Sea Explorer I

The Sea Explorer arrived this morning from Portsmouth with the rising sun blinding anybody looking towards Sark to see her come up to the anchorage. One of the smaller liners visiting Guernsey this year, she is a recent fleet addition to AP Touring and Noble Caledonian  joining her sister ships, Island Sky and Caledonian Sky.

The St Peter Port pilot marks the position where the Sea Explorer will anchor on her half day visit to Guernsey before moving closer to Herm during the afternoon. Tomorrow she will leave for Sark, and then onto Alderney.

While the guests of the Sea Explorer were on Herm, they probably visited Shell Beach which yesterday morning was bathed in sunshine. A walk along the east coast of the island from Belvoir Bay brings this view of the beach, with no one in sight on this spring morning. The shells which make up the sand are carried to the beach by the Gulf Stream

Costa Pacifica

The Costa Pacifica left Savona in the north west corner of Italy on the 18th April and will arrive in Kiel, Germany on the 28th April. This morning her guests enjoyed Guernsey having last sailed from Porto in Portugal.

Unbeknown to the guests on board they were going to be the first real test for the new pontoon and tendering area in St Peter Port. The Costa Pacific with a capacity for 3,500 guests was the largest to visit so far this year, and on a half day visit, which squeezes the tender traffic into a very short period, it was always going to be a challenge.

The new crossing point on the Albert Pier proved a problem as local officials wished to keep the road clear. This pushed queues back towards town, and stopped the more orderly queuing arrangement of previous years. One of the advantages of the new area is that there are cafes close by which some guests took advantage of, rather than spending their time in Guernsey in a queue.

Speaking to a Costa shoreside crewman, there seems to be a limit to the number of tenders allowed to be used at any one time causing a tailback of guests. The local Sark ferry, Sark Venture, was chartered which helped to ease the situation and speed up the process. The Costa Pacifica left early afternoon for Amsterdam where she should arrive at midday tomorrow.

Saga Pearl II

The Saga Pearl II put in a rare appearance at St Peter Port today arriving after a overnight journey from nearby St Malo. With the decks looking rather empty, Herm is in the background, a short 20 minute ferry ride from the harbour. The ferries are now the opposite side of the harbour to the current landing pontoons for tenders, though booked tours for Harm and Sark should go to the inter island ferries directly,

The arrivals area continues to change with the new locally infamous grey flower planters putting in multiple appearances. Behind these empty planters, called various names in the local media,  is the newly cleaned Prince Albert statue which has lost its green colour with is the only colour that many locals knew.

The Saga Pearl II prepares to leave St Peter Port with guests ready for their last night on board as tomorrow morning she will be in Southampton at the end of her cruise. Saga operates smaller ships which give a different experience to the larger ones.

Anthem of the Seas

La Conchee reef, on the west coast of Guernsey,  in January 1974 was the scene of a tragic shipping disaster when the Cypriot ship Prosperity was driven onto the reef by hurricane force winds with the loss of all on board. On the morning after, the ship could be seen broken in two.  In L'Eree car park on the west coast of Guernsey is a memorial to the disaster.

Forty one years later the Anthem of the Seas, the world's third largest cruise ship, sails past the west coast of Guernsey with La Conchee Reef in the foreground. With a capacity of almost 5,000 guests, robotic bar tenders, surf simulator, and virtual sky diving machine it is a ship that could never have been dreamed of that January morning in 1974. The Anthem of the Seas will be christened tomorrow, 20th April 2015, in Southampton, its base for the summer of 2015, before heading to its permanent home port in New Jersey's Cape Liberty Cruise Port from the winter.

Azores and Voyager

In July 1956 the first major peacetime passenger liner disaster since the loss of the Titantic occurred  at the Nantucket Light Vessel, the inbound and outbound focal point for shipping sailing to New York. The bow of the Swedish liner Stockholm sliced into the Italian liner Andrea Doria, causing the Stockholm's bow to be battered into nothing and the Doria to sink, with some loss of life. The Stockholm at the time was the smallest passenger ship operating on the North Atlantic route. Today after many name changes and owners, (as well as recently being impounded in Lisbon,) the Azores arrived at the anchorage off St Peter Port.

There were two liners in today, the other being the Voyager, which prompted two lanes at the new pontoon. I think they will need a Disney queuing system when the Costa Pacifica arrives next weekend. The 'small' on the road is not a comment on the size of the liners, but the "small" cars that were recently allowed to park there.

Guernsey has enjoyed ten days of wonderful weather with temperatures reaching 24C/75F, but today as the guests came ashore to enjoy their visit, the cloud got thicker, the rain came, and the wind got stronger. With the two liners viewed from the Salerie, with the Voyager in the background, the day did not look inviting. So much so that the Voyager sailed early at lunch time for La Coruna to miss the worsening weather.

