Passengers on today’s Manannan sailing from Douglas to Liverpool were stuck on the vessel for an hour at the new ferry terminal.

The boat set off from Douglas at 10am and arrived in Liverpool at 1:03pm, but passengers did not leave the vessel until roughly 2pm.

The Steam Packet have confirmed that this was due to issues with the link span at the £70 million terminal.

A spokesperson from the company said: ‘We can confirm passengers and vehicles were unable to discharge from Manannan at the Isle of Man Ferry Terminal in Liverpool due to excessive movement of the link span relative to the vessel.

‘The Master kept passengers informed of the situation and a decision was taken to await high water, after which conditions improved enough to allow discharge.

‘We would like to apologise for the inconvenience for passengers aboard Manannan and those waiting to travel on its return sailing. We are working to minimise any further disruption to the schedule.’

This is not the first disruption to sailing times that has happened today, with a number of other journeys being delayed significantly due to high winds.

The midday Manannan crossing from Liverpool had already been delayed until 3pm to avoid the worst of the weather, but will now be further delayed due to the earlier link span issues.

The return sailing to Merseyside won’t now depart Douglas until roughly 7.30pm.

The Manxman is due back in service this evening after its allision with the harbour in Heysham during the early hours of Wednesday morning.

It is currently en route back to the island and was due to leave Douglas for the Lancashire port at 7.20pm this evening.

However, because of tidal conditions in Douglas it will now depart at 9pm if the weather allows. A final decision as to whether it will sail will be made by 7pm.

This will impact the return sailing at 2.15am.

There’s also disruption to the day’s later Manannan sailings with the evening Liverpool sailing now departing just before midnight.