May has historically been our busiest month for cruise ships usually seeing upwards of a quarter of annual visitors within this time.  Our first ship, the Island Sky arrived on the 1^st. The 4200grt vessel is our most prolific customer this end of the year at least. At 90m she is far from the largest of ships but does come in as one of the most luxurious. Next, just a few days later, was the 11,647grt Fram which dropped 134 happy tourists ashore followed by one of our larger visitors, the 20,216grt Discovery which dropped 546 passengers ashore during the World Pilot Gig Championships finals. Many of the passengers commenting that it was such a wonderful event. Visits from the Ocean Nova and Island Sky flew by before a new ship for us, the Serenissima, visited us on the 13^th. The 144m, 15,067grt Hamburg spent a lovely sunny day here on the 15^th before the Silver Explorer and Discovery polished off cruise visits for the month.

Other Pilotage work was carried out for the sail training vessel Belem and Bullo Marines landing craft Sabrina.

Our cruise ship season is in full swing and started with a milestone: Our first ship, the 22,050grt Marco Polo arrived on the 4th April, the earliest date for a visit yet followed by the Discovery (a similar size) on the 9^th. The following scheduled visit was unfortunately cancelled leaving the calendar for the second half of the month empty for cruise ships. A couple of visits from the landing craft ‘Sabrina’ brought freight for the Islands and wrapped up the month. Into May now and in full swing we have just had the Cornish Ketch ‘Irene’ alongside for the night. The 28m vessel was built in 1907 and operates as a sail training and cargo vessel typical of hundreds of vessels which used to ply their trade around the southwest carrying items such as cattle feed and coal. Unusually she is still trading today having recently brought olive oil and beer to our shores from Spain and France.