It was just on tea time with the last tender back at the liner, and the pilot on board, that the Azores hoisted anchor and set sail for the Isle of Scilly with the wind and rain increasing. At the harbour the landing pontoon was towed away to allow dredging to continue at the position of the new landing area. In the background is Brehon Tower, built in the Napoleonic wars to protect the entrance to St Peter Port. Local rib tours take you for a close up look.

Marco Polo

The blossom is out on the cliffs, the sun is shining, the sea is calm, the cafes are busy, the new pontoon is welcoming more guests from the Marco Polo. It's April in Guernsey, what a place to live! Just above Saints Bay on the south coast the blossom spills over the cliff path making a arch to walk under as you enjoy the views..

Always popular is the normal bus service that takes the guests from the liners on a coastal drive all the way around the Island, for the cost of a standard bus fare. Why CT Plus does not add more buses to this service when the liners are in town I do not know. Get there early, or late if you want to use this busy route.

With no visiting yachts, the new pontoon really stands out, and shows the short walk from the Marco Polo tender into town, compared to the old, longer walk from by the Herm Trident ferry.

With the sea as calm as this, tender operation was no problem for the guests from the Marco Polo on her Easter Cruise around the British Isles. She left Tresco, on the Isles of Scilly last night and at teatime will leave for Honfleur in Normandy. Those on board the Condor Liberation had a close view of the liner as they made their approach to St Peter Port passing Castle Cornet. The 'Cows Horn' in the foreground, is one of the outlying fortifications of Fort George. With World War 2 and Napoleonic fortifications on top, and a German tunnel underneath (now a Aquarium), it's only a 15 minute walk from the new pontoon, giving good views of the anchorage and the east coast cliffs.

Oriana

An ill wind blows some people no good but not everyone loses out. For the guests on board the Oriana returning from a two week cruise to witness the Solar Eclipse, they had a extra night on board because the ship was unable to dock in Southampton, despite having two tugs assisting. As a result of the late arrival of the Oriana on its berth in Southampton P & O put the guests expecting to enjoy their cruise to Guernsey and Zeebrugge, in hotels in the area paying for the room and meals. They also have a 50% refund of the cost of their cruise, but miss out on a night on board at sea.

Despite the 24 hour delay, the guests on the Oriana arrived early this morning at the new liner pontoon in St Peter Port with its temporary signage. The weather today started off damp and misty but cleared during the day to enable all to enjoy a full day on the Island.

The last guests leaving the island had no queues to bother about as they stroll along the pontoon to board their tender for the ride to the ship on the more easterly anchorage.

The Oriana looks strange in her part painted new house colours as she waits for her late afternoon departure for Zeebrugge where she will arrive early tomorrow morning. She should be returning to Guernsey in August, hopefully to warmer weather. Good Friday tomorrow and the inter island ferries are busy with weekend guests to Sark and Herm.

Saga Sapphire

That was unexpected, Saga Sapphire should have gone to Jersey today, but as a first port of call from Southampton she arrived in Guernsey early this morning. In the normal way, three days of beautiful spring weather led to the dull morning as the pilot boat, led the Saga Sapphire headed for the anchorage.

 With tenders already being swung out, the decks seemed very empty as she approached the anchorage.

What made this visit special for Guernsey was the fact that the tenders were the first to use the new arrangement for coming ashore, not by the inter island ferries, but on the southern side of the harbour at the end of the Albert Pier, giving a very short walk into town. Hopefully when the season starts in earnest the reception facilities should have improved to avoid guests queuing to get off  the pontoon.

Being a Sunday in Guernsey, and not in the season, shops were shut in town, but guests had the opportunity to see the end of a military parade. This had marched from the site of the Guernsey Militia barracks in the middle of the island to St Peter Port, to commemorate Guernsey men leaving in 1915 to join the Royal Irish Regiment to fight in the Great War.

Aurora

The last Cruise Liner of the 2014 season and no guests came ashore. It was a conference cruise with suppliers "networking" with their clients to do business with them over the coming years. The first of the autumn gales came to Guernsey while the Aurora was in Guernsey, but it was still a good time to enjoy the sunshine between the rain on the moorings at Fermain Bay.

With no tenders to run the Aurora was on the southerly anchorage instead of the normal ones outside of St Peter Port, she looked very lonely Some shops in St Peter Port offered a discount to Aurora guests, I should think they did not have many takers.

Hanseatic

The Hanseatic arrived in Guernsey this afternoon less than a month after making international news as the first non-Russian cruise ship to sail the North West passage. The Hanseatic has the highest ice class for passenger ships enabling her to travel to many destinations that are unreachable by other liners. With the Zodiacs on board the experience is very up close and personal. Not quite so demanding was her approach to the anchorage at St Peter Port, passing the Condor Rapide outbound to St Malo.

The guests on board have had a intense introduction to the Channel Islands with Jersey this morning and Guernsey this afternoon. She left at tea time bound for Bilbao. Next month she will start her season cruising Antarctica before spending Spring in 2015 cruising the Amazon. For such a small liner she does offer many destinations.