Yellow Fish cruises: Day 59: Sydney

The alarm went off at 5am for another extra-early sail into Sydney Harbour, but, even though it was still dark, the ship’s webcam showed heavy smoke and/or haze. It wasn’t a huge surprise, so I watched from bed as the Ruby Princess passed the Opera House at 5:18am. These arrivals are too darn early when the weather is less than decent. Still, that only gains me another 40 minutes or so in bed; we were still in the DaVinci Dining Room when it opened for breakfast at 6:30am.

Sun through the smoke with the

Pacific Explorer sailing past the Sydney Opera House

The Pacific Explorer sails under the Harbour Bridge

If it’s Sydney Harbour, there’s an Opera House, a Harbour Bridge and

an abundance of seagulls.

Day 1 breakfast menu

Over breakfast we discussed our plans for the day. The coastal walk I want to do is a really special one, and I’d prefer do to it in weather like we had last turnaround day. Then there was that issue of the smoke; I didn’t need to be breathing that while climbing for a couple of hours. G was studying the Sydney Transit map, and came up with a great idea. We had never, in all of our time in Sydney, really explored what are known as its northern beaches, and there is a double decker B1 line bus that would take us there. It sounded like a plan. I got the bus schedule from Google Maps, and we reurned to our cabin to pack for the day.

Packing up for a day in the city

The Opal Card, credit card and ATM card always come with us in Sydney.

The passport is taken only when required; otherwise it’s a drivers license

I always underestimate the time it will take to actually get off the ship and get through customs. Today we were further hampered because we had not received in the cabin yesterday the customs forms we needed to complete. In the interest of saving a few minutes, we decided to ride a train from Circular Quay to Wynard Station, just one stop away. We topped up our Opal cards (Sydney's mass transit card)...shocker. The minimum top up amount increased from $10 to $20 on November 18. This virtually guarantees that visitors are going to be leaving Sydney with some of that $10 increase still remaining in their card. Oh well. Sydney mass transit is still a deal.

Not having ever lived in a city with a train system or a subway, getting around by train in Sydney just adds to my adventure. We’ve improved considerably at being able to determine on which platform we’ll be boarding our train. And once there, electronic signs clearly spell out the order of incoming trains.

Great arrival and destination information for each train platform

This is how close the Circular Quay Railway Station is to the Overseas Passenger Terminal where the Ruby Princess is berthed.

A train on the next platform

Once at Wynard Station, we instantly recognized it from our couple of visits there two years ago. It is also the location of the closet Coles supermarket to the cruise ship, not at street level, of course, but underground, one level above the trains. We ran into a little trouble finding our bus when we left the railway station by the wrong exit. We were looking for our bus in a lettered stand on one side of a park when it was actually on the opposite side. But a quick question to a driver set us straight and our bus pulled up just as we got there. What we hadn’t realized is that those B1 buses run every 6 minutes. We needn’t have stressed the connection. But, seriously, enough people are riding this bus that it warrants a double decker bus every five minutes? Amazing.

Wynyard Station Stand B schedule

We sat on the upper level of the bus and the views started almost immediately as we crossed the Harbour Bridge and followed along the northern shore of Sydney Harbour. At first we were seeing the many small bays and coves that line the harbor, all filled with hundreds of boats and lined with house-covered hillsides. But eventually the views became the many beaches along the ocean coast. After a little over an hour, we reached our intended destination of Mona Vale. Our driver, knowing we were just out to do some exploring, suggested we get on the bus directly behind ours going further north on a narrow peninsula to its end at Palm Beach. Even better.

We intended to go only as far as Mona Vale...

...but were talked into going as far as Palm Beach.

It was a wise suggestion.

These location names...Dee Why, Narrabeen, Muagomarra, Berowra.

We could simply ride mass transit all day long and be simultaneously entertained and educated.

