Where : Darling Harbour, Sydney
When : Saturday, 3rd November 2007, 3-00pm
Weapon : Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3
Here's the Pacific Sun, tied up and waiting to get on with its Summer cruising program.
This is a reasonably big ship, some 46,000 tonnes, built in 1986. She carries 1900 passengers and has 9 decks. The Pacific Sun is a modern, luxury liner of the P&O Line.
I came to Australia on the SS Britanis. She was built at Massachusetts as the Monterey in 1932, for the Matson Navigation Company and was 17,000 tonnes. She later became the Matsonia and later the Lurline. Finally, the ship was sold to Chandos Lines and became SS Britanis, making many trips to Australia full of assisted migrants, like me.
We sailed to Australia the long way round, via the Cape of Good Hope, as the Suez Canal was closed due to the Gulf War. Departing on July 4th 1971, the journey took us from Southampton to Las Palmas, Dakar, Capetown, Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne and then up to Sydney. We arrived at about 7-00am.
I will never forget that feeling - sailing into Sydney Harbour on that cold, sunny Winter's morning, 4th August 1971, with just 50 quid in my pocket.
Yes, sailing into the most beautiful harbour in the world, and then disembarking at the International Terminal opposite the Opera House, under the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge, right slap-bang in the middle of this fantastic city really is still I guess a most wonderful experience, BUT after 5 weeks at sea all those years ago ...
... I never want to go on board another cruise ship. It is soooooooooooooooo boring !
Post Mortem
The SS Britanis sank off Capetown in October 2000.
No comments:
Post a Comment