The Hebridean Celtic Festival was expected to have been the stage for a trial run for Sunday sailings on the route between Stornoway and Ullapool, but Calmac said they weren't asked properly. Did someone forget the magic word? PLEASE.
I have posted about this before, and in my opinion we could do with Sunday sailings (even one return crossing) during the summer season. Planes have been flying in and out of the airport for a number of years, the Sunday ferry to Berneray has crossed the Sound of Harris for 16 months now and other islands in Na h-Eileanan Siar are served by CalMac on Sunday. Legally, therefore, opponents to Sunday sailings haven't got a leg to stand on.
I do appreciate, in two senses of that word, the special nature of Sunday on Lewis. It is good to have at least one day when the cars aren't flying round your ears, and you're not compelled to file through the aisles in a supermarket in a forlorn quest for consumer valhalla. I'd like it to stay that way. It is ominous though that the one shop in Stornoway that does open on Sundays is doing a roaring trade.
I hope someone in the Comhairle manages to use the words: "Can we have a ferry sailing on Sunday PLEASE" in correspondence with Calmac one of these days, if only to anticipate the 2008 summer season.
