#TALL SHIP- The tallship Tenacious which arrived yesterday to Dublin Port, is to host an Open Day to the public this Sunday 21st October at Sir John Rogerson's Quay, from 10am - 12.30pm and 2pm - 4pm.

The 65m barque is operated by the Jubilee Sailing Trust, and alongside her fleetmate Lord Nelson, are the only such tallships in the world that cater for trainee sailors of all physical abilities.

Sail Training Ireland have announced that there are limited places still available for this October's Tall Ship voyages around the Irish Sea aboard the vessel. For further details contact the Irish Branch of the JST on 01 496 0735 and in general by visiting www.jst.org.uk

#CRUISELINERS- Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) Ocean Countess (1976/16,795grt) is scheduled to depart Dublin Port this evening, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The Portuguese flagged vessel is to start on a 14-nights "Canaries & Madeira" cruise, with Irish passengers having the opportunity to embark directly in the capital.

She is to sail overnight to Liverpool, however her first Iberian port of call to Lisbon, is not until this Friday. Fares for the fortnight cost from £1,207 sterling and the cruise was organised through John Galligan Travel.

CMV also operates another veteran with the slightly older Marco Polo (1973/19,860grt) which too is a regular visitor to the port.

#DUBLIN PORT – Leo Varadkar, Minister for Transport, has appointed James Frater to the board of the Dublin Port Company.

The Irish Times reports that the Scot has held senior positions at ports in the UK, Hong Kong and Oman.Dublin Port is the country's largest such facility, handling roughly half of the State's trade.

#TALL SHIPS – It has been more than a fortnight ago since the spectacle of Dublin Tall Ships Race Festival's 'Parade of Sail' took place, and today the last participant, the Swedish Navy's Falken, made a southbound departure of Dublin Bay, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The last large tallship to depart the festival was the Italian Navy's Amerigo Vespucci, leaving the smaller Swedish gaff schooner to remain moored along the Liffey quays until her departure this afternoon. The B-class tallship built in 1947, is based out of Karlskrona and her crew of 13 officers and 29 trainees are currently heading for Porto.

It is ironic that on the same day of Falken's farewell, the Norwegian tallship Christian Radich is currently heading northbound in the Irish Sea as previously reported today. She is to visit the capital, where she called last year to publicise in advance this year's Tall Ships Race Festival.

#TALL SHIP -The Norwegian three-mast school ship Christian Radich is to visit Dublin Port tomorrow as part of a four-day stopover, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The 1937 built tallship will make her main port of call to the capital during a four week sailing programme arranged by Norwegian Navy Officer Candidate School.

She called to Dublin Port last year, as previously reported on Afloat.ie for publicity purposes in advance of this year's successful festival in the capital which was host to the final port of call of the Tall Ships Races. Likewise of the tallships, she is to berth alongside the Liffey at Sir John Rogersons Quay.

For further details of the tallship whose homeport is Oslo and also the principle characteristics of the vessel click this LINK.

#SEMESTER SHIP – Having made a recent visit to Galway, the cruiseship Explorer with more than 800 students, academics and crew are on board, as previously reported on Afloat.ie, is currently heading to the opposite side of the island, with a visit to Dublin Port, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The 25,000 tonnes vessel with its floating campus is due to dock in the capital tomorrow morning at Ocean Pier. The 180m vessel, formerly the Olympic Explorer built in 2000 for Royal Olympic Cruises is currently providing a "semester at sea" (SAS) programme through a world tour.

The SAS is operated on a not-for-profit initiative for the Institute for Shipboard Education, in co-operation with the University of Virginia in the US. Students taking the educational programme had set off on the world voyage from Halifax, Nova Scotia, with the first leg to Galway.

When Explorer berths in Dublin Port, she will join the United States Navy landing ship USS Fort McHenry (LSD-43) which as previously reported on Afloat.ie had already arrived last Thursday for the American Football Week.

It was downriver from her Ocean Pier berth at the nearby O2 Arena, where last night's televised "The Gathering: Notre Dame- A Welcome Home" , a special concert which was held for fans in the Docklands venue.

Today the Emerald Isle Classic with 33,000 fans of the games two big boys, Notre Dame and the Navy, is been held this afternoon, on the far side of the Liffey at the Aviva Stadium.

After her two-day call to Dublin the Explorer continues on its global tour with calls to the UK, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Dominica.

