This evening's Manxman sailing to Heysham and the return journey in the early hours of Friday morning have been cancelled because of forecast strong winds.

The sailings are the latest to be cancelled by the Steam Packet after Wednesday evening's and Thursday's earlier crossings to Lancashire were also scrapped because of the adverse conditions in the Irish Sea.

As it stands, tomorrow morning's 8.45am trip from the island to Heysham is set to go ahead as scheduled, but with a slightly later arrival time in Lancashire of 1pm to allow for suitable berthing conditions in the port.