At 6 am. we arrived at the Sydney pilot station and after embarking we sailed into the fjord at which end the town of Sydney is located. The weather looked very good, at least a lot better than the Maasdam had two days earlier, when there was so much wind that the Captain decided to sail straight out again.

Sydney is located at the very end of the inlet and the deepwater part is so limited that the ship has to back up for nearly half a mile to get to the dock. There is no room to turn. The town is an up and coming cruise destination and the local authorities are working very hard to make the cruise ship calls a great success. They have revamped the cargo shed on the dock into a very nice terminal and the dock is perfect for my size ship. A new item was that they built a music stand on the NW side of the dock so that the terminal forecourt also has a local use when there are no cruise ships.

Music is very important in the area and plays a great part in the local social life, especially during the long and harsh winters. During the day we had bag pipe players on the dock and on departure a little brass band that played local music and the appropriate national anthems when the ship pulled out. Fiddling is also a popular pastime and as a sign of this there is 20 feet high violin statue erected on the far end of the pier. Always nice for having your picture taken with.

I find sailing out of Sydney most interesting due to all the little villages located on the hills on both sides of the water. Each village has a church and more prominently a grave yard. As a matter of fact, as the hills are mostly barren, it are the grave yards that are very conspicuous from the ship. But also the churches are a matter of interest. I am not an expert on churches but what I find peculiar is that each village church has its own very individual style. Churches that would be at home in a Bavarian village, a church with definite Mediterranean influence, a church that would not go amiss in England and a church style that looked more at home in the southern part of the USA, then in the Cape Breton area. Many Styles, shapes and colours.

Each church has its own grave yard and these are very prominently visible from the sea side. On the West side of the fjord there is a lot of erosion going on and the grave yard of one church is slowly falling into the sea. I suppose it is a race between the Verger and the sea for who gets to the graves first before they tumble down when the next part of the coast subsides.

We had an absolutely glorious day in Sydney. I have been coming there now for several years and this was by far the best call. Sunny all day, not too warm, not too cold and just a gentle breeze to make it perfect. Tomorrow we are in Charlotte town on Prince Edward Island and the weather forecast does not look good at all.