A report in The Australian says that the 7000 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its four support vessels have farewelled Sydney, spending $10 million during their five-day stay.
Escorted by a flotilla of small boats, the Kitty Hawk left Sydney Harbour yesterday after some R&R while docked at the Garden Island naval base.
It is estimated the 7000 sailors spent $2million a day or about $280 a crew member a day and while the sailors also engaged in various
charitable works around the city, including a visit to sick children at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, fast-food outlets, pubs, tattoo parlours and brothels all did thriving business out of the sailors, with a rumoured 2,000 prostitutes flown in from interstate for the week.
The Australian Hotels Association predicted as much as a 30% spike in trade, and one brothel manager told The Australian that business had been “very, very good”.
Brace yourselves Brisbane as the Kitty Hawk is due to berth in Brisbane, where local businesses can anticipate a similar increase in trade, before she leaves Australian waters.
A receptionist at Cleos on Nile, a licensed brothel in Brisbane, said: “I guess we are going to be quite busy.”
Some Sydneysiders were pleased to see the ship sail through the heads, however, including residents of harbour foreshore suburbs such as Woolloomooloo, where roads had been cleared because of special-event clearway traffic rules.
This was probably USS Kitty Hawk’s last visit to Australia, with the vessel scheduled to be decommissioned next June, being replaced by the nuclear-powered George Washington.
The 323m long super-carrier and the four US Navy support ships that accompanied it to Sydney had been taking part in the joint Australian-US military exercise Talisman Sabre off Queensland, with Lieutenant Commander Tom Ray telling Sky News, “We’ll be heading out to do some more operations and have fun right up here off the Australian coast.”
“We do have another port call coming up in Australia in Brisbane.”
Report by The Mole
