The regular Wednesday mid-week watch of 25/11/15 coincided with the P&O 5 Ship Spectacular – an historic event where all 5 of P&O cruise ships were to be in Sydney Harbour to commemorate the official naming of the cruise line’s two latest additions to its fleet – the “Pacific Aria” and “Pacific Eden”. With the historic rendezvous of all 5 ships sailing together in a V formation off Sydney’s coastline in the early hours just on sunrise, the crew were offered an early start to the day to combine some offshore training experience (especially for the newer members) with this event, or the regular mid-morning start, and all jumped at the unique chance so an early start it was. This being a Sydney Harbour event, we also offered to RMS our service for any assistance that may have been required, and they thanked us for the offer. The crew assembled at our Spit base pre-dawn, completed the opening up procedure for our recue vessel MH30 and were on the way out of the heads just after sunrise. We ventured offshore and escorted the first 3 ships “Pacific Dawn”, “Pacific Jewel” and “Pacific Pearl” into the harbour and stood by and observed the anchoring and stern-to mooring of Pacific Jewel in Athol Bay. Once all 3 ships were safely anchored, we were then on station just off Fort Dennison for the entrance into the harbour of the two new ships for their naming ceremony. Both ships stood by just in front of Fort Dennison, and the naming ceremony began, with the “godmothers” Jessica Mauboy and Kate Ritchie having the honour of doing the official naming. Once the formalities were over,all 5 ships sounded their horns to mark the occasion, with daytime fireworks in front of the city skyline as the backdrop. As the 2 new ships departed Fort Dennison to their berths, it was time for us to return to base for a late breakfast/early lunch.
