Saturday February 16th, 2013
As we stood on the stern of the ship at our sail away, Barry and I stood and drank in the beauty of this harbour, wondering if this would be the last time that we visited. We have always had the most wonderful days in this city.
We decided to split up today, as Barry ran an errand with Leslie - who had the idea from a Cunard world cruise - to get a laminated bookmark that had all the ports on one side. This was an errand that took up our morning on Friday, and they went to pick up the finished product on Saturday.
Karen and I wanted to go to the Rocks - which is next to Circular Quay, as we had discovered last year, a street fair of unique handmade Australian products. I met Karen, downtown, as Jonathan escaped for a couple of hours before he had to be back onboard. What a difference a year makes. This time around, while the items were lovely, they seemed expensive compared to all the things we know lie ahead in Asia. Then the heavens opened - and I mean opened and we were deluged with buckets of rain. Karen had sent her umbrella back with Jonathan, so we had to buy her one, then we carefully swam down the hill of water to find a cab to take us to Paddy's market.
We had a terrific couple of hours in a market that yielded some beautiful handmade unique jewellery for which we succumbed. We found out later that the drums we heard as we were leaving were the start of the Chinese New Year celebration and sadly we missed the huge dragons snaking their way through the mall.
The sail-away party was packed as we took on 250 new guests and the ship is now fully booked. The weather co-operated as we left and we got some great pictures. There were lots of boats waiting for us to sail out, and a sailing regatta of small boats, which were darting right behind our ship. One crew of 3 dumped right in front of our eyes and boy did they get up out of that water quickly. Who knows what lurks in the sea in Australia!
Jonathan, Karen. Barry and I ate in the Canaletto dining room, our Italian restaurant, after Jonathan got us safely out of the harbour. We had a splendid view of a sunset from our window.
Barry somehow didn't get the relaxed koala bear picture posted yesterday, so here it is for your viewing pleasure. 
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