The Brotherhood that is CSR.......

The Bill Collector

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Jun 2, 2008
5,020
Tacoma, WA
Boat Info
1998 450 Sundancer, Achilles dinghy w/15hp
Engines
3126 Cat's
I have had the internal debate with myself about should or how to put this out there.... My wife and I had the good fortune to visit Australia these past two weeks. We have have never been before, I reached out to a few members from "down under" and asked for some travel advice while we were in country.

Upon arrival in Sydney I contacted Chris...
We had the very good fortune to meet Chris,his wife Vicky and their wonderful daughter. Now I had only emailed back & forth with Chris and our only thing in common was our love of boating, SeaRays and CSR.....

Chris & Vicky had a day all planned to take these two strangers from the states out on their boat for a day on the Hawkesbury River (north of Sydney 1 hour). We had a FANTASTIC day, the friendship, the boating, the weather, the river.... I hope you get the idea, this was a truly memorable day and besides scuba diving the "Great Barrier Reef", it was the highlight of our trip.

I want to acknowledge the special day that this member and his wife made for us....

"Thank you" Chris & Vicky we had a great time....
(and you have a beautiful SeaRay)

Best Wishes, Mark & Lina
 
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In my limited contact with Australians, they are very, very nice people! I was there for a work project over the span of a couple weeks, a while ago, and the project manager and his wife took an entire day out of their lives to take me(a complete stranger to them) sightseeing around Sydney and it's outlying areas on one of our days off! What a day, what wonderful people. The people I worked with were all wonderful too!

-VtSeaRay
 
I've been twice and have found the same thing. Some friends and I spent a whole day out on the bay in a rag boat with our military hosts in Australia - just Southwest of Newcastle. It was spectacular.
 
I always wanted to go to Australia... What a neat way to see the country from a local's view point... Hopefully some of our overseas members will visit some us in the states...
 
Cool, thanks for sharing. Sea Ray boats and owners are more than just a boat or boat owners, it is a lifestyle.

Funny, the first time I told my wife we were going to go 100 of miles away with the boat to visit people I meet on the computer she thought I had lost it. (Grin)

Way to go CSR gang!
 
The guy I worked closely with, would take me out sightseeing after work too! We went to Bondi, Central, the Sydney Tower all over the place. I was within walking distance of the opera house, and enjoyed that, and the water taxis around the harbour. (Darling Harbor and the Rocks were great places to see too)

The proj mgr and his wife asked me where I wanted to go, in the morning before we left, and I said I wasn't that familiar with the highlights of the area. I said one place I wanted to go to if possible, was an Australian only animal zoo. They took me to Sydney Taronga Zoo, and I got to see some great animals, and held a koala bear! Saw my first tree kangaroo, and lots of joey's and other variety's of kangaroos. I also asked them what they felt were the highlights of the area that they liked, and that I'd enjoy them as well. So, we went to bluffs around the harbour to see the old jail cell out on an island in the middle of the harbour, and then up to Manly Beach, where we had their famous Fish and Chips! We then went to a park in the city, with a variety of different pools in it. Very neat.

Great stuff! I wanted to go to the Blue mtns and Ayers Rock, but they are a long ways away (I think they said the Blue Mtns were like 8+ hrs drive from Sydney)

It was neat seeing the parrots flying thru the city streets. What a great place to visit! What incredible people!

Ah, memories.
 
We have many Auzzies around here (tennis and golf captital) and they are the most friendly group, always willing to help with anything. They even started a restaurant here named after them, the Outback!!

Also love the way they run their country, they were founded on Christian beliefs, have prayer in schools, work hard, party hard and will not yield to be "policically correct".

Awhile back someone sent me an email from I believe the Prime Minister Brown, it was a most inspiring speach about the values and traditions of the Auzzies. They will not change their values and traditions for any reason period! Anyone that has an issue with this will recieve a prepaid one way airline ticket to the destination of choice!

Got to love those Auzzies!!!!
 
Great story Mark. I've always wanted to go there and New Zealand.
 
After communicating with Chris Dauth of Hervey Bay, Quuensland...I have looked into the possibility of visiting Australia with an eye out for employment opportunities.

My wife and I feel that Australia may be more in line with the "Old USA" that we grew up in. We are becoming more and more discouraged with the way life is deteriorating here in the US and Australia may be worth looking into as a work retirement destination.:thumbsup:
 
The last time I was there, there was a Cyclone in the water off the East Coast. We were supposed to participate in a Large Force Exercise off the coast, over the barrier reef, but we had to leave Townsville (100 miles S of Cairns) and fly down to Williamtown near Newcastle. Every 2 F-15's flew on the wing of 1 F-18 who was headed back home to avoid the storm - we don't have VHF radios. Australia doesn't have UHF radios for their center controlling agencies.

