Oceana and Emerald Princess

With over 5,500 guests on board the Emerald Princess and Oceana, St Peter Port harbour was a busy place to be today. Tenders were running all day with Emerald Princess calling on the services of the Herm Trident, and Oceana coping on her own. Once the morning mist cleared the sun shone all day so the guests could enjoy their time ashore, before leaving in the early evening for Southampton.

St Peter Port gives plenty of photo opportunities with the old harbour forming the sea front of the capital. These guests from the Emerald Princess are enjoying themselves, but seem oblivious to the German gun position on the left from the Occupation.

Tenders always seem busy at lunchtime, even on a full day's stay.  This one returns to the Emerald Princess as the Condor Vitesse heads north on her fast passage to Weymouth. Both liners have been chasing one another on a 7 day cruise from Southampton to Spain, the Gironde in France, and then via Guernsey back to Southampton.

Delphin, Oceana

The liner season is well under way in Guernsey this month with 2 more visitors today, the Delphin, and the Oceana on a short two night cruise from Southampton and back again. The Delphin was built in 1974 as a car ferry for Black Sea traffic and converted to a cruise liner in the mid-80s.   She has had an eventful history including being on a dry dock that sunk, but all is well today.

Being a Bank Holiday weekend in Guernsey and a warm Sunday,  locals and visitors took advantage of the weather and headed over to the Island of Herm to enjoy the beaches and the peaceful atmosphere. The Herm Trident is returning to Guernsey on one of the last trips of the day with the passengers making the most of the open deck space to top up their tan.

From the heights above St Peter Port, known locally as the Blue Mountains, both liners with their guests on board prepare to leave for their next destinations; the Oceana to Southampton, and the Delphin to Le Havre.
The orientation plate on the wall shows distances to places visible from this viewpoint, although the trees do need cutting. Close by is Les Cotils teashop with a panorama over most of the Channel Islands and St Peter Port.

Oceana

The Oceana's long day at sea on her way from Le Havre was made even longer as her arrival time was delayed to accommodate the detonation of a un-exploded mine! The  RCAF mine was dropped on Guernsey in World War 2. The mine was successfully detonated late evening by a Royal Navy bomb disposal team. The harbour work boat Sarnia stands by with the Navy detonation team on board.

The Oceana seemed to follow the current fashion of long days at sea or early arrivals with no disembarkation at their destination. She anchored off St Peter Port long after the sun had set but the early risers amongst the guests this morning had the opportunity to see sunrise.

The Oceana was on a short 4 night cruise from and to Southampton and left St Peter Port shortly after 6.00 pm. Twelve hours later she will be arriving in Southampton and their taster cruise will be over. The season is starting to slow down but over the next few weeks there are still thousands of guests yet to sample the delights of Guernsey.

Oceana

It's that time of the year for the repeat visits with the Oceana on her way back from an Iberian Peninsular cruise making her last port of call St Peter Port. The weather is again glorious with many day trippers arriving on the fast ferry from Poole. They get a shorter day in Jersey because of the extra journey time but there seems plenty on the Condor Express as she heads south.

On a high tide in St Peter Port the view of Condor Express and the tenders shows the development to the north of St Peter Port known as Admiral Park, The tenders from the Oceana continued all through their stay but there were queues even in the middle of the day.

This small jetty at the Halfway provides the viewpoint for the Oceana on the easterly anchorage. The Halfway is known as such because it's, well, halfway between the two main harbours on Guernsey.

MSC Opera, Oceana

Two regulars today, the Oceana arriving first on a Southampton, Zeebrugge, Guernsey, Southampton cruise along with the MSC Opera arriving in the early afternoon on a cruise from Spain, to the Netherlands and then south again. The helmsman on the Oceana tender has been in the job 25 years, and on a day like this it looks to be a good job.

Guernsey still continues to bask in a heatwave but some of the guests on the MSC Opera prefer to stay on board the ship and enjoy the luxury cabins on the stern with the bigger balconies.

With the capacity of these liners there was plenty of tender traffic going to and fro and the Oceana being on her usual easterly anchorage had the longer ride. The MSC Opera was the last to leave Guernsey and was on her way south to Vigo where she will arrive on Saturday morning. Both liners will be back at the end of the month, hopefully still in good weather.

Oceana

After the warmest weekend this year P&O's Oceana is at the easterly anchorage off St Peter Port on a short two night cruise from and to Southampton. The days now produce a lot of heat haze and the beaches of north coast of Herm are barely visible.

After a full day in Guernsey the crew of the Oceana with all guests aboard get the landing stage all closed up and prepare for departure. The Oceana was built by an Italian yard and entered service in 2002, and has capacity for over 2,200 guests

Holiday makers get a last view of the ship as she leaves for the overnight trip back to Southampton and a early morning arrival.  The tables at La Vallette on the east coast of Guernsey provide a good view of all the shipping and islands and keep the sun in the early evening of mid summer.  Later in the month Oceana will return to the Island as part of a cruise visiting Spain and Portugal.