Sydney, Australia

The past 2 days at sea have passed by swiftly.  One evening the captain invited the officers for a film evening in his large cabin.  He had snacks brought and also ... popcorn to make the evening more enjoyable.  To be honest I cannot remember what the film was called that we saw! It was a comedy but the humour was 'tacky'.  Nevertheless the officers seemed to enjoy the evening - a change from their usual evening routines.

Collating loose brochure pages, ready to go to the stapling machine.

Yesterday I helped Shore Excursions with collating pages for the new excursions brochure.  Each loose brochure was then put through a stapling and folding machine and put into boxes.  In the end there were 3 of 4 people collating the brochure pages so I went to help a member of staff in the print room.  As the brochures came out of the stapling machine I put the brochures into boxes. The brochure is quite thick due to the length of the next cruise and excursions at ports so the whole process from start to finish took us over 2 hours. Oh, and we had to go back into the boxes of newly batched brochures and put in an order form in each brochure - a decision that was made when we were nearly finished with everything. 

Arriving in Sydney - the pilot boat squirting water ahead of us!

After 2 days at sea the Maasdam arrived in Sydney.  Being a turn-around day, staff were very busy
getting ready for the next lot of guests.  Over 200 pacific crossing cruise guests are staying on to do the Australian circumnavigation so there are a few familiar faces.  I had to go through immigration then took a good ½ hour walk to Paddy's Market.  Paul was busy with work so he couldn't come with me.  It was nice to have a wander around the market.  One can buy fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, spices, clothing, jewellery, souvenirs and much more.  I picked up a bag of mixed honey coated nuts.  Yum. 

Back on board the Maasdam Paul and I met up for lunch.  He was allowed to go ashore so we went and had a wander around The Rock's Market - an open air market (under shelter of umbrellas & awnings) that is usually open on Saturdays and Sundays near the cruise terminal. 

The Rock's Market is different from

The Maasdam leaving Sydney harbour - photograph sent to me by a friend.

 Paddy's Market as it is more of a crafts market.  We enjoyed our walk, keeping a lookout for our favourite stall - one that sells biltong.  We found it and loaded up with some biltong.  Yum! We also brought a packet back for the Captain and a packet for Lorie (one of the ladies in Club HAL) at their request.

The ship has set sail a bit later than scheduled so that means we will have dinner later than usual.  If the restaurant isn't open then we can put in a room service order - the kitchen is open throughout the night.

The Maasdam's next port of call is in Brisbane with a sea day in between.

Our route to Brisbane