"The ship should be repaired by Wednesday, but I'm not entirely certain," Ruhnu Mayor Raimet Figol told ERR.

The Runö has now been out of service for a week. At the beginning of August, the ship also had a technical malfunction, which, on that occasion, was repaired within a day.

It has become common for the Runö to be out of service for several days at a time in recent years. Ten days is the average, but sometimes the problem lasts longer, Figol said.

The Ruhnu line is currently being served by replacement ship the Nargö, which can carry 48 people. Runö has a capacity of 60 passengers. The replacement ship usually sails on the Naissaare line. Prices on the Ruhnu line remain the same, and there are also other replacement ships available on Naissaare.

The RuhnuRahu festival, one of the major events of the year on the island, is scheduled to take place this weekend (August 22-24). The event should go ahead as normal, Raimet Figol added.

The mayor also emphasized that the problem with the Ruhnu ferry has been going on for years and that the state needs to invest in repairing the ship. He added that the ship has to be brought up to standard with proper equipment purchased to prevent future breakdowns.

The mayor of Ruhnu previously told ERR that the technical problems with the ship are due to both its design and age. The ship has been in service for 14 years and was originally built by the state as a cheaper class of ship.

The Runö has broken down at least once almost every summer for the past five years.

Ruhnu is a remote Estonian island of 11.9 square kilometers in the Gulf of Riga, geographically closer to Latvia's Courland coast than to any point in Estonia. It has an official population of fewer than 150 residents.

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