SCOTS islands have been left with a backlog of vehicles and freight as one of Scotland's oldest publicly owned ferries was taken in for repairs due to a fault.
The 21-year-old MV Lochnevis which can carry 190 passengers and 14 cars, had to stop all services on the morning of the Spring Bank Holiday because of the technical issue. It later operated a passenger-only service.
CalMac engineers were still working on the vessel on Tuesday, leading to further disruption.
And although repairs have been carried out, CalMac was warning users that services to Rum and Canna are liable to cancellation at short notice.
Scottish Government-funded CalMac has had to bring in a passenger charter MV Larven to operate on Tuesday so that Lochnevis can get repaired.
CalMac said Lochnevis - which serves the Small Isles - Eigg, Muck, Rum and Canna "has an issue with her thruster so a passenger charter has been arranged".
And on Tuesday evening, while the publicly owned ferry operator said the issue with Lochnevis had been resolved and it was due to be back in service on Wednesday, it was unable to accommodate booked day trip passengers to Rum and Canna.
It offered "apologies for any inconvenience caused".
And added: "To clear the backlog of vehicles and freight an amended timetable will operate to all four islands."
It comes as Nicola Sturgeon announced that the islands are coming down from Level 1 to Level 0 Covid restrictions from June 5. It means that life in the islands should now move nearer to normal.
Technical issues with Lochnevis have resulted in disruption for the past two weeks.
On May 16, calls to Rum and Canna were cancelled.
One Eigg resident has sought CalMac's help, saying he has tried to get to the mainland with a car and has been waiting since Sunday. Launched in 2000, the Lochnevis, cost around £5.5m and was purpose built as part of a £30m European assisted programme to modernise ferry services to the Small Isles.
Some 25% of its construction costs qualified for support from the European Regional Development Fund.
CalMac had also warned that due to an "ongoing navigational issue" at the entrance to Muck pier, all sailings to Muck remain liable to disruption and possible cancellation at short notice until the issue is resolved.
And the service to Eigg had continued to be liable to disruption due to an ongoing issue with the pier infrastructure.
The latest issues come off the back of the country's ferry building fiasco at the now state-owned Ferguson Marine.
The two lifeline ferries being built at Ferguson Marine which were due to be in service in early 2018 are now up to nearly five years behind schedule and their cost is now over double the original £97m contract.
Meanwhile MV Loch Seaforth returned to services for the 10.30pm freight sailing from Stornoway on Monday after being offline for repairs for nearly seven weeks. She successfully completed her sea trials over the weekend.
The return of CalMac's largest vessel has come after complaints of a cancellation of a freight sailing on Lewis at the weekend - leaving behind at least seven articulated lorries - three with loads of salmon.
CalMac said on Wednesday morning that Lochnevis will operate the following timetable today:- Depart Mallaig 1010 Arrive Rum 1130 Depart Rum 1150 Arrive Canna 1250 Depart Canna 1310 Arrive Muck 1445 Depart Muck 1505 Arrive Eigg 1540 Depart Eigg 1600 Arrive Mallaig 1720
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