Cruise liner's chance to visit Napier blown away

BLOW: High winds stopped the Sea Princess (above) from docking in Napier in October and similar issues kept sister cruise liner the Dawn Princess from calling in yesterday.PHOTO/GLENN TAYLOR

High winds and a critical time schedule revolving around tides led to the cruise liner Dawn Princess bypassing Napier yesterday.

The 77,500-tonne ship with 195 passengers aboard had been scheduled to tie up at Napier Port just before 6am - and was set to be the first of three liners arriving over three days.

But Napier Port senior pilot Captain Trevor Morrison said the captain of the liner had been concerned over reports of high westerly winds sweeping the Bay as well as possible rising southwesterly winds later in the day.

Wind gusts of up to 76km/h were recorded at Hawke's Bay Airport in the early morning.

He was also aware that the ship needed to stick closely to its scheduled 2pm departure time to keep to the tide schedule for its next destination, Tauranga.

The Dawn Princess had sailed from Wellington.

"It was the captain's decision," Mr Morrison said.

The cancellation was a blow for tourism operators who had bookings arranged.

One tourism operator said the industry effectively worked on the basis that up to 10 per cent of scheduled cruise ship arrivals could be cancelled in a season.

The non-arrival of the Dawn Princess brought to four the number of liners that had, due to weather and rescheduling, bypassed Napier since the start of the cruise season in October.

And it has not been the most promising of starts.

The Sea Princess, the sister ship of the Dawn Princess, had been scheduled to tie up on October 13 but again high winds prevented it from docking.

Strong winds had caused the cancellation of four cruise liner visits to the Bay during the 2011/12 season.

Fifty-eight cruise liner visits were originally scheduled for this season.

Mr Morrison said weather forecasts would be forwarded to the captains of the liners scheduled to arrive at noon today and 9am tomorrow, and the pilots would also make contact.

The MetService forecast is for an easing of the winds.