#FERRIES - As the adverse weather continues, ferry services across the Irish Sea remain affected, with several crossings cancelled, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Irish Ferries 08.05hrs sailing this morning from Dublin to Holyhead operated by Isle of Inishmore, departed over three hours later than her scheduled time.

Last night she had just been deployed on the route so to cover sailings usually operated by Ulysses, which went off-service for annual dry-docking at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, as previously reported on Afloat.ie

In addition the fast-ferry craft sailing at 08.45hrs from Dublin Port served by the Jonathan Swift were cancelled and the following sailings are also cancelled:

Dublin -Holyhead 14.30hrs

Holyhead-Dublin 12.00hrs AND 17.15hrs

Passengers booked on the Jonathan Swift instead will be accommodated on the Isle of Inishmore. For further information on Dublin-Holyhead sailing updates click HERE.

On the Rosslare-Pembroke Dock service, sailings were too cancelled with last night's sailing from Wales, which are currently served by Oscar Wilde. She sailed as scheduled with this morning's 08.45hrs sailing to Pembroke Dock.

To keep updated on Rosslare-Pembroke Dock sailings click HERE.

For further information, Irish Ferries Central Reservations contact: 0818 300 400 and for Irish Ferries, Rosslare Harbour contact: 00353 53 9133158

STENA LINE

For information on sailing schedules and updates from the company's Ferrycheck facility click HERE.

To contact Stena Line call: 003531 204 77 99 when travelling to Britain or 0044 (0) 8705 755 755 when travelling to Ireland or Scotland

P&O FERRIES

Dublin to Liverpool  sailing at 1500hrs  is cancelled  and passengers will be accommodated on either 2130hrs tonight or 0900hrs on Friday 6th January.

For other sailings and on the Larne-Cairnryan click HERE and to contact +44 (0) 871 66 44 777 if calling from UK
OR (01) 407 34 34 if calling from ROI. In addition to latest sailing infomation on  +44 (0)845 832 8888

FOR OTHER FERRY OPERATORS

Please click this LINK and choose the relevant highlighted ferry route for further information.

#NAVAL VISITS - The first foreign naval visitors to Dublin Port in 2012 will be the French Navy, as five of an eight-strong class of school-training ships from Brest are due to dock on Friday, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The octet  belong to the Léopard class though the namesake leadship, Léopard (A 748) and Jaguar (A 750) will not be forming as part of the visiting flotilla.

Those that will be making the weekend port of call, berthing at Sir John Rogersons Quay will be Panthère (A 749) and Lynx (A 751) both commissioned in 1982 and the remaining quartet Guépard (A 752); Chacal (A 753); Tigre (A 754) and Lion (A 755) which entered service the following year. For a photo of the latter vessel and one of her sisters the Chacal click HERE.

Each of the 44 tonnes vessel's measure 17.5m long and have a beam of  6.40m and drawing a draft of 2.40m. To read more on the class characteristics click HERE.

The class follow in the wake of the last French Naval vessel to enter Dublin Bay, PSP Cormoran (P677). The OPV provided guard-ship duties when accompanying the Solitaire du Figaro race fleet during the stopover to Dun Laoghaire Harbour last August, as previously reported on Afloat.ie

#CRUISE LINERS – In 2012 the Dublin Port Company can look forward to welcoming 90 cruiseship calls, slightly up compared to this year's season, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The sector in 2011 performed positively with a 7.5% increase in cruise passengers on board 87 cruise-calls. In total  they brought over 135,000 passengers and crew to the capital, generating between €35 - €55m to the local economy.

The increase in passengers brings the total number of high-spend cruise passengers to almost 750,000 since 2000, providing a boon to city-centre businesses to the tune of over €400m in that period.

Once again cruiseships from the leading operators are scheduled to Dublin Port in 2012. They will appear in the form of  the small, medium and giant-sized ships, many of which will be making more than one cruisecall throughout the season, which starts in April and culminates in October.

To view a timetable of cruiseships calling to Dublin Port see below.

A newcomer will be Kristina Katarina (1982/12,668grt) which is operated by Finnish owners Kristina Cruises. The former Russian ship replaced Kristina Regina last year due to new safety regulations which forced the veteran vessel to withdraw from service. 

Mediterranean Shipping Lines (MSL) which operates container services to Ireland, will be deploying the 1,560 passenger MSC Lirica (2003/59,038grt). To view more about this French built cruiseship click HERE.

While the veteran Arion (1965/5,888grt) makes a welcome return for those with an affinity to smaller classic vessels, she orignially served in the Adriatic and was built at the Uljanik Shipyard in Pula, Croatia.

#FERRY NEWS -Seatruck Ferries newbuild freight-only ferry, Seatruck Progress carried out berthing trials in Dublin Port yesterday in preparation to her debut on the Liverpool route over the festive period, writes Jehan Ashmore.

This was the inaugural call to the capital, though she had sailed across Dublin Bay earlier this month (as previously reported - click HERE) during her delivery voyage to Liverpool from German shipbuilders FGS Flensburger.

At 142 metres long and with a beam of 24 metres, the four decked ro-ro vessel, offers more capacity to the routes existing pair of 'Point' class vessels, as she can handle an extra 35 trailer units (each of 13.5m) than the Clipper Point and Clipper Pennant.

In February, the newcomer's second sister out of four on order, Seatruck Power is set to join her on the central corridor route.

Seatruck are the only Irish Sea operator dedicated to the carriage of un-accompanied freight traffic, though the vessels can cater for driver accompanied units with a limited number of cabins.

#DUBLIN PORT-Cruise-passenger numbers in Dublin Port rose by 7.5% this year according to yesterdays' Irish Times.

