The Anticipation/Preparation

Less than 48 hours to go until sailaway!

The bags are packed (almost) and every concievable issue and contingency has been gone through. 

Shopping for extra bits and pieces has been completed (I hope) .

Helen says she's excited about going - I don't think the excitement will really set in until we've pulled away from the wharf and start steaming down the harbour.

The end of this week is a pretty amazing time for passenger cruise liners Sydney Harbour. There are 2 ships arriving and leaving on Friday - Pacific Dawn from Darling Harbour Wharf 8 at 4pm (that's us) and Superstar Gemini (berthed at the Overseas Passenger Terminal until 18:30 before heading off to Queensland.

We should see her as we pass Circular Quay on the way to the heads.

That makes way for 3 more cruise ships arriving on Saturday. The Sun Princess will be at Darling Harbour Wharf 8, the Statendam at Harbour Wharf Wharf 3 and Mercury at the OPT.

Sun Princess arriving in Darling Harbour

Statendam - Hilo Harbor, Big Island, Hawaii

Mercury, Sitka Alaska

This might sound a bit crazy but I'm planning to get up early (around 5am) on Friday morning, come into town and watch Pacific Dawn come through the Heads and round Bradley's Head then steam up towards the Fort Denison and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. (I realise that a modern diesel engine ship can't actually steam anywhere but it just sounds right).  Helen has opted not to come with me (at this stage anyway). Unfortunately the forecast is for showers increasing so there might not be any photos worth uploading.

If you're interested in taking a look at Pacific Dawn leaving the harbour there's a great web cam in Kirribilli looking towards Bradley's Head that will give you a birds eye view (subject to the weather). Here's a daytime shot (from today). Click here to go to Live WebCam. There's even a hi resolution option.

Sydney Harbour Webcam

For those interested - there's quite a lot of information about the cruise on the P&O Web Site. The official cruise number is W803N. We're away for 7 nights and returning on Friday 25th. 

That's about it for now. Come back and check out this Blog from time to time. The plan is to upload a short desciption of our holiday everyday (subject to the quality of the connection to the satelite).


By all means please feel free to post a comment.

Roger & Helen.