23 May 2017; Sydney, Canada.

Sydney can be a horrible place if the weather becomes inclement and its location gives a lot of options for it to do so. Winters are harsh with North Easterly winds and when there is mayhem coming from the North Atlantic to the East then it also gets it. When they designed Nova Scotia they forgot to put a high mountain range on it and thus nothing shelters Sydney very much. On top of that its port is located in a sort of pond where even a medium size cruise ship cannot swing around in. Let alone a big one. Thus we have to swing off the cargo terminal and then go astern for half a mile.  We love going to Sydney but we like nice weather when we do so.

This morning we had it and with the sun shining brightly and hardly no wind at all the good ship ms Maasdam sailed without any concerns into Sydney Bay, swung around and went astern to the dock. We prefer to go stern in, so the nose is pointing to the direction of the sea. Always easier to give full ahead and racing away from bad weather in the port than having to struggle and swing with the wind full on the beam. So a wise captain always docks with the nose towards sea when feasible.

The red line is our course and where it stops is where we swing around to get to point B, the port at the narrow part. (Photo courtesy of Sydney Harbour)

The pilot boards outside and then sails the ship in, until we come to point A. There the captain (Or his designate, thus it was the Staff Captain this morning) swings the ship around and then goes astern to point B where the dock is. The dock is at the end of a sort of Fjord and there is only one way out and that is why we like the ship to already point that way.  I marked the map also with a point C. This is the west side of the entrance and here a lot of erosion takes place. Sand is deposited by the sea at the East side and eroded away at the west side. This has been going on for a while and the last time it was threatening the church with its grave yard, which in the years before had already lost some tombstones (and its inhabitants)

The weather forecast predicted inclement weather in the afternoon and that indeed happened. By 13.30 it started to get overcast and the wind picked up. The rain was coming which we had been outrunning thus far. By 16.00 hrs. just before departure there was 30 knots of wind and with rain showers already visible in the distance behind the ship. Halifax had had a good downpour in the morning and Sydney was the next one in line for some wet appreciation.

But for the guests, most of the day it was a very nice day and those not on tour walked into town. Sydney’s main street is quite close to the ship and a regular provincial town with some sort of a “border” flavor to it. There is very good Pub and Restaurant opposite the ship so I might be tempted during our next northbound visit to walk over there as (according to the ships agent) they have a nice variation of local Craft/draft beers there.  One should always be interested in local culture, especially if you can drink it.

Sydney also considers themselves the Fiddler Capital of the World and that cultural achievement is proudly displayed by having the largest (?) fiddle in the world on the cruise pier.

Today was ship inspection day which means I walk each deck and check each nook and cranny. It left enough time though to run ashore for the Staff Captain and buy a new TV for training purposes. The old one in the Bo ‘sun Store had a faulty PCB and according to our TV expert on board ordering a new PCB was almost as expensive as being a new one. As with every large company, we have a certain amount of Red Tape to deal with and ordering a new TV via the regular procedures might take three months. But the Training Dept.  In Seattle also has a small contingency fund for emergencies and they agreed that I & the ship had such an emergency.

A big store with a big Blue and Yellow sign was selling TV’s but was also the only store in town which did not accept US dollars so I also had a cultural outing to the bank of Nova Scotia where a very nice Lady calculated how much USA I needed to change to pay a Canadian bill. Canada (or at least Sydney) has a recycling surcharge on electric goods. I am all in favor of that so I paid another 35,– to ensure that the tv will be properly recycled. Only thing is that it will probably break down somewhere in the South Pacific and never come back to Sydney.  If it would do so in the South Pacific maybe we could land it in the other Sydney and say we already paid a recycling charge…………………..

Tomorrow we are in Charlottetown where we hope to be docked by 09.00 hrs. According to the weather guru’s the rain clouds should have shed their full loads on Cape Breton Island and Charlotte town is only supposed to be overcast with temperatures around 63o F / 17 oC. not bad for the month of May.