During the 2011 cruise season, some 87 cruiseships brought over 135,000 passengers and crew to Dublin, delivering an estimated boost of between €35 and €55 million to the capital.

The port operator expects a similar number of cruise passengers next year. "Dublin Port's cruise season is becoming an increasingly important part of Dublin's tourism product," said chief executive Eamonn O'Reilly.

"Next year will see consolidation on our growth in recent years, while 2013 will see cruise line companies calling at Dublin for the first time and other operators bringing larger ships," he said.

# PORTS & SHIPPING -A specialist cable-laying vessel, Cable Innovator (1995/14,277 tonnes) arrived into Dublin Port yesterday. She is due start work next week on a €12.5m telecoms cable for CeltixConnect between Dublin and Holyhead.

According to a report in The Irish Times (click HERE) CeltixConnect's chief executive Diane Hodnett expected customers to start transmitting traffic on the cable at the end of January.

The cable will pass through the East Point Business Park in Dublin and on to the city's IFSC. On the Welsh side, the 131km cable will connect to the Welsh Assembly-funded Parc Cybi business park in Holyhead. From there it will connect to networks linking Manchester, London and the rest of Europe.

Capacity on the cable will be sold primarily to telecoms firms and ISPs, mobile phone operators and a small number of multinationals in the technology space which have massive bandwidth requirements.

For more information about the UK-flagged vessel which berthed in the port's Alexandra Basin, click this LINK.

# PORTS & SHIPPING -A specialist cable-laying vessel, Cable Innovator (1995/14,277 tonnes) arrived into Dublin Port yesterday. She is due start work next week on a €12.5m telecoms cable for CeltixConnect between Dublin and Holyhead.

According to a report in The Irish Times (click HERE) CeltixConnect's chief executive Diane Hodnett expected customers to start transmitting traffic on the cable at the end of January.

The cable will pass through the East Point Business Park in Dublin and on to the city's IFSC. On the Welsh side, the 131km cable will connect to the Welsh Assembly-funded Parc Cybi business park in Holyhead. From there it will connect to networks linking Manchester, London and the rest of Europe.

Capacity on the cable will be sold primarily to telecoms firms and ISPs, mobile phone operators and a small number of multinationals in the technology space which have massive bandwidth requirements.

For more information about the UK-flagged vessel which berthed in the port's Alexandra Basin, click this LINK.

#FISH PROCESSING- An unusual type of vessel to visit Dublin Port was the Faeroe Islands-flagged fish processing vessel Naeraberg (KG-14) which made a brief call this week, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The 3,181grt vessel built in 1983 at Harlingen Scheepswer in The Netherlands, berthed at the Coal Quay on the south docks. This berth is normally used for cargo such as molasses and loading scrap metals and where vessels occasionally call to collect supplies and parts.

Large fishing vessels visit the port though primarily for dry-docking purposes, notably in the case of the Killybegs based Antarctic (D97). The vessel is one of several operated by Arctic Fish Sales, a fresh fish trading company in operation over the last two decades.

She called to the port during late Summer, to the single-graving dock facility at Dublin Graving Docks. The facility can be divided into two separate chambers so to accommodate ships simultaneously.

#PORTS & SHIPPING- Berthed at the Steam Packet Quay, Drogheda is the suction-trailer dredger Lough Foyle (1979/868grt) which is on contract work with the Drogheda Port Company, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Following the sale last month of Hebble Sand, as previously reported on Afloat.ie (clcik HERE), the Lough Foyle (PHOTO) is now the only port-owned dredger on the island of Ireland. The Londonderry Port & Harbour Commissioners (LPHC) purchased the vessel from Dutch interests in 2009. She was originally the Saeftinge, built in 1979 at the Van Goor Scheepswerf in Monnickendam.

Since her introduction she has performed previous dredging operations to include the Drogheda Bar leading into the Co. Louth port. Her most recent contract was in Waterford Estuary, from where she arrived from on Tuesday after an overnight voyage.

In addition she has worked at the new Stena Line ferryport terminal at Loch Ryan, Cairnryan, to see related report click HERE. The Scottish ferryport is due to be officially opened tomorrow, to read more including the newly introduced 'Superfast' sisters click HERE.

#DUBLIN PORT-The former Dundalk Port Company grab-hopper dredger Hebble Sand (1963/757grt), which has been laid-up in Dublin since last Summer, was sold to new owners a month ago, writes Jehan Ashmore.

She remains berthed at the Bulk Jetty, Alexandra Basin, where she arrived from the Co. Louth port on 14 July, two days after the assets, liabilities and operations of Dundalk Port Company were transferred to Dublin Port Company by an order of statutory instrument. Against this background, Dublin Port Company decided to divest in the business of dredging resulting in placing the veteran vessel for sale.

During her career in Drogheda, she was the only dredger to be operated and owned by a port company apart from the suction-trailer dredger Lough Foyle (1979/868grt) operated by Londonderry Port & Harbour Commissioners.

Hebble Sand, registered in Dundalk has retained her original name since her launch from Richard (Shipbuilders) of Lowestoft for British Dredging. She has been kept in good condition considering a career nearing five decades. To read some of her last contracts undetaken outside her homeport, click HERE.

From a distance some people have mistaken Hebble Sand (PHOTO) to the last of the  'Guinness ships, as she bores a resemblance to the final custom-built stout tanker Miranda Guinness ( PHOTO), taken on her farewell sailing. The vessels shared a similar red funnel and black funnel, a roomy sized superstructure painted in cream above and a dark blue hull. To read more about the last of the brewery tanker-fleet click HERE.