Malta’s traditional Carnival exodus to Gozo for a weekend of revelry in Nadur was thrown into serious doubt due to severe weather conditions yesterday.

Malta’s weather websites had predicted that this weekend would bring rain and gale force winds. Many woke up yesterday to realise that the predictions were quite true as the strong winds and rains that started during the night continued during the morning too.

Gozo Channel announced early that it had suspended the ferry service from Cirkewwa due to severe North Westerly winds and extreme rough sea. The waves and swells battered the quays so badly that in order to ensure passenger safety, only the Sa’ Maison ferry service was operated.

The first service left Sa’ Maison at 9am while another was scheduled for 1pm. By that time a steady queue of vehicles lined the Msida coast road. It steadily got longer as the news spread that the next ferry would leave at 5pm. The other ferry was still holed up in Cirkewwa.

At about 2pm, the queue went all the way round to Ta’ Xbiex. It was orderly and controlled by the police.

At about 3pm, rumours started to circulate that the service had resumed from Cirkewwa with a shuttle service running to make up for the backlog in traffic.

TMID tried in vain to contact the Gozo Channel information line from 3pm till 4.15pm, but the lines were jammed. A source confirmed that he had got through and that the Cirkewwa line had resumed normal service. Once the mad rush of telephone calls had subsided at about 4.20pm, all lines were fully functional. A spokesman said that the ferry had resumed service between 3.30pm and 4pm.

The spokesman also said that the ferry was going to operate on a shuttle basis as required.

Late last night, the queue to board the ferry to Gozo from Cirkewwa went back to Ghadira.