2nd post

On the 14th March Saturday morning our departure from Maroochy airport was made simple with dear friend Josie depositing us safely at the airport terminal where we later met with Caloundra friends Diane and Paul, also flying 5 minutes earlier than us en route for a short holiday in Sydney before going on an island cruise.

On arrival at Sydney Airport we awaited our collection with a no show by Princess cruises.  

Mobile phone was out of battery so rang via ipad skype to be advised to get a taxi which took us through the new tunnel at an extra cost in tolls, avoiding much traffic and resulted in a very quick trip.  Princess agreed to refund the costs as we had pre paid our transfers.

Getting acquainted with our cabin and dropping off the hand luggage we made our way to Panorama Buffet for some lunch at 3.30 pm, both ready for it by then.  

Safety drill was then required before Sailing out of Sydney Harbour from White Bay Terminal on the Ocean Princess.

One of the most beautiful harbours in the world with such scenic beauty.  It was a balmy, sunny day and we chose to sit aloft port side in the aft lounge on deck 10 with magnificent views, sipping magarita cocktails, our "happy hour" sailaway.

And dammit I did not have my camera with me !!  The views were too good to miss by racing down to the cabin so in my head they stay.  It is at this point I may have inserted a couple of photos but need a usb wired directly to the brain.

Too tired for evening dinner after late lunch we unpacked and tried out the manoeuvrability within our cabin so as to negotiate a path past the mobility scooter for night jaunts to the loo.

All of it was too hard, I kept bumping and bruising my hip past a corner desk point, no where to put the scooter so we have had to stow the desk seat in the wardrobe, opt for the singles to be pushed together and now stow the scooter halfway under the desk, its working.

Rested and relaxed we now attend the Reef Pilots lectures and will be travelling on the inner reef stretching 2300 km from tropic of capricorn to Torres (named after Portuguese explorer) strait.

Interestingly most maritime lecturers seem to refer to that amazingly interesting book 1421 by Gavin Menzies, where his historical research states the Chinese sailing vessels were around the coast of Australia centuries before the Dutch, French and English, with some typical timbers from wrecked Junks being found. 

Apparently in the Beijing museum archives Chinese explorers detailed having seen and described a large animal with deer  shaped head long tail and two heads. Apparently that was the description of Kangaroo with joey in the pouch.  Also there are Chinese stone pyramids at Gympie, their markings of travels at the time.  Must check the locations of those when I get home.