A huge cruise ship docked at a north-east port yesterday as work on a multimillion pound quayside upgrade continues.
The Sea Cloud II arrived in Peterhead a year after its previous visit to the Blue Toon.
The three-masted white ship docked at the town’s tanker jetty shortly after lunchtime yesterday.
The impressive white vessel has 23 sails stretching to a combined 32,000sq ft and is the sister to the historic Sea Cloud, which served on US armed forces’ operations during World War II.
It is valued at around £31million and can carry up to 100 passengers.
Sea Cloud II is the only liner that will dock in Peterhead this year, although six others have already been booked in for 2019.
Last night, John Forman, the harbour master, said one of the reasons is the ongoing £50 million upgrade at the port.
He expects more cruise liners to visit next year once the work is complete.
Mr Forman said: “It is good seeing it come in.
“We are amenable to any type of trade. The more trades we have coming in the better it is for the port.
“We made other ships aware of the development and the mess that the harbour is in at the moment.
“I didn’t want them to turn up and find a building site, but what has happened is we now have quite a lot of bookings for next year.
“The ships want to come see it and there seems to be a lot of people got the message about what is going on here.
“We are Europe’s premier white fish port and we don’t want to let visitors see it half done.”
Peterhead Harbour is in the middle of a major upgrade which includes of deepening the port to allow for bigger ships to use the facilities.
That is due to completed by September.
The town’s new fishmarket opened last month and the first sale at the new Alexandra Basin facility was a £130 box of cod.
Sea Cloud II was launched in 1999 and is operated by Hamburg-based Sea Cloud Cruises.