#GalwayHarbour- Prior to Prinsendam's next port of call to Foynes tomorrow, as previously reported, the Dutch flagged cruiseship is today at anchorage off Galway Harbour, writes Jehan Ashmore.
The Holland America Line 38,848grt ship is nearly 1.5 nautical miles offshore in Galway Bay, facing opposite the entrance to Galway Harbour's only single basin, the Dun Aengus Dock.
As reported earlier in the summer, there are plans to build a new larger harbour. Notably, the new outer port would be capable of handling even larger cruiseships than the current anchorage callers. In addition the port wants to bring back the transatlantic callers, reminiscent of the liner era.
This year's Galway Harbour cruise season was opened by the arrival in July of the ultra-luxury and exclusively residential-only vessel, The World which had made an overnight call.
The mid-western port subsequently welcomed the newly launched Le Soreal, the mega-superyacht like cruiseship with a 264-passenger capacity is operated by Companie du Ponant.
Le Soreal is the latest of the three newbuild sisters, L'Austral and Le Boreal which in 2011 visited Dublin Port.
Marking the final cruise caller for the season is Explorer which is due in September. Already lined up so far for the 2014 season is the return of Prinsendam and Crystal Symphony.