Multiple Isle of Wight ferry services delayed this evening

Crossings between Portsmouth and Fishbourne have been delayed by up to 50 minutes, the ferry company has said.

The 6pm, 7pm and 8pm services from Portsmouth have all been delayed.

The 6pm, 7pm, 8pm and 9pm crossings from Fishbourne are also behind the ferry's timetable.

Wightlink has said in a statement: "Sorry, we are currently experiencing delays of up to 50 mins on our P-F car ferry service.

"We’ll keep you updated with any changes throughout the evening."

Earlier today, seven Wightlink sailings along the same route were cancelled.

It is understood that a problem on Wightlink vessel St Clare was to blame.

Sara Howden, head of customer experience, said: "St Clare has been taken out of service because of a mechanical fault and our engineers are currently working hard to fix it, so the ferry can come back into service as soon as possible.

"We have been contacting customers with bookings to move them to alternative sailings on Victoria of Wight or on our Yarmouth to Lymington route.

Update (7.02pm): St Clare is now back in operation.

A spokesperson for Wightlink said: "St Clare has now returned to service and sailed from Portsmouth to Fishbourne at 18:57 after Wightlink engineers repaired the earlier mechanical fault that led to the cancellation of several crossings.

"We are sorry that many customers had their sailing times changed at short notice and thank them for their patience while our colleagues did their best to help.

"We apologise for the disruption to customers' travel plans."