February 9, 2017

   We awoke to see daylight creeping in from the outer edges of the drapes.  A quick peek out revealed that the streets were dry; the sun was shining although there were lots thin grayish clouds. The 7 a.m. temperature was +23 C, about 40 degrees higher than at the same instant back in Canada, which is 17 hours behind Sydney time (so it would be 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, while in Sydney it is Thursday morning).  The temperature predictions along the eastern and north eastern coasts for the next week are for highs of over +30 with a few showers popping up.

   Our bodies had adjusted to the 6 a.m. morning starts for the last two days, so we were awake shortly after 6, having set an 8 a.m. alarm for insurance. We noticed that you could read a complimentary daily newspaper while eating breakfast and got a copy of the Sydney Morning Herald. It said that Sydney is bracing for three hot days of 36, 35 and 40 C for the weekend.  Sydney has had damage from Tuesday’s heavy rain including a sink hole in Point Piper near the Prime Minister’s residence, a house collapsed in one of the suburbs and property was damaged from flash floods.

    As we were finishing breakfast, Bob and Maureen arrived.  They passed on walking with us to Australian Opal Cutters, about a ten minute walk away. At Australian Opal Cutters we were escorted into the office through two locked doors and to a presentation table where a sales associate explained the kinds of opals made into jewelry.  Opals come in many colours from pure clear with a hint of colour to white and black with specks of colour.  There are slices taken from stones and mounted on darker stones which may be coated with Quartz.  Sliced opal jewelry is less valuable than a whole stone by as much as 32 times.  Opals can be made into earrings, pendants, rings, cuff links and other jewelry.  Our next stop was to choose some wine to take on to the ship.  Returning to the hotel we saw a Australian postman delivering mail, similar to postal delivery people in Europe, using baskets on wheels.  We were back into the hotel in less than an hour, in good time to check-out by 11 a.m.

  We met Bob and Maureen in the lobby to share a taxi to the White Bay terminal.  The clouds had cleared and the sun was shining well on its way to a +29 high temperature for the day.  We took an SUV cab to the cruise terminal for our voyage on the Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Sea and were depositing our luggage at the Bag Drop Off by 11:30 a.m. 

   Docked at the White Bay terminal was the Crystal Symphony, in Sydney for at least one day.  The ship at the berth in Circular Quay today was the large Ovation of the Seas, causing the Radiance of the Seas to anchor out in the harbour center.

   The boarding procedures slowed down as the passenger lines grew.  Australia Border Services were being thorough in their perusal of passports causing delays for people.  Lines did not move for 20 minutes, except the priority loyalty passengers.  Next, the waiting passengers started to be processed and were given their key card and ushered into a waiting room with seating for 30 minutes, then escorted to another waiting room with seating for a 25 minute wait before being shepherded into a 5 minute line for the Australia Border Services officer to check the passports. During the wait Claire discov ered that she had lost her reading glasses, probably in the taxi, she now has an excuse to buy some inexpensive Australian reading glasses in Brisdane. We then left the building and entered a bus to take us to a harbour cruise boat to be transported to the ship.  The dock was 20 meters from the terminal but we took the bus on a zigzag route taking 5 minutes, then waited in the bus for half an hour for the next boat to arrive.  It took 10 minutes to load six or seven busses. Finally we were on our way and 20 minutes later we arrived at the ship taking another 10 minutes to disembark at 2:20, almost three hours after we arrived at the cruise terminal!

   After dropping our carry-on bags in our room, we joined Bob and Maureen for a buffet lunch in Windjammers restaurant.  After lunch, we checked our stateroom to see if the luggage had been delivered and met our stateroom attendant.  Then we decided to explore the ship determining that there are 139 stairs to climb to get from deck 3 to the buffet restaurant on deck 11 and another 19 stairs to deck 12.  There is a mini putting golf course on Deck 12 as well as a 10 meter rock climbing wall and court sports area as well as a large fitness center.  On Deck 6, the Colony Club has a

rectangular wooden dance floor about 800 square feet.  Looking toward the Opera House, we noticed that the Ovation of the Seas was in partial silhouette behind the Opera House.  Looking over the side we spotted the last of the passengers arriving and a tug guiding a barge bringing their luggage.

   We joined Bob and Maureen for dinner in time to be finished before the 6:45 p.m. mandatory safety evacuation drill.

   Tonight we chose as appetizers a hot eggplant, spinach and mushroom mixture served on puff pastry or seafood rillette, followed by seasoned pork shop with roasted parsnip, carrot and broccoli or prime roast beef with boiled potatoes and roasted parsnip and carrot. Chocolate Cake and Mango Pudding were the desserts that were chosen.

   The ship had not lifted the anchor while the safety lifejacket drill was held.  The ship was about an hour late leaving Sydney. We went back to the stateroom to unpack and joined Bob and Maureen later to share their snack of plump chocolate dipped strawberries.

  Returned to the stateroom to compose journal while Larry went to the casino and then to the Windjammer buffet on Deck 11 only to find it closed. Going down to lower levels, even on Deck 6, you can feel the ship really rocking in the rough seas. It was much more stable back in the stateroom down on Deck 3, which is on the inside of the corridor (no outside window) and near the middle of the ship.

  Before bed we moved the clocks back one hour.  Even though Sydney in New South Wales and Brisbane and Cairns, in Queensland, are in the same time zone, there is a time change as Sydney is on daylight time while Brisbane and Cairns are on standard time. The third port, Darwin in Northern Territory, is 30 minutes behind Queensland time.

Total steps 12,393 about 12.9 miles