I spent a Christmas in Perth in the late 80's via a US Navy Carrier Strike Group port visit. It was on the tail end of an IO deployment and my wife came over, we have great memories of the hospitality. I did get into a little bit of trouble with her due to our going on a winery tour via boat on the Swan River. If that boat is still around there are lots of my brain cells still aboard, hence the problem with my wife she never lets me forget.
The America's Cup races were being held there that year and we were worried that there would not be enough boats available for hire to get the carrier's crew to shore as she had to anchor offshore (the other ships went alongside in Fremantle). Our carriers did not keep many boats aboard in favor of using the space in the hanger for aircraft. It was my job as Surface Operations (among lots of other things) for the Admiral to gather up extra boats and find places on other ships to store them to include welding skids in open and otherwise unused spaces on a few ships. I spent most of the deployment working the issue and developed enough capacity to take care of the problem but, alas, when we arrived there turned out to be lots of boats for hire. I ended up going back and forth mostly by helo.
The America's Cup races were being held there that year and we were worried that there would not be enough boats available for hire to get the carrier's crew to shore as she had to anchor offshore (the other ships went alongside in Fremantle). Our carriers did not keep many boats aboard in favor of using the space in the hanger for aircraft. It was my job as Surface Operations (among lots of other things) for the Admiral to gather up extra boats and find places on other ships to store them to include welding skids in open and otherwise unused spaces on a few ships. I spent most of the deployment working the issue and developed enough capacity to take care of the problem but, alas, when we arrived there turned out to be lots of boats for hire. I ended up going back and forth mostly by helo.