#FlightFest - Though the weather forecast isn't looking great for the day, organisers of FlightFest on the River Liffey say the full schedule is proceeding as planned for this Sunday 15 September.

The once-in-a-lifetime aviation celebration, in conjunction with The Gathering 2013, will see more than 30 aircraft - old and new - take part in a spectacular low-level fly past to dazzle onlookers in Dublin's Docklands

Thousands are expected to line the quays between the Custom House and Dublin Port for the event on Sunday afternoon from noon till 6pm - which is set to feature the world's largest commercial airliner, the Airbus A380. The full running order of displaying aircraft is available HERE.

As reported yesterday on Afloat.ie, Dublin Bay Cruises is offering a special sailing up the Liffey to get an even closer view of the fly past at the East Link Bridge.

FlightFest is also set to be the last 'farewell' for retiring Naval Service vessel LE Emer, which will be on official patrol duties on the day.

#AdventureSailing- HMSTC Arctic Express and Discoverer are a pair of UK adventure expedition sail-training craft (STC) for members of the armed forces who are to visit Dublin Port over the weekend, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The vessels are operated by the Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre (JSASTC) which is a sail training establishment situated in Gosport opposite the Royal Navy's premier naval base in Portsmouth.

The mission statement of the JSASTC is "to develop the personal qualities essential to members of the Armed Forces through adventurous sail training in the Service environment".

The purpose of JSASTC is to develop the character and leadership qualities essential to members of the Armed Forces through offshore sailing in the Service environment.

The objectives achieved by providing Sail Training Craft (STC), skippers, instructors, engineering and logistic support and sail training courses is to train personnel of the three armed services so that they are able to support and ultimately lead, adventurous sail training expeditions in service yachts, both in UK and abroad.

An example of an overseas adventure expedition was the deployment of the HMSTC Discover that saw the 22 metre (67ft) sail training craft make passage from Halifax Canada via Greenland crossing the Atlantic to Iceland and Greenland.

From Greenland the vessel sailed to Norway via Jan Mayan. From Tromso she sailed to Bergen via the Lofoten Islands before finally sailing to her homeport of Gosport via Denmark and The Netherlands.

#CruiseLiners – Dublin Port has two cruiseship callers today, Thomson Spirit (1983/33,930grt) and Ocean Princess (1999/30,277grt) both are approximately the same in tonnage terms, yet they are starkly different in design, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Thomson Spirit had sailed from Belfast and flying the Thomson Cruises brand which celebrates 40 years having been founded by Canadian entrepreneur Roy Thomson who began cruises in the Mediterranean.

She is on a 13-day British and Irish itinerary with calls to Leith (Edinburgh) Kirkwall, Portree, Holyhead, Cobh, Torquay and Le Havre.

Ocean Princess sailed from Falmouth and she is one of the former Renaissance Cruises octet of 'R' class cruiseships commissioned as their R4. She is now operated by Princess Cruises, one of the many cruise brands of the US based Carnival Cruise Corporation.

The R Class were built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique, St. Nazaire, and they have an emphasis in that cabins have individual balconies, which is increasingly the norm, particularly at the higher end of the market. Passenger areas and open decks are mostly situated above these accommodation decks.

Thomson Cruises have a fleet of five vessels which asides Thomson Spirit includes her one-year younger sister Thomson Celebration. Together they started careers for Holland America Lines (HAL) operating for the North American cruise market.

They too were built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique, with Nieuw Amsterdam (Thomson Spirit) entering service followed by Noordam (Thomson Celebration).

Upon reflection the pair compared to modern newbuilds are more inclined towards the liner era in design and layout in that they have considerably more open deck space, featuring two pools. Plus a full wraparound boat deck that incorporates not just the stern but views for passengers overlooking the bow.

The lifeboats are set much further apart rather than confined in enclosed deck spaces as found on Ocean Princess.

Arguably Thomson Spirit has only one 'full-length' passenger deck and a further three shorter decks above set within her superstructure which is highly unusual these days.

The internal layout also reflects a more traditional arrangement of facilities as the main passenger areas are concentrated along three central decks. While accommodation is located above and below these decks, which combined total seven cabin decks.

Holland America Lines present-day Nieuw Amsterdam is a cruiseship of the 'Vista' class built in Italy. Variations of the Vista series each of around 90,000 gross tonnes, include P&O Cruises Arcadia and Cunard Line's Queen Elizabeth. Both vessels made anchorage visits off Dun Loaghaire Harbour this season.

#CruiseLiners – German cruise operator, Passet Kreuzfahrten's Delphin (16,214grt) is visiting Dublin Port today, the small former Soviet cruiseship is berthed just short of the East-Link Toll Lift bridge, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The cruise set off from Oban and terminates in Dover, with interim ports of call among them to Belfast, Douglas, Cobh (tomorrow) and Torquay in England's West Country.

Appearance wise, the near 500-passenger capacity Delphin has an attractive and well proportioned profile and which reflects moreso of ferry design as explained below.

She was the leadship of the Belorussiya class series built by Wärtsilä Turku Shipyard, Finland during 1975–1976 for the Black Sea Shipping Company of the Soviet Union.

Unusually, for a cruiseship she was fitted with a stern-vehicle door where her 'garage' could accommodate more than 250 cars. The stern-vehicle ramp is clearly evident in this photograph of the Byelorussiya as she was named during her era of Russian ownership.

It is somewhat apt that the vessel is moored at this berth in Dublin Port, as the North Wall Extension is also equipped with a linkspan vehicle ramp used by P&O Ferries Liverpool route vessels.

