THE world is their oyster aboard the Silversea luxury cruise ship, the Silver Nova, which steamed into Western Port on Tuesday, November 26, 2024.

One of the smaller ships to visit the bay over the September to February cruising season, at a gross tonnage of 54,700 tons and a guest capacity of 728, she nonetheless offers a space-to-guest ratio of 75 GRT-per-passenger making it one of the most spacious cruise ships ever built.

A staff of 556 rounds out the passenger list.

Having stayed long enough to get guests on shore to stretch their legs in Cowes, or to enjoy one of a number of sightseeing excursions, they visited the world-famous penguin parade before heading out at 11pm.

In a year of sailing the Silver Nova goes to all points of the compass; to Africa & Indian Ocean, Alaska and Antarctica, Asia, the Arctic & Greenland before returning to Australia and New Zealand at this time of the year.

Next up are the Diamond Princess (2670 passengers, 1100 crew) on Sunday, December 1 and the Coral Adventurer (120 passengers, 48 crew) on Sunday, December 8, the smallest of the visitors this season but a ship purpose-designed to access remote wilderness shores in Australia and internationally, that are often inaccessible to large cruise vessels.