#CRUISESHIP RELEASED – As previously reported, the Princess Danae (1955/16,531grt) which was at the centre of a dispute over an unpaid fuel bill departed Dublin Port last night, after the High Court set aside orders it had earlier granted detaining the vessel.

Yesterday afternoon the High Court ordered the arrest and detention of the Madeira registered vessel which arrived in Dublin yesterday morning, having sailed through the North Channel.

The 800 passenger and crew capacity cruiseship, was detained arising out of an alleged failure by its owners to pay an outstanding fuel bill of $94,000 (€74,940).

All but three bunks aboard the ship were occupied at the time Princess Danae was detained. The vessel was built originally as the cargoship Port Melbourne by Harland & Wolff, Belfast and is currently en-route to La Rochelle in western France.

For more on this story, The Irish Times has a report.

#CRUISESHIP DETENTION – The High Court has ordered the arrest and detention of Princess Danae (1955/16,531grt) which arrived into Dublin Port today.

The cruiseship as previously reported on Afloat.ie, has a capacity to carry more than 800 passengers and crew, was detained arising out of an alleged failure by its owners to pay an outstanding fuel bill of US$94,000 (€75,000).

The former general cargoship, which is registered in Madeira, docked into the port's Alexandra Basin this morning and was due to depart at 7pm this evening.

For more on the story The Irish Independent has a report.

#CARGO TO CRUISELINERS – This morning saw the arrival of World Cruises Agency,'s Princess Daphne to Dublin Port, the veteran vessel built in 1955 was originally launched as a cargoship, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The 18,833grt cruiseship had arrived into Dublin Bay from Falmouth, however her cruise embarkation port was from Portsmouth, where World Cruises started their inaugural cruise call to Ireland. Yet again another newcomer operating in Irish waters this season.

In recent years Princess Daphne and her sister Princess Danae, have operated for Classic Cruises International (CIC), and they were among a fleet of older tonnage.

Before she became Princess Daphne, she was commissioned for Port Line (subsidiary of Cunard Line) and was built at the shipyard of Swan Hunter on Newcastle-upon-Tyne and launched as Port Sydney. She was joined by her sister Port Melbourne, also completed in the same year but built by Harland & Wolff. They were ordered to serve the UK route to New Zealand, Australia via the Panama Canal.

The handsome looking general cargoships or 'reefers' (handling meat exports) had a large superstructure, with accommodation for 12 passengers. Noting the wraparound passenger veranda deck and six cargo-holds accompanied by derricks for self-unloading.

Conversion work took place in 1975 and again this applied to her sister the following year. The rebuild included replacing the old superstructure with a large longer streamlined superstructure, noting fore-ward of the bridge are the derricks that was incorporated during the work. This feature does not apply to Princess Danae which has an extended structure instead.

They retain their have deep-drafted (7.9m) hulls, complete with many portholes along sheer classic lines. Princess Daphne has a hull length of 162.39m which is marginally longer then her sister's 162.31m.

Over their respective career spanning nearly six decades, they have operated for several owners and under different names, however their current names have remained for some time. The pair are both Portuguese flagged and operated by World Cruises based in Lisbon.

Incidentally Princess Danae (1955/16,531grt) will be making a call to Dublin Port tomorrow, as she is scheduled to arrive at her birthplace in Belfast Harbour today. Also in port, is Plantours & Partners Cruises Hamburg, which had sailed overnight from Dublin Port, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

#CAPITAL CRUISE CALLS – Tonight two cruiseships are due to depart Dublin Port, they are Plantours Cruises Hamburg (2007/15,067grt), which made its maiden 'Irish' debut call to the capital, followed by Compagnie du Ponant's Le Diamant, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Plantours is a German based operator and is one of several new entrants providing cruises to Irish ports, as previously reported on Afloat.ie. Among the newcomers are MSC Cruises, whose MSC Lirica finally made her first call to Cobh at the weekend, as an earlier scheduled call this month, was cancelled due to bad weather.

Both the visiting vessels to Dublin Port today, had by coincidence arrived from Penzance, Cornwall and the Hamburg, is no stranger to the capital, having previously operated as Hapag-Lloyd's C. Columbus.

Whereas the French operated Le Diamant (1974/8,282grt) has been in Irish waters throughout this month, with a call to Galway on 17th August. On the same day Voyages of Discovery, which is part of the All Leisure Group, saw their Discovery also make an anchorage call of the mid-western port.