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With aging ferries delayed sometimes for days, life goes haywire on an island in the Outer Hebrides

||| FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES |||

The text message arrived with an ominous ping as I drove north through a rugged Scottish valley to catch the next day’s boat to the spectacular, remote island of South Uist.

Because of “technical issues,” my crossing was canceled, wrote the ferry company, and there would be no trip on this route for the next five days. Politely, but firmly, the company’s phone staff also insisted that my trip was a no go.

Until suddenly they changed course. A little later, a call came in offering a different crossing that would add three hours’ drive time to my journey. But at least it was sailing.

Getting to South Uist — 25 miles, or about 40 kilometers as the crow flies, off the coast of northwest Scotland — always required time and a little patience, but now it feels like travel roulette.

In theory, it can be reached on 10 ferry crossings a week, in three hours and 30 minutes. But so frequent is the disruption to the ferry from Mallaig, on the mainland, to Lochboisdale, on South Uist, that hoteliers fume about canceled bookings and islanders fret about missing travel connections or funerals on the mainland.

The underlying cause is the botched renewal of the aging fleet of boats serving around 50 Scottish ports and harbors — a saga routinely referred to as the nation’s “ferry fiasco.”

Blame for expensive failings has been directed at multiple sources: the Scottish government, which owns the ferry company, Caledonian MacBrayne, known as CalMac; the ferry firm itself; other transport authorities; and tardy boat builders.

While many islands have suffered, tempers are particularly frayed on South Uist, population around 1,400, part of the Outer Hebrides island chain. It offers outstanding wildlife, walking and fishing, a slower pace of life, striking — sometimes desolate — scenery, and turquoise seas lapping at white sandy beaches.

But its economy is being “absolutely devastated,” said Stephen Peteranna, 65, the managing director of Isles Hotel Group, with three hotels in the region, one of which would have to close for a week in June, the high season, after a ferry disruption prevented a coach of visitors arriving, prompting another group to cancel.

Mr. Peteranna recalled how one guest checked in only to receive a message from CalMac warning that the afternoon sailing to the mainland would be the last before a four-day stoppage. “He went straight back out to the car and left,” Mr. Peteranna said.

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