Sydney

April 13
Sydney

Turnaround day and I’m fighting a decent cold that my roommate happened to give me. I’ve actually been fighting it for a while now, but after a perpetual sore throat my ailment has decided to shift focus to a lovely sinus infection and is starting to take my voice as well. Regardless, I helped my roommate move out this morning and got a new guy, Eric, from Portland. I left the ship for a quick phone call home, quick because I forgot to charge my computer, and then grabbed lunch off the ship. The big plan for today was to meet up with my Sydney friend, Belinda, and sign her onto the ship, something I’d organized a few days ago. So I tried to grab a quick lunch at a café, but after it took 45 minutes for them to serve me my sandwich I came to the conclusion “quick” and “café” are not always synonymous. Also, I was lucky enough to have a bird share the fully digested half of it’s lunch with me all over my arm while I waited for mine…yay. Anyway, I took it all with good humor, ate my lunch quickly, and met my friend at the ship about 5 minutes behind schedule.
I signed Belinda on with no difficulties and gave her a tour. She used to be a spa girl so we spent a lot of time looking around the spa, along with all the other crew areas that brought back a number of memories for her. It was funny to see her walking through the ship and her reactions to things I’ve been taking for granted but that she’d forgotten about since she left ships. She bought me a chocolate bunny as a thank you, I eventually walked her off the ship and we said farewell for the last time this cruise. It’s been nice being able to meet up with her though, and as I’ve said, probably my favorite part of working on ships.
I then tried to get the local tax refunded on my didgeridoo, something customs is supposed to do in Australia. So I found the customs desk, brought my receipt, and was instantly turned away because of my crew status. They’re afraid that crew members will take advantage of this policy, getting refunds at each port, which could easily be remedied with a stamp or hole punch to the receipt, but that’s the policy and it lost me a potential $70, no fun.
Back on the ship I took over as the MD for band rehearsal and the replacement MD did just as he said he would: simply played without saying a word (which is for the better cause I think he’s totally clueless anyway). The shows went fine and I spent most of the day and night thinking about schedules and watching the new band that signed on (because we hadn’t yet clarified what exactly I’d be doing).
And I guess that’s about all. We’ve now left Sydney and Australia for the final time, we’re heading for the Cook islands and French Polynesia, and then Hawaii. I’ll be directing the band from today till when I depart the ship and I’m really excited for the opportunity. Thanks for reading!