The wind came off the harbour at thirty-five knots on Tuesday morning, snapping the pennants on the Port Authority flagpole and sending spray across the lower quays in sheets. It was the second day of the annual March gales — arrived, as Harbour Master Cornelius Ashby noted with characteristic understatement, “somewhat ahead of schedule.”

Five vessels are now sheltering in harbour, up from three on Monday. Two are Sarenne-routed cargo carriers — the Aldara and the Fernleigh Cross — both carrying mixed eastern goods and both unable to approach the quayside until conditions moderate. Three are coastal traders waiting for the southern approaches to clear.

Ashby extended the harbour advisory through Wednesday evening. “The forecast suggests moderating conditions from Thursday,” he said from his third-floor office overlooking the harbour. “But the forecast suggested the same for yesterday.”

The Ferry

For the 14,000 daily commuters who have been routing via the Coldharbour Viaduct since the Fernwick Bridge closure on 21 February, the gales are a frustration layered upon a frustration. The emergency Ashwater ferry, approved on 25 February and contracted to Ashwater River Services for 940,000 florins, was supposed to have completed its crew drills by now.

Instead, the Thornhill Star — the 220-passenger vessel designated for the primary service — sits at its mooring at the Municipal Works depot, rocking gently in the chop.

Gwen Alderly, managing director of Ashwater River Services, said the pontoon mooring at Bramblegate Steps had “held well overnight” despite sustained gusts. The floating pontoon, installed on Saturday, is designed for river conditions rather than tidal harbour exposure, and Monday night’s weather provided its first real test.

“The pontoon is sound,” Alderly said. “The vessel is ready. The crew is trained. We are waiting for the river to cooperate.”

Drills will resume Thursday if winds moderate as forecast. The Friday 6 March launch date remains unchanged.

“Fourteen thousand people need this ferry,” Alderly said. “We are not going to be late.”

The Viaduct

In the meantime, those fourteen thousand commuters continue to cross the Ashwater via the Coldharbour Viaduct, two kilometres north of the stricken Fernwick Bridge. The viaduct, reinforced by Hallam & Stroud in 2019, was designed for approximately 8,000 daily crossings. It has been handling nearly double that for eleven days.

Transit Authority figures show the number 12 tram — which crosses the viaduct — is running at 140 per cent capacity during morning and evening peaks. Journey times from Thornhill to Bramblegate, normally eighteen minutes via Fernwick Bridge, now average forty-two minutes via the viaduct route. The Lower Ashwater Footbridge, which carries pedestrian traffic only, is handling an estimated 3,000 daily crossings — up from its usual 800.

Malcolm Stroud of Hallam & Stroud, whose firm reinforced the viaduct, said the additional load “is within design tolerance, but not a condition we would recommend sustaining indefinitely.” The viaduct’s structural assessment is scheduled for review at the end of March.

Fernwick Bridge itself remains closed. Hallam & Stroud’s full engineering assessment, delivered on 24 February, confirmed that all four suspension cables have stress fractures. Full cable replacement will take eight to twelve months and cost 55 to 65 million florins. The bridge, opened in 1914, had its cables reinforced in 1968 and again in 1991.

Friday’s ferry cannot come soon enough.