Celebrity Eclipse

There had been a major COVID outbreak (early on) connected with the berthing of a cruise ship in Sydney Harbour. The cruise industry finished up effectively closed altogether in Australia ... until recently. 

I was strolling along the Cahill Expressway walkway, when my attention was drawn to the harbour by a loud ship's tooting. Ferry boats and private yachts were scurrying out of the way of the "Celebrity Eclipse" as it approached the passenger ship terminal at Circular Quay. In all my years, I had never actually watched a large ship tie up at the Quay although I'd seen them just sitting there, many a time.

At 122,000 tons, this ship (by a narrow margin) is actually the third largest vessel in the "Celebrity" worldwide fleet. Tugboats stood by but I was amazed to see the ship approach the wharf (albeit slowly) to berth itself using stern and bow thrusters alone. As neat and as smooth as you please.

Perspective is deceptive of course. It might not look like it from here but, theoretically at least (using published specifications), this ship CAN pass under the coat hanger with a clearance of nine metres. In practice however, the actual gap is influenced by the tides and I am not confident that the official height of the superstructure includes all the masts and technical protrusions of more recent origin. In any event there is supposed to be a minimum official margin which has to be exceeded before navigation rights upstream to White Bay (the other passenger ship terminal) are permitted.