Based at Hong Kong from December 1945, she carried out patrols of the Chinese coast, refitting at Sydney, Australia, in mid-1946, then taking part in exercises with ships of the United States Navy around Japan.

[1] In February 1947 she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, stationed at Haifa with the 5th Frigate Flotilla to carry out patrols to intercept ships bringing illegal Jewish immigrants to Palestine.

[1] In March 1948 Bigbury Bay left the Mediterranean for the West Indies, where she would remain for the next nine years, making regular return trips to Portsmouth to refit, as well as three tours of duty as guard ship at the Falkland Islands.

As part of the West Indies Squadron she made visits to ports along the coast of the southern United States, Central and South America, including an unusual trip up the Amazon River to Manaos in 1951, and rounding Cape Horn in late 1954 to visit Chile and Peru before transiting the Panama Canal to return to Bermuda.

In 1956 her crew formed the Colour guard for the ceremony at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, Bermuda of the laying-up of the Queen's Colour for the closure of the North America and West Indies Station, and also provided the Guard at Hamilton during the meeting between Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower the following year.