Relieved passengers, left to right, Odette Carey, Irene Hicks, Michael Hicks junior and Michelle Hicks at the Alderney Sailing Club, where all were taken for a hot drink after last night’s drama in Braye Harbour. (0841737)

FIFTY-NINE ferry passengers were stranded in Alderney last night after the Victor Hugo hit rocks in Braye Harbour.

It took three vessels more than an hour to manoeuvre the ferry to safety after it drifted onto rocks shortly after setting off for Guernsey.

The Manche Iles vessel was on the final leg of its Guernsey to Lessay Fair day trip and had started leaving the harbour shortly before 8pm, just 20 minutes after dropping off 84 Alderney passengers.

Engine and steering problems, as well as tricky sailing conditions, are thought to have caused the ferry to hit rocks in the Blacksmith Shop area of the harbour.

Passenger Irene Hicks, from St Peter Port, described the incident.

‘We were just bobbing around the harbour, bouncing off the rocks and everything.’

Mrs Hicks, who was travelling with friends Odette Carey and Christina Browning and family members Michael Hicks senior and junior, Thomas Hicks, Michelle Hicks and Shanaya Hicks, said the ferry should have been stood down in Alderney.

‘We were told in France that there were steering problems and had already been delayed getting to Alderney.

‘They should have just dropped everybody off in Alderney before trying to get out as there were clearly things wrong with the boat.’

Guernsey harbour master Captain Peter Gill has overall control of navigational safety in Bailiwick waters.

He said last night that an inquiry into the incident would take place but that it was too early to say whether it would be done locally or by the Maritime Investigation Branch.

Capt. Gill said that as the incident was in Alderney’s harbour, that island’s harbour master, Steve Shaw, would take the lead on the matter in consultation with him.