Noon Report:

• Location: S 33° 51.76′, E 151° 11.08′
• Speed: Docked
• Course: Docked
• Weather: Clear
• Temperature: 22º C, 72º F
• Wind: NE, 8 knots

Looking back on it today was an incredibly huge day.

It started at 5:15 a.m. when our alarm went off. We were up and in the Explorer’s Lounge shortly after 5:30 for the narrated arrival into Sydney Harbor.

One arrives early because by 7:00 the harbor is a very busy place with ferries, water taxis, pleasure boats, racing craft, kayakers, excursion boats – all container and commercial traffic and rundown warehouses have been moved to Botany Bay south of here which means this is the most beautiful of city harbors. So we watched dawn to our rear as we watched the city growing to our front.

Eventually the Opera House (center) and Harbor Bridge came into view.

As we drew closer our Resident Historian/narrator pointed out Ft. Denison on Muddawahnyuh Island. Originally a prison (Remember that Australia was originally used by the British as a prison colony – so this was for the worst of the convicts) the island was called Pinchgut – a reference to the lack of food provided to prisoners, who routinely starved to death. Between 1839 and 1857 the island was fortified to protect the harbor from invasion by enemy ships.

We sailed past the Opera House and under the bridge.

To our birth in White Bay. Where we docked…

Our first excursion was billed as a ‘Cultural Sail’. We boarded a bus…

…to a wharf where they delivered us into the hands of an organization called Tribal Warrior.

And left on a cruise around the harbor. Along the way we learned about the Gadigal, Guringai, Wangal, Gammeraigal and Wallumedegal people who occupied the region and the organization’s efforts to strengthen ties to their origins through youth programs and elder support (DON’T call them tribes – they prefer “language group”).

Arriving at Be-lang-le-wool (Clark Island) we were led on a tour of this small island as we learned about some of the life ways and practices of these peoples.

The two ends of the cut are higher than the middle so when the tide goes out the fish are trapped in the middle – “Let the natural world bring the food to you.”

We also noted several natural formations carved in the sandstone by wind, weather, and time.

and were greeted by a team of native youth who talked about their traditions and performed several traditional dances.

This is not a Didgeridoo. It has many names from several language groups within Australia. One of the most common names is yidaki (gee DAK ee – to be played using circular breathing to give a continuous note)

This dance was used to welcome people to large gatherings.

Then it was time to board the boat for the return trip.

Back in our stateroom we did a bit more studying and reading and napping before Cheryl’s 3:00 massage.

At 5:00 we grabbed a quick dinner before hailing an Uber for the (not so) quick drive over to the Opera House for a concert.

It was an OUTSTANDING event: Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. The first was a real tour d’force for the pianist. The second actually got applause following the second movement!

We thank our friends the Schelds for the idea of seats above the orchestra. Some years ago they took us to a concert of the Berlin Philharmonic and our seats were in roughly the same place. It’s a really unique experience to be able to almost sit in the orchestra and watch how the conductor and the musicians make the music ebb and flow (Cheryl: it was FANTASTIC to sit above the tuba and watch the conductor’s & musicians’ faces. At one point the conductor threw a gesture at the violin section and the whole section whipped back then forward in unison – it was like she was a magician and had thrown a spell at them to knock them down!)

As we re-boarded the ship we were informed that the chef had prepared a surprise up in the cafe – so we took a slight detour on our way back to the stateroom.

We were greeted by our favorite server (Mai) passing out glasses of champagne and we were treated to a creative and tasty selection of treats. We grabbed just a bit to nosh on and headed out to the terrace where our guitar king (Zeus) was performing. I caught just a bit of the action as ‘the Dancing Queens’, the wait staff, rocked out.

Eventually it was time to call it a day. It was a day.

So it was back to the stateroom, to bed, to prepare for another great day in Sydney.

Till then, R

Cheryl’s factoids:

• Originally first settled as a penal colony, this is a beautiful city and harbor. Only “pleasure craft” are allowed in the Sydney harbor – all mercantile and cargo shipping and warehouses go 7 miles further south to Botany Bay (which was SUPPOSED to be where the penal colony was to be established but it was a swampy area with no fresh water source).
• Sydney is currently building a railroad tunnel UNDER the harbor.
• Back in WWII they spread a net across the entrance to the harbor which caught two, 2-man Japanese submarines – the third one escaped after blowing up one of the ships but the remains were found later just outside the bay.
• Dec 26 (Boxing Day) is when the “Sydney to Hobart” sailboat race takes place – contestants arrive in Hobart just in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve.