shipping off its regular arrival schedule this week.

However the third hurricane of the Atlantic season curtailed the visit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's fleet by a single day.

The seven-vessel Standing Naval Force Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT), under the Dutch flagship HNLMS Witte De With , left Bermuda Sunday afternoon for the Azores to avoid encountering the storm.

Erika also managed to pick pocket the purses of East and West End merchants whose business was affected by a cruise ship's repositioning also.

The Meridian sailed out of Philadelphia instead of New York this week and arrived at King's Wharf yesterday, not Tuesday, said Meyer Agencies spokesman Stephen Paynter.

This jilted merchants at Dockyard out of the first day of sales the 1,070 cruise ship passengers would have brought to the West End locale.

The Meridian is set to return to Philadelphia on Friday afternoon. Next week it will sail out of Philadelphia again but should arrive on Tuesday.

Meanwhile high winds caused by Erika caused cruise ship captains scheduled to visit the East End to either bypass St. George's or stay for a shorter period of time before making for Hamilton.

Both the Zenith and Song of America bypassed their regular visits to St.

George's this week and went to Hamilton where they stayed for the duration of their visits.

The Zenith arrived on Monday from New York with 1,367 passengers and opted out of shifting to the East End on Wednesday as scheduled. It is due to depart this afternoon, said Mr. Paynter.

The Song of America arrived on Tuesday from New York with 1,475 passengers and went straight to Hamilton instead of spending its first day in St. George's.

It is due to depart on Friday, said John S. Darrell spokesman Richard King.

And the Dreamward went to St. George's when it arrived on Monday morning from New York with 1,286 passengers but moved to Hamilton that night instead of the following day as scheduled. It is due to depart this afternoon.

Only the Royal Majesty braved St. George's and the narrow Town Cut entrance to the harbour which becomes more challenging with high winds.

It arrived from Boston as scheduled on Tuesday and berthed at Penno's Wharf with its 1,025 passengers. It is set to depart on Friday.

In other shipping news, the Somers Isles container ship remained in Fort Lauderdale, Florida this week as scheduled and is due to arrive next Sunday.

The Bermuda Islander arrived on Monday morning and off loaded 62 containers including 11 refrigerated containers before departing that afternoon.

And the Oleander arrived on Sunday and off loaded 112 dry containers, 37 refers, a horse container with four horses, six cars, building supplies and a flagpole.

It departed on Tuesday, Container Ship Management spokeswoman Glynnis Dickinson said, adding that the ship's voyage was fine and "the horses were great''.