One of the largest cruise ships deployed in New Zealand this summer bypassed Napier NZ on Friday, November 11, because of adverse weather on the east coast.
Grand Princess, which has a capacity of ~3100 cruise passengers, advised Port Napier on Thursday, November 10th, that because of the forecast it had been decided to clear East Cape ahead of the storm and head for Tauranga, her next scheduled stop.
Grand Princess is scheduled to be back in Napier NZ on December 8, with 5 other calls at the port through to early April 2024.
While the cruise port is experiencing one of its busy weeks, there are not expected to be other disruptions to shipping. The next call is of HAL's ms Westerdam (~1900 passengers) scheduled for a stopover of fewer than 12 hours on Wednesday, November 16th.
A strong wind advisory was in place for the sea off Hawke's Bay and Mahia-Gisborne coast. It forecasted easterlies rising up to 30 knots and gusting up to 40 knots east of Napier to Wairoa along with a southerly swell of up to 2.5 metres.
Hawke's Bay was under a "heavy rain watch" forecasting heavy rain in the 13 hours from 11:00 am on Friday to midnight, reaching flood warning levels.
It was one of 3 rain alerts for the region from Hawke's Bay to the Bay of Plenty. Others are in force further north amid another of 2022's drenchings.
For more Grand Princess incidents and accidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.