It was a bit of a pity that this second bus ran only every 30 minutes. There were so many beaches along its route that we could have gotten off at every one of them, but instead just took the bus to its terminus at Palm Beach. This was worth the extra ride. We spent an hour having coffee and walking on the beach, watching the many surfers braving the huge waves. It was very windy out there. Unfortunately, it was also very smoky, and my photos reflect that. Oh well, we knew that going into it, but I do believe the smoke that much further north was much worse.

Palm Beach with Barrenjoey Lighthouse (these names!) barely visible in the distance

Palm Beach with a pool at the end

We caught a bus back to Mona Vail, where we walked along the Mona Vail Golf Course to that beach. By then the air had taken on a chill, and the wind was fierce. But we were the only people walking on that beach, and that was a treat. We spend most of our days with at least 4000 other people; to be alone on such a long stretch of beach was quite special.

Mona Vail Beach

All to ourselves :-)

We had hoped to find a place near the beach to have lunch, but these beaches were not like the southern beaches we explored on foot on the Bondi to Coogee walk last turnaround. They were much more remote, and there was nowhere along the beach to eat, so we returned to the bus stop. And once again, we were a little lost. We didn’t know there was a second stop just a hundred feet away around a hedged curve, and couldn’t figure out why two B1 buses passed us by without stopping. Luckily, these buses run every six minutes so it didn’t add too much time to our wait.

Once back at the Wynard Station, we stopped into Coles to pick up some Tim Tams for our neighboring cabin stewards, and caught a train back to Circular Quay. After a quick ATM stop, we were through Australia immigration and back on the ship about 3:30pm. It had been a great way to spend our day. Sail away times seem different nearly every turn around, and today’s wasn’t scheduled until 6pm. As a result, muster drill wasn’t held until 5pm. We were cleaned up for dinner and waiting outside the DaVinci Dining Room when it usually opens at 5:15pm, but it didn’t open until the drill was done. That wasn’t a huge surprise, but we were starving by then. It had been a long time since our 6:30am breakfast.

The embarkation day lunch menus we weren’t on the ship to enjoy today:

Day 1 lunch menu, page 1

Day 1 lunch menu, page 2

There was literally no one in the Piazza when we went down for dinner, because muster drill was still taking place. But it provided a great opportunity to get photos of the banners hung today to celebrate this ‘Crossing the Ditch’ cruise. We have a Maori (New Zealand’s indigenous peoples) ambassador on board who will be teaching about the Maori culture, language and traditions during this cruise. These banners are related to the Matariki festival we’ll be having to celebrate the start of the Maori new year.

The Piazza decorated for ‘Crossing the Ditch’

Link to information on Matariki

It’s a little strange to walk into the dining room with all new faces as the waiters from the last two cruises had been rotated from our dining room to one of the other two, so we were especially shocked to see Jorge at his usual station, meaning he’d be our waiter again this cruise. Shocked and very pleased. I still cannot taste food, and so just had salmon and a massive plate of broccoli, but still had sorbet I couldn’t taste for dessert. Because of course I did.

While we ate, we were treated to a huge lightning show over Circular Quay. All the ferries kept running through that and a heavy rain. It was obvious even before Cruise Director Aaron’s announcement that the sail away party was going to be moved from the pool deck. Instead it took place in Club Fusion. It was our first disappointing weather during sail away.

We saw lightning outside before we realized it was raining

By 5:30pm we knew we were in for our first rainy sail away.

Rotating to port as soon as the ship’s bow clears the Opera House

Day 1 dinner menu, page 1

Day 1 dinner menu, page 2

Day 1 dessert menu

We ended the evening watching production show Stardust in the Princess Theater. We still had some energy left, but we move clocks ahead an hour tonight and tomorrow night. Because of that, it’s essentially after midnight as I finish this post. This cruise already has a totally different feel than the last one did. The Tasman Sea is rougher and the weather tomorrow will only be in the 60s. But that variety is part of what we love about doing these itineraries back to back. We are hoping for some seriously improved weather over our time in New Zealand five weeks ago though!