Epsilon on Berth 1 at Europort for some reason?
Presumably the reason why the afternoon sailing from Pembroke Dock is slightly behind schedule.

Irish Ferries update:
20th July at 16.40 hours.

The MV Isle of Inishmore is expected to arrive in Rosslare this evening at 19.10 hours.

The vessel is expected to sail from Rosslare this evening at 20.45 hours.

The normal offloading of new cars and vans. Epsilon returns to Rosslare to offload after its Cherbourg to Dublin sailing  .

Sometimes (quite often) they cannot offload the cars quick enough and the IOI is delayed.

Only realised today that it returns to Rosslare having unloaded in Dublin, always assumed it called on the way to Dublin, the Visentini's must run on fresh air to make that trip pay for itself!

Epsilon does this every two weeks in summer months.

This usually happens when Oscar Wilde has not sailed from Cherbourg on a Sunday afternoon,

It could be a while before Superfast ferries begin their Florida - Cuba service,

Both John Kerry and his cuban counterpart have indicated it could be a while before us citizens can travel to Cuba.

Only realised today that it returns to Rosslare having unloaded in Dublin, always assumed it called on the way to Dublin, the Visentini's must run on fresh air to make that trip pay for itself!

They near enough do compared to many vessels!

It could be a while before Superfast ferries begin their Florida - Cuba service,

Both John Kerry and his cuban counterpart have indicated it could be a while before us citizens can travel to Cuba.

Around 30,000 a year already do for the sole purpose of tourism, despite it being illegal.   Additionally some 600,000 mostly Cuban-Americans also visit Cuba every year using private charter flights by exploiting a well known loophole.  The ferry link is more important from a cargo point of view at present anyway, with it now being possible for certain goods to be transported between the two countries as they are no longer covered by the trade embargo.  Much of the hold up with ferry licences appears to be on the Cuban side, however Baja ferries, Balaeria, and Superfast (among others) now all have licences issued by the U.S.  However, most of the restrictions on the Cuba side relating to Cubans visiting the US have now gone.  Politically, things are moving very fast - the opening of a U.S. Embassy in Cuba in particular is going to be a huge step, and unthinkable not so long ago.  Jet Blue also recently opened the first scheduled air service to Cuba from The U.S. recently.

Anyone know whats up with the Ioi. Technical issues according to the website?

I understand that Irish Ferries have extended the lease on the Epsilon for another 12 months to november 2016. No other details available at this time.

Epsilon had 150 cars , Caravans and RVs on last night sailing.
 
Passenger space was a a premium but plenty of lower vehicle deck space available if required.

Nice clean ship with very basic facilities on board,

Nothing for children to keep them occupied apart from cartoons on the television in the
small seated lounge.

The shop will get more things to sell after next week when the new till goes into operation,

This ship does not compare to Superfast X or Swift in terms of passenger comfort , however it is a lot
cheaper and less complicated to handle and especially on the freight side.

I was in Pembroke dock on Friday night and i see no reason why Epsilon could not handle this
route for winter 2015 / 2016 if required. There is no length restriction on the berth and as far as i could see it is similar to the berth at Holyheads with steelwork and islands.
 

There is a good chance Irish Ferries will purchase Epsilon at some point and deploy it on the Rosslare - France routes full time , there is mounting speculation that Irish Ferries is going to order an LNG powered half sister to Ulysses for the Dublin - Holyhead service , Ulysses is officially the most reliable car ferry in the world (see Guinness Book of Records) so it was a foregone conclusion that any new vessel for Dublin would be as identical as possible while incorporating technological advancements made since Ulysses was built , from what I gather the issues are where to build it and how long will delivery take.
While Irish Ferries have said nothing officially , the fact that they have viewed virtually every vessel for sale in Europe and beyond and have not purchased anything points in the direction of a new build , and the purchase of Epsilon would be a good fit for their plans for an expanded continental freight service from Rosslare , unless of course Isle of Innisfree returns from the southern hemisphere in 2017 to take up the Rosslare - France services.

Personally I cant see Isle of Inishfree returning. She's popular down under, and is a good work horse sharing a lot of DNA with Norbank and Norbay. Ulysees is an excellent vessel, built by a first class yard (one of the reasons P&O choose Aker to build their new ships). I wouldn't be surprised if Irish Ferries aren't waiting to build a half sister. Cost could be curtailed building it in lets say South Korea, but if Irish Ferries wanted a really good ship, they could go with Fincantieri, who built the Pride of Rotterdam & Pride of Hull, also good timekeepers, with an impressive reliability record. To be honest I think they would be great ships on the Irish Sea.

I agree that if they do go to build with a new ship Irish Ferries will go to a high quality yard over a cheaper Asian alternative for one reason more than any other , they will expect to operate the vessel over its entire design lifetime , just as I suspect Ulysses will never leave Dublin until its time to be beached as it is heavily customised for the route and ports , just as any potential half sister would be , so in that respect high quality in a new build will be essential.

All very interesting and some very good points by everyone. I still feel irish ferries will eventually buy the Epsilon and add accommodation to her . She is far more economical than any of the other vessels in the fleet which goes down very well at board level. So Epsilon has acres of car deck space but lacks the on board facilities especially for Dublin to cherbourg. Taking all this into account I am sure it's being given serious consideration.  I think the oscar Wilde is very old and is very costly to maintain and run therefore if any ship is going I reckon it's Oscar. The swift is not getting any younger and I would say they must look at a replacement especially since they have no compitition from stena .

Irish Ferries will announce their half year results before the end of August,

We might get an insight as to what is going on then.

I agree that Epsilon is likely to be retained for services from ireland to France.

It needs an accomodation block extension,

I believe Oscar Wilde will remain in the fleet for a few years yet.

I would imagine Irish Ferries will hire in a suitable vessel for Rosslare Pembroke to allow IOI come to Dublin until the new build is ready.

Irish Ferries talked about replacing swift in about four years time. I guess they would not go wrong in ordering a bigger Austal vessel perhaps similar to Leonora Christina 113m.

Interesting times.