#FrenchNavy - The French Navy 'Tripartite' class mine warfare vessel Croix du Sud (M646) which has a hull constructed of composite polyester resin is to visit Dublin Port today, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The Tripartite class is a design collaboration of the French, Belgium and Dutch navy's. She displaces 615 tonnes and the vessel entered service in 1986.

Crew complement comprises of 5 senior officers, 32 officers and 12 trainee cadets.

She is scheduled to dock this morning and berth along Sir John Rogersons Quay and this evening be joined by a German Navy sail training vessel, the Asta.

#AIDAcruises - AIDAcara (1996/38,000grt) with her bold livery of colourful facial features splashed over the hull, is more easily recognisable to cruise-goers and enthusiasts alike as a fleet member of AIDA Cruises, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The Rostock based operator's 196m long vessel departed Dublin Port last night and is currently spending a port of call in Liverpool today.

Finnish-built AIDAcara is one of 9 ships of Aida Cruises fleet which began operations in 1994. The company employ almost 7,000 staff from 25 nations and where 6,000 work onboard and 900 are shored-based personnel.

In 2012, the company's ships in total carried more than 632,000 passengers.

The majority of the fleet (see the list) are of the 'Diva' class series which number seven vessels. Newbuilds have been ordered  and by 2016 the fleet is to increase to 12 vessels.

#CruiseCallerTrio-Dublin Port was busy during dawn this morning as three cruiseships docked within a couple of hours, they are the Europa, Prinsendam and Ocean Princess, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Hapag-Lloyd's 199m Bahamas-flagged Europa (1999/28,890grt) arrived from Gromarty and she is moored alongside the North Wall Extension (P&O Terminal) next to the East-Link toll-lift bridge.

The five-star rated 408-passenger vessel has a forward facing web-cam overlooking her bow, noting directly ahead is P&O Ferries Liverpool route ro-pax Norbay, unless viewed later!... as she had departed this morning.

Of the remaining pair of cruiseships, the nearest visible is Princess Cruises 179m Bermuda-flagged Ocean Princess (1999/30,277grt) which is docked in Alexandra Basin (West) alongside Ocean Pier, at berth No. 33. She arrived from Waterford and is originally the R4, one of an octet of vessels built for Renaissance Cruises, with a 680 passenger capacity.

To the right of Ocean Princess can be seen the 'merging' illusion of the upper decks that belong to Holland America Line's 204m Dutch-flagged Prinsendam (1988/38,848grt). The smallest vessel of the HAL fleet, Princendam with almost 700 passengers, docked on the other side of Ocean Pier at berth No.37 which is within the adjacent Alexandra Basin (East).

She had sailed from Liverpool and is to continue her cruise to other Irish ports making an anti-clockwise circuit. Among Princendam's ports of call is Foynes, where she is to become un-expectedly the first caller of the season to the Shannon.

As previously reported, Voyages of Discovery's 15,396 tonnes Voyager, which was intended to be the first scheduled cruise caller to the estuary port, did not arise as it transpired that the ship had generator problems. This forced her 9-day Irish cruise to be curtailed in Killybegs during late May.

#DublinPort - Billionaire businessman Denis O'Brien is behind an ambitious plan to make Dublin Port an international shipping services hub for the maritime industry, as The Irish Times reports.

The scheme has been presented to Dublin City Council as part of its call for submission on rezoning land in Dublin's Docklands area, already home to the Irish Financial Services Centre (IFSC).

It appears that the plan put forward by a company called ISSC Dublin - of which O'Brien is understood to be a financial backer - aims to do for shipping what the IFSC did for the international finance sector.

The Irish Maritime Development Organisation (IMDO) and IDA Ireland are also said to be involved in the ambitious project, which has the potential to create thousands of jobs.

The Irish Times has much more on the story HERE.

#TallCruiseShip – Sea Cloud II returned to Dublin Port today and is clearly visible to motoring commuters using the East-Link Bridge, to where she is berthed nearby, writes Jehan Ashmore.

On her previous visit earlier this month, the 2001 built luxurious Maltese flagged barque had moored alongside Sir John Rogersons Quay, however todays arrival at the North Wall Extension is also where P&O Ferries operate daily services to Liverpool.

Sea Cloud II has a capacity for just 64 guests who have the added experience of cruising under her three masts which give a total sail area of approximately 32,150 sq. feet (3.000 m²). Operated by Sea Cloud Cruises, the 117m cruiseship belongs to a select fleet of vessels which have the added option of sail-assisted power.

Recent examples to Irish waters have been the Wind Surf which visited Dun Laoghaire Harbour and her sister Club Med 2 to Dublin Port. Both vessels have also made calls to other Irish ports before their Dublin Bay arrivals and this applied to Sea Cloud II which last night sailed from Belfast Harbour.

The cruiseship is scheduled to depart Dublin Port around 19.30hrs.

#PortsConference - The 2013 The Irish Ports Association Conference is to be hosted by Dublin Port Company and is to take place on 27 September in the Gibson Hotel in Dublin.

This year saw the launching of the new National Ports Policy, the conclusion by the Irish Competition Authority of a review of the ports sector and the publication by the EU Commission of a proposed ports Regulation. All of these create challenges for Irish ports whose efficiency and capacity is crucial to support international trade in goods.

The core themes of the IPA conference are ports policy, practice and planning. An elite panel of national and international speakers will not only examine recent policy developments but also to present examples from around the world (UK, Denmark, Greece and Chile) as to how ports elsewhere have adapted and responded to changing regulatory environments. For further information of the conference visit: ipadublin2013.com