So it appears they have one useable ferry, but can't use it because it doesn't have a full crew.
The first crew are self-isolating and they have had to bring others back from leave at very short notice and obviously use agency staff to top that up. I know from experience what a covid scare can do to your manpower when you have a risk assessment that goes over and above the legal minimum to try and help prevent larger outbreaks. Cal Mac will be working with the local health protection team now and taking direction from them.So it appears they have one useable ferry, but can't use it because it doesn't have a full crew.
They also have a broken ferry which DOES have a full crew.
Is it just me, or is there not an obvious solution here?
Maybe I was being a little over simplistic, but I do remember from my merchant navy days (a long time ago!) that crews were very much inter-changeable. I would have thought that on similar vessel types, doing the same run, it might have been easy enough to take some of the crew from the Isle of Arran to make up the numbers on the Caledonian Isles. If it was that easy, I assume they would have done it!
I don't know the exact position for them but I do know the skipper on the Isle of Arran, who tells me its the health protection team that are in control now and they decide who does and who doesn't have to isolate but exactly how many that is, I don't know. Organisations like Cal Mac will have very little say in how this is managed and any local rules will now be superceded with decisions taken on a risk basis rather than any government rules whether its England, Scotland or Wales. Getting caught up in the Debacle was frustrating but I do have some sympathy for them as I I'm sure they don't want to cancel a sailing anymore than we do.
