IT is fair to assume that it must be a frustrating time living on Scotland’s islands at the moment.

The well-documented ferry problems have ruined many plans and businesses must be tearing their hair out at the unreliability that will affect their livelihoods on a daily basis.

CalMac’s fleet at times resembles a schoolboy’s home-made vessel for sailing in the park pond, held together by string and sticky tape before it finally succumbs to the dark depths.

It is hard not to imagine folk standing at island piers in trepidation at the arrival of the ferry in case half it had fallen off half way across the Minch or Clyde.

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Even the great naval commander Admiral Lord Nelson himself would struggle to do anything worthwhile with the current CalMac fleet, given their age and repeated........

© Herald Scotland