After being laid up in Belfast from six months, Stena Caledonia (1981/ 12,619gt) began a delivery voyage to her new Indonesian owners ASDP Ferry in early June. Moved to a berth in the Musgrave Channel at the site of the former Harland & Wolff yard where she was built in 1981, Stena Caledonia undertook sea trials on 27 May and was handed over four days later, to be renamed KMP Port Link by ASDP.
The last of four early 1980s sisterships built for Sealink by Harland & Wolff remaining in UK waters, the former St David became a regular Irish Sea North Channel vessel in the mid-1980s taking the name Stena Caledonia in 1990 after the Stranraer-Larne route came under the Stena Line control. Stena Caledonia’s final sailing to Belfast on 20 November last year also marked the end of ferry operations from Stranraer, next day bringing the opening of Cairnryan Port on the other side of Loch Ryan and introduction of Stena Superfast VII and VIII.
With Stena Navigator (1984/ 15,093gt) sold to Spanish operator Balearia, only the HSS1500 catamaran Stena Voyager (1996) of the former North Channel fleet remains laid up.
