Hundreds of passengers stuck on Isles of Scilly for up to 4 days following a cruiseferry breakdown at sea are finally making their way back to mainland England.
According to Isles of Scilly Steamship Company, the ship MS Scillonian III is back in action on Sunday, September 1. They also confirmed that there were 800 passengers waiting to sail back from the archipelago 28 mi (45 km) off the Cornwall's coast.
Travellers have been stuck on the island while would-be visitors have been unable to get there since both engines on the vessel broke down off Land's End Wednesday morning (August 28). The ferry was escorted back to Penzance by RNLI.
Voyages were cancelled for Thursday, then for Friday as Isles of Scilly Steamship Company said it hoped to have the ship back on the route Saturday morning. But later Saturday crossings were also cancelled because a replacement part arrived with a crack.
According to Chief executive, Stuart Reid, the engineers had been "again working through the night tirelessly doing final checks" and the ship would sail today at 3:30 p.m. Some of the passengers had been booked but most would be people who had been stranded. The latest numbers were that there were 800 people due to come off the islands.