Lock up your daughters...

USS Kitty Hawk - Aircraft Carrier by sunset
Originally uploaded by swang.

... the sailors are in town!

Had the awesome experience of watching the USS Kitty Hawk come into Fremantle Harbour this morning, and it was such a great visual experience!

It was meant to come in at about 10am this morning, but when the guys from work checked the updated schedule yesterday, it said 7:30am so I was going to miss it as I was dropping off Hannah at the inlaws. But as I drove towards work after dropping off Hannah via Cottesloe, I saw it out on the horizon and just got to work as it was turning in towards the harbour and got an excellent view from the top of the Fremantle Ports building.

One of the perks of working for the Port is that I get to see all the ships come in and out of the harbour, and most times it's just boring container ships, or even worse the stock ships which smells like *SHEEP*... :)

USS Kitty Hawk
Originally uploaded by gnawmas.

Awesome sight of the sailors lined up on the perimeter of the deck, in their naval uniforms, and to see the awesome sight of the aircraft on the deck, mostly F18 Hornets and a few command centre aircraft which I'm not sure what they are called, but they are the ones that look like they have huge flying saucers on the top of them, and I think they serve as an aerial command centre.

I took heaps of pics, but only a few were usable, and even brought my video camera in to record it just in case they rotated it in the harbour, which I heard is quite a sight as the length of the aircraft carrier takes up almost the entire width of the harbour. I think I'll be heading out to North Quay to get a good view on Monday morning when it leaves port, and get more pics/videos.

Pity they no longer hold public tours on board since 9/11, but I hear that some staff from the Port got clearance to have a private tour... now how the heck do I get on one of those tours?!?! :) The entire passenger terminal and the roads leading up to it are closed and off limits, which means that my usual morning and evening short cut to the carpark between the railway and harbour will not be available... *grumble*

Interesting trivia: I heard from one of the guys from work that the USS Kitty Hawk is the last remaining US aircraft carrier that will dock at Fremantle as only non-nuclear powered aircraft carriers are allowed to dock at Freo. A few years back there were 3 diesel powered US aircraft carriers, but one (USS Constellation) has since retired and the other hangs around the Atlantic Ocean so it won't be headed down here. So all you local West Aussies head down to Freo this weekend for a glimpse as this opportunity does not happen very often...