Sydney is located deep inside an L shaped bay at least if you forget the south west part of it. As a result the ship has to makes a 90 degree turn to the east when coming in. Then the end of the L shape is getting more and more narrow until it comes to a point where the ship either has to go in Bow first or Stern first. There is no room to turn for a ship with a length of 200 meters at the dock.
The green area is where the ship sails. Courtesy of a website describing dredging plans for Sydney Harbour
That brings the challenge to the captain of what are we going to do? Swing on arrival or swing on departure? In Sydney, plan A is always swing on arrival and dock nose out. Thus if it is nice weather, or reasonable weather on arrival, you swing first, sail half a mile astern and dock nose out. In case the weather takes a turn for the worse, you just give full ahead and race to open waters.
It is getting more complicated if it is windy on arrival. Then it might not be so easy to swing in the turning basin and go stern in. The thrusters are not always strong enough to cope with the strength of the wind on the side of the ship and being able to control the drift. Quite often it is then still possible to dock the ship nose in as you can keep up the speed longer, thus drift less and come alongside. At least you have made the port. The question is then do I get out again on schedule? If the weather forecast says that the winds will diminish during the day, yes you could do it. But is the weather forecast reliable in autumn? What happens if I cannot get out?? Will/Can I stay overnight and hope for the morning?
Then comes the decision that is most difficult for a captain. If the situation is clear cut: Bad weather – too dangerous – cannot safely do: – cancel. But what if you could do it but do not know what will happen later on and if it will, or will not, what impact will it have on the rest of the cruise? That is a decision that is hard to make. Hard because an overnight stay will affect the cruise schedule. So basically the decision is then made in favor of the first port or in favor of the next port. These things can make the job of a captain lonely, as asking advice here can result in everybody’s personal favorite port being brought forward. One will like Sydney, the other Halifax, a 3rd looks at the revenue a 4th at something else again.
Most captains then approach it with straight forward logic. If I am not certain now, I will also be not certain a few hours from now. So it is better to cancel this port and to have the next one, than to take this one and to have to hope that we can make the next one. So if things look iffy to start with, either on the spot or maybe later on, you always play it safe.
That is of course with one exception and that is the home port. There you have to go and how you get out of it is of later worries. Most home ports are big ports with a lot of tugboats so the weather can be dealt with in nearly all situations. If not, then there is major mayhem on the horizon for Shore Operations. This happens sometimes during Hurricane season, when the Home port is in the middle of all the excitement and the ship either has to deviate or ride out the storm. The knock on effects are not pleasant for anybody.
No such thing for Sydney today. It was a beautiful, sunny and a near wind still day. Most guests were on excursion and those who were not, took great interest in the souvenir store in the terminal. It seems that we have a larger number of scooters and other mobility contraptions onboard than normal because it was the first time that I saw a whole row of them heading for the shop at the same time. A sort of motorized invasion but then in a friendly way. Although some of these 4-wheel scooters are big enough to have room for a machine gun on the front. They also have ample room for baskets on the back, so hopefully the shop keepers took advantage of that. I counted 9 of them rolling ashore at the same time. I felt sorry for the Security Officer as those things create havoc with the security system, necessitating extra hand searches.
At 1700 it was time to pull out of Sydney after what was one of the best days I have ever seen here. Tomorrow we are in Charlotte Town and more nice weather is expected. My students are all excited and nervous as it is their examination day.
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