Good weather in the bay on Sunday saw the 143,000 ton Regal Princess, a Royal Class cruiseship, anchored south of Pendennis for what was a very smooth cruise call in terms of tendering passengers ashore using the ship’s tenders and a pleasure boat from the FalRiver company.

The 330-metre-long vessel can accommodate 3,560 passengers with 1,346 crew. The ship was scheduled to dock at Portland Port before Falmouth but due to protests taking place at Portland regarding the barge to house asylum seekers destined for the port, the master cancelled the call.

Princess Cruises are extremely important customers for Falmouth and this past two years tendering operations in the bay have been favourable for their ships. Next month the Regal Princess returns along with the Island Princess.

Caribbean Princess will make three calls here in 2024 and Island Princess just one. Emerald Princess makes a total of four calls in 2025.

MSC another top customer have MSC Fantasia, MSC Preziosa and MSC Euribia calling in September and October.

The Norwegian Dawn was due to arrive on Monday to anchor offshore. However. a frontal depression sweeping across the region put paid to that as swell conditions in the bay were far from favourable for tendering people ashore.

The master made a quick decision to abort the call with the ship then proceeding to Portland.