World Cruise--Our Overnight Stay in Sydney

The signal for an announcement from the bridge came around nine at night as we sat in the Queen’s Room watching the ballroom dancing. As most everyone else thought, we wondered what sort of medical emergency might have happened. The last time, the call was for O positive blood donors. This time it was the ship that needed some help.

As the captain said, there were technical problems that had slowed the progress of the ship and our arrival in Sydney would be significantly delayed. Our original arrival time was 6:30 AM. Now it was estimated to be three and a half hours later at ten o’clock. There was never an explanation for the technical difficulties but everyone was now scrambling to readjust their plans for excursions and/or flights home as there were a little over 1300 who were disembarking.

Added to all the confusion and reorganization was the need to have face to face immigration which meant that everyone on board had to leave the ship and go through immigration personally, all 3,000 passengers. And add to that there would be a crew drill for the benefit of the Australian Coast Guard, a health inspection and I believe one more official act that I can’t remember. I really felt for the crew and staff. What a nightmare day.

Our plans for visiting the Blue Mountains were scrapped. The train ride would have been two hours each way and we would have needed at least three hours to tour and eat lunch. Now our immigration appointment time had been changed to 12:30 and it was moving slowly. We ended up eating lunch before we showed up for our “face to face” and decided that once off the ship, we would look for a harbor cruise instead.

The good news of the day was that we didn’t have to get up at five in the morning to see the sail in. It was a spectacular event with several tugboats spraying water as we entered the harbor to celebrate the maiden call of the Queen Anne. Cunard is a British cruise line even though it is owned by Carnival so the connection between Great Britain and Australia was properly celebrated.

Our pier was situated between the iconic Sydney Harbor Bridge and the equally iconic Opera House. It was right next to the ferry docks where the ferries could take you most any place you wanted to go in the area. At the end of the pier was the Circular Quay station for the metro line which is where we would have caught a ride to the Central Station for the train to the mountains. Sigh.

The day was heating up by the time we exited the immigration area and started around Circular Quay to the ferry docks and the area where there were harbor cruises offered. We found one that was an hour and a half long and leaving soon. It turned out to be a perfect choice. We sat by open windows and enjoyed the sunshine and refreshing breeze as we listened to the commentary of our tour guide. The harbor tour reminded us a lot of the tour that is offered in Miami where the boat travels around the harbor and points out the homes of the rich and famous. Some of those here included Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe.

The Sydney area is densely populated around the large harbor. It explains all the ferries that are constantly back and forth providing easier access to the outlying areas for commuters as well as tourists. The other traffic in the harbor included hundreds of sailboats of all sizes. There were quite a few racing sails that were practicing for regattas. We passed one huge sailboat that our guide said was one that does the race to Hobart in Tasmania, which is usually a two day sail.

On Saturday (we had an overnight in port), we took a ferry to Manly Beach. The slower ferry was a twenty minute ride which was nice because we could see a lot of the sailboat races that were going on. The harbor is so busy it amazed me how the ferries threaded their way through all the sailboats which don’t turn so quickly depending on the wind and direction of it.

Manly beach was a mass of people. The waves coming in were large enough to attract hundreds of surfers. We had thought about taking off our shoes and wading along the water’s edge but I was afraid we’d get run over by a surf board. There was a section where the waves were not breaking quite as bad and it was crowded with “wave jumpers”. You couldn’t really swim in the breaking waves.

Further down the beach, it appeared that the lifesaving club was doing drills or training. There were groups of them with various lifesaving paraphernalia working together. They were dressed in uniforms of sorts but as Bob remarked, “It’s not Bay Watch.”

And even further down the beach was an organization set up for a beach volleyball competition. There must have been at least 25 “courts” set up. We watched in awe as some of the players deftly moved through the sand to bat the volleyball back over the net.

The beach town is interesting and we wandered around a bit. There was a craft market set up in the middle of the pedestrian area. After a brewed Starbucks and a stop for a few supplies we needed, we made our way back to the ferry. We were a bit like salmon heading the wrong way downstream instead of upstream. The beach was obviously getting more crowded.

Back on the ship, we dressed a little earlier for dinner. The sail away was scheduled for five and our side of the ship was going to be able to catch the last glimpses of the Opera House as we turned and sailed out. We settled ourselves on our balcony for the view. The trip out to the ocean took about a half an hour before the harbor pilot was left off and we were on our way out into the open ocean.

Our next adventure could include skirting the Cyclone Alfred which is making its way down the east coast of Queensland. The captain explained that we would try to “get ahead of the game” and arrive a bit early in Brisbane, our next port of call. We’ll hope for the best.