A CRUISE ship made an emergency stop at Weymouth and Portland today after being forced off course by bad weather.

The Saga Pearl liner diverted to Portland Port instead of its scheduled trip to Guernsey when the conditions were too bad to let passengers ashore at the Channel Island.

Up to 350 passengers poured into the resort after Weymouth and Portland Borough Council came to the rescue with information about attractions in the area.

Now they hope that their efforts may persuade Saga and other cruise companies to place the Weymouth and Portland area back on their itineraries.

Council spokesman Jacqui Gisborne said: "We were called and asked to help so we sent out two members of staff to the ship, Julia Long and Denise Clark, to tell people about what we had in the area.

"They told the passengers about out world heritage coast, that the country's first gold medallist at this Olympics, Sarah Ayton was from here and how George III spent 17 summers here."

The Saga Pearl was heading for Guernsey from Falmouth on the final leg of its round Britain cruise when the decision was made to divert to Weymouth late yesterday.

The council worked closely with Portland Port to set up activities and trips into Weymouth for the passengers during their half-day visit after the ship arrived at 8am.

Barry's buses provided shuttle buses into Hope Square for passengers to walk into town but visitors could also go by boat from Portland Castle.

Peter Bettley, Saga spokesman, said: "The council pulled out all the stops to make sure passengers could see all that Weymouth and district had to offer. As a substitute for Guernsey, it was pretty good."

Mr Bettley added that he would not rule out cruise ships coming back to Weymouth on a more regular basis.