The cruise ship Veendam will once again bypass St. George's and head straight to Hamilton when it arrives today.

This will be the third time the ship has been forced to skip the town due to inclement weather, since its first visit to the Island in late April.

Because of its size, the Veendam is forced to anchor at Murray's Anchorage. Passengers are ferried into the town from there. Because the ship is completely exposed while anchored, weather conditions need to be perfect.

The Holland America owned ship is scheduled to make 24 calls to Bermuda in 2010, spending Tuesdays in St. George's before heading to Hamilton on Wednesdays and leaving the Island on Fridays.

So far the ship has only been able to make about half of its scheduled stops to St. George's.

After the Veendam was forced to bypass the Olde Towne on two previous occasions the Ministry of Transport provided each passenger with a travel voucher for either the bus or ferry to go to St. George's for the day.

With unfavourable weather predicted for its arrival today the ship's captain has once again decided to head straight to Hamilton.

Winds are predicted to reach between 15 and 20 knots this morning in a south-southwesterly direction with seas of one to two feet inside the reef and three to six feet outside the reef.

As of last evening a small craft warning was issued through this afternoon.