Cumbrae Support Team are warning visitors to check ferry times, as people are being left stranded on the island during the sunny weather.

The last ferry from Cumbrae Monday to Thursday is at 8.30pm however people have been incorrectly reading the timetable and waiting until 10.30pm, a service which only runs of a Friday.

The support team have had to roll in to action, offering help in finding stranded visitors a place to stay for the night.

Capital letters are used on the timetables to explain changes in ferry times on certain days, however seem to be causing misunderstandings from visitors.

Support team volunteer Bob Campbell said: “People are out enjoying the weather and understandably want to stay for longer, but they need to read the times properly.

“The amount of people missing the last ferry home is increasing simply because they haven’t read the timetable displayed at the bus stop properly.

“We are happy to help people, but it is a problem that is easily avoided.

“The issue is that at this time of year the island accommodation is often completely booked up, making it more difficult to find people somewhere to stay.

“We try and find them accommodation, or we have a hall for emergencies or often people are directed to me as I have flats which have been used in emergency situations.”

A Calmac spokesperson said: “Using capital letters to denote changes to the standard timetable is normal practice across all our 28 published timetables.

“It is a clear and consistent way of highlighting additional services.

“Since this is the first time this has ever been raised with us as an issue, we will monitor passenger feedback to see if it is a wider concern for passengers across all our other routes.”

Noting the hard work of the team Bob says that situations such as this make him proud at what the support team have to offer the island

He added: “We have so much equipment that people are unaware of, we have camp beds in our drop-in centre, sleeping bags and the whole team really pull together to offer what they can.

“Most of the issues are now stemming from people reading the times wrong but some people just get carried away in the pub and miss it.

“In these cases, we offer a sleeping bag and show them shelters to sleep but that’s it, we shouldn’t have to go out of our way in instances like this.”

Bob says that this is not the only problem they have had to deal with during the sunny weather, as the resilience squad have delivered refreshments to unprepared visitors.

He added: “With the weather as good as it has been people are not coming prepared, not only are they missing the last ferry, but they don’t have supplies with them to be waiting in long ferry queues.

“Often people are having to sit for long periods of time in hot cars and are becoming dehydrated.

“At times we have went around shops and asked if they can spare any water, myself and the team filled tea urns with water and ice to hand out to people in cars.”

Whilst the team have a small fund to help tide them over, the group is made up of volunteers and are constantly looking for new recruits.