Shipping report: ‘Tis the end of the cruise season

The final cruise ship of the 2013 season will roll into Hamilton at the end of this week.

The Pacific Princess will arrive on Friday morning from Fort Lauderdale in the US.

But she will only be on island a matter of hours before she heads back west across the Atlantic at 3pm.

The Princess Cruises’ vessel will mark the 126th cruise call of the year — 37 fewer than the previous year.

And the visit will be the last time she comes to Bermuda for at least a year, as she is not scheduled to return in 2014.

Next year a total of 131 cruise calls are expected, of which five will be in St George’s and seven in Hamilton. Dockyard will play host to the remaining 119 calls.

Elsewhere it’s all change for the container ships in the run up to Christmas.

The Somers Isles replaces the Bermuda Islander this week in Hamilton, as the latter goes into dry dock in Jacksonville for routine maintenance work.

The Islander will be back again in Bermuda on December 30.

While the Oleander is in port again this Sunday, instead of her winter Monday slot in preparation for Christmas.

She’ll also be tied up alongside in Hamilton over the Christmas period before she heads States-side again around December 27.

Finally, if you were looking off South Shore on Saturday, you may have noticed the formidable shape of the tanker Suez Everett. 

She stopped quickly in St David’s to drop off a US technician, who then flew home, before continuing her trans-Atlantic crossing.