Strong winds cause further ferry disruption

All of Friday's sailings will be subject to delays because of Thursday's disruption

Ferry travel between the Isle of Man and Lancashire has been further disrupted due to strong winds over the Irish Sea.

The 08:45 BST sailing of the Manxman to Heysham and its 14:15 return were scrapped by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.

The vessel's 19:45 journey to the Lancashire port was also pushed back to 21:00, with knock-on delays for all of Friday's sailings.

The disruption follows the cancellation of the scheduled return journey to the Lancashire port by the island's main passenger vessel on Wednesday evening.

Isle of Man Post Office confirmed postal deliveries to the island from the UK were delayed, but items posted locally for Isle of Man deliveries were affected.

The post office said no mail had left the island on Thursday morning as a result of the cancellations and items collected on Wednesday would be transported to the UK in the afternoon but were "unlikely to reach Royal Mail’s network in time for delivery" on Friday.

The cancellations also meant no newspapers were available on the island on Thursday, the wholesale distributor for the island confirmed.

Sailings to and from Liverpool on the fastcraft Manannan have been unaffected.