ease and reduced the stress of the situation.
“The captain was really, really good. He kept making announcements the whole time we were on. He did that at the start to inform everybody that it was delayed and then provided updates the whole time until we were ready to get off.
“It was really dark and rough, you couldn’t really see outside and the water was coming through the doors, so they had it all sealed off by placing towels down. Most people were trying to sleep at that time and they put on breakfast, lunch and dinner for everybody, which was lovely.”
She continued: “We couldn’t fault the staff at all. They provided water and they were walking around with blankets, chocolates, sweets, and for the children on board, they had wee things to colour in and things like that.
“They even put on a wee Christmas quiz near the end and they gave prizes out as well.”
Debbie says that everybody was “shocked” that the delay went on for so long, adding that it made for a “rough” night.
“We thought maybe it was only going to be an hour before we got in. We weren’t expecting it to be as long. In total, it was 17 hours from getting on the boat to getting off.
“The wind was really bad and you couldn’t really go out on deck.”
She adds, however, that the passengers remained calm and collected.
“The overall morale of everybody seemed to be good. There was nobody shouting or giving off or anything like that. There were families with little babies and young children which was bound to be very hard for them.
“Being on that long was quite hard and it did start to get to me a little bit!”
Debbie continued: “I’ve seen a lot of people online commenting giving them grief but they really did step up and make sure everybody was looked after and fed. Stena Line did an amazing job and people shouldn’t be slating them.”
While everybody was relieved to get home, Debbie adds that her partner, who drives a lorry, was back onto a boat again on Sunday night.
She added: “I think he’s just had enough!”