| Hans J Marter and Gavin Morgan 4 January 2008 AS SOUTH easterly storms sweep across the northern isles today (Friday), transport links in Shetland continue to be disrupted.
Ferry operator NorthLink cancelled its sailings tonight and the first cargo boat of the year is not expected to be able to leave Aberdeen for Shetland before tomorrow morning.
Most inter island ferry links in the isles came to a standstill at midday with only Bressay Sound running a full service and Yell Sound a reduced service.
Scheduled flights in and out of Sumburgh airport were only slightly delayed, but Bristow Helicopters, operating out of Scatsta airport, cancelled their flights to offshore oil installations at midday.
Salmon producers in the isles said they expect to be able to shift the first trailers of processed fish by Saturday, while supermarkets hope to be able to restock their shelves over the weekend.
NorthLink managing director Bill Davidson said: "The freight vessel Clare, which is berthed in Aberdeen, is being loaded with essential supplies such as supermarket provisions.
"The plan is that when a weather window appears she can depart immediately for Shetland. However, this is unlikely to be before 8am Saturday.
"We are acutely aware of the effect that this continued spell of weather-induced disruption has on all aspects of island community life. However, safety will always be our top priority." | | Manager at the Somerfield supermarket in Lerwick, Gordon Knox, said: "We are in the same situation as anybody else. We are waiting to see when the next ferry is going to arrive."
The supermarket received its last consignment of stock on Thursday and does not expect the next delivery until Sunday.
"We still have stock at the moment except most of our fresh bread has gone. We will just have to see when the boat gets down and back up as there is no point in bringing up stock if it is going to be out of date," he added.
Meanwhile, the islands' large salmon farming industry said the situation was not critical yet as enough storage facilities for fish were available.
Shetland Aquaculture's general manager David Sandison said: "Obviously we are not getting any fish off the islands. With this kind of weather there is not much harvesting going on either.
"The situation is not critical in terms of perishables. If the bad weather lasts for only couple days it does not really make much odds because there is the capacity to hold fish in cold storage."
Processing manager at Scottish Seafarms' factory in Scalloway, Gordon Drummond, added: "The weather is not disrupting us too much this time because of our harvesting planning.
"I am quite confident that we will be getting fish out of the islands on Saturday, and we are just looking at the weather forecast."
Mr Davidson said NorthLink would consider when to resume normal service tomorrow (Saturday) after receiving detailed forecasts from the Met Office.
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