Cruising the Tasman Sea, Day Three

Sometime yesterday afternoon, sea and winds changed. We are being rattled side to side! Where we couldn't see swells from our balcony the first day and a half, this morning we can see them rolling in and hitting on the starboard side. The good news is that we are expected to enter Sydney's protected harbor around 1 to 1:15 pm so the end is in sight. The bad news according to the captain is the leased ferry/tender operation they are required to use from our Athol Buoy anchorage will not run if wind speed exceeds 15 knots. The wind out here is definitely higher than that. I've checked a couple of sailing conditions websites and it looks like we should be OK today but tomorrow afternoon is looking iffy. I don't know what Crystal does if passengers are stuck ashore due to wind at sailaway time!

We missed the rest of the captain's announcement today as we were at the destinations desk and it wasn't audible there. This morning we had mail at our door, it was a 2nd announcement about our pre-booked Kangaroo Island full day Tastes of Kangaroo Islands. Earlier we'd been informed about tour stops substitutions and wine tasting cancellation. Today's announcement was that lunch was moved to a Mercure hotel and we needed to order lunch from the attached menu by the 10th. The 3 choices on the entree menu were roast lamb, confit of pork belly in XO sauce or fish. That was the final straw for me on a $299 pp tour. We canceled. We tried to substitute the half day Tastes tour without lunch for $159 pp but it was waitlisted. We booked the Pennington Bay & Seal Colony tour in the afternoon at $149 pp instead.

So tonight we have special plans and hope the winds are in our favor. On New Year's Day while in Florida, we booked Sydney Opera House Symphony Orchestra tickets. It is the gala season opening night. We hope they don't dress too formally for that because we have a long trek to get there and won't be dressed up. We paid $138.50 AUD for the 2 of us. When they emailed us our tickets today we also got notification to leave bags at home for security purposes. That was unexpected. We were easily able to print the emailed tickets in the CU@Seas onboard on deck 7. Pasted below is tonight's performance description.

Sydney Symphony 2019 Season Opening Gala
Diana Doherty plays Westlake
Make a stellar start to 2019 with the Sydney Symphony. This performance features Strauss' Thus Spake Zarathustra - an unforgettable musical odyssey used for the theme in 2001: A Space Odyssey; Diana Doherty then shines in Westlake’s oboe concerto Spirit of the Wild.
In the Concert Hall, our largest venue.

We are going to be anchored at Athol Buoy near Taronga Zoo. We will be tendered/ferried across the bay and past the Opera House to dock at St. Ives Steps at Dawes Point which is on the far side of the Sydney Harbor bridge. Google Maps says it is about a 5 minute walk to the Park Hyatt Sydney near the Rocks which is the only place they are offering a disabled only complimentary shuttle. I have to assume that is because of an available taxi rank. It would take as long or longer to drive or take public transit to the Opera House as to walk because you can walk more directly I think. So, fingers crossed we'll make it. We plan to leave Serenity ASAP and walk and have a light dinner at one of the no reservations required venues at the Opera House before getting in the 7:30pm security line for the 8pm show.

Since it will be quite late when we get back tonight, I'll post this now. If I have anything to report after this afternoon, I'll type it up and post it tomorrow.