When we got there, we headed to Sydney for 5 days/4 nights. We stayed in a hotel within a block of the Opera House. We took a high-speed ferry to the aquarium at the end of the Harbour. On the way back, we watched a yacht burn to the ground in the middle of the harbour.

As the storm went back out to sea, we flew 2 11 v 12 missions against the F-18's, then we all flew back to Townsville for the 2nd week of LFE (11, because one of my wingman ran off the end of the 8,000' rwy and sunk the broken Eagle in the mud - front page news). We stayed in the Sheraton Casino on the coast line. Belinda Carlisle had the suite next door - we had to shove a wet towel under the adjoining door in order to keep the funky smoke out.

We went to an Aus rules football game (rugby). They marshalled our drunk asses out onto the field as guests during 1/2 time. Our room-mate, Belinda, was escorted out and up onto a rinky-dink stage where she sang some Go-Go's songs. Her escorts held her up by her elbows. It was funny.

The day before we were supposed to re-deploy to Japan, the storm turned around and was heading back. Most of the guys were partying hard Fri night as we were supposed to be packing Sat and flying Sunday. The 4-star Gen of PACAF called our sq commander and told him to leave a day early.

I had ridden my bike to work that Sat morning for packing. My sq cc met me at the ops building in his flight gear. He said, standing with his hands on his hip, rocking back and forth heal to toe, sounding just like Ed Sullivan, "Waldo, on account of you flying your F-15 to Darwin in 90 minutes, if you are standing here in your civilian clothes right now, you are probably wrong." He then 'spained the situation to me, gave me the keys to his rental, and told me to bring Hooter, my room-mate, back with me after I packed.

I scrambled back to the hotel. Hooter's bed was still made from the previous morning. I left a note: "We're going to Darwin stop You're not in trouble stop" (like a telegram). We flew our 11 healthy F-15's to Darwin "Due Regard" in the high 30's (35,000' or so). We couldn't talk to anyone on the radios. We saw one car and a shack on an inlet on the N coast of Aus, on the S point of a huge inlet/bay.

Hooter's story: He met a young lady the night before. He was waking up in her apartment when he heard jet noise. He headed out onto her balcony in his grunders, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and guarding them from the bright light of the day after. After the 4th or 5th one passed, he realized that they were F-15's. He called out to "what's her name," "Hey, come here! These are F-15's like I fly!" Then, he realized that the only F-15's within several thousand miles were in fact the F-15's that he flies. "Holy ****h, I gotta go!" (ala "Life of Brian" by Monty Python.)

He got back to the hotel and got my note. He said it was the best note he ever read in his whole life. He and Rico, the other, lucky, MIA guy were in charge of re-deploying all of the troops by KC-10 while we partied in Darwin (if that is possible) for a whole week. We took a "Jumping Crocodile" tour on the river. They held dead chickens on a stick on the top deck while we took pictures from behind plexiglass on the lower deck. They swam up on their tails to reach 10+ feet up in the air.

Once we got back to Kadena, we always said we were going to make a tour T-shirt like a rock tour - that's what it felt like. "The 44th does Australia."

You still with me?

Large force stuff: We would take off from Townsville as an 8-ship and fly SE until we were within radio range of an E-3 off the Central Coast of E Australia. We would then marshall with B-52's, F-18's, F-16's, F-111's (Aus.), B-1's, and assorted others like F-14's, EA-6B's... We flew 80-ship formations to attack the E coast of Aus on a bombing range that protruded out into the ocean. Dozens of others flew Defensive Counter Air. Their were more airplanes in one piece of sky than New York City has.

A friend of mine was charging the coast at high speed and low altitude one day. He had to visit a lady in her cracked house in blue uniform to apologize for breaking the training rules one day. We wanted to name him Crack. We ended up naming him Smash, but that's another story.

More stories another time.
 
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I just remembered that while I was in Australia, 2 Great White shark attacks occurred. They hadn't had them in a few years the locals said. One was a couple scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef on their honeymoon, the husband saw the great white heading for his wife, pushed her out of the way, and was eaten. The other was a scientist was studying seals down on Tasmania Island. Guess what is a main food for Great Whites. That scientist was the slowest seal and became shark lunch. I also remember all the shark nets on the main beaches. I'd never seen them before, so it made going into the water a little interesting!

-VtSeaRay
 
Great story....Did you look to the clear night sky for the Southern Cross? That's on my bucket list.
 
Great story....Did you look to the clear night sky for the Southern Cross? That's on my bucket list.


My wife and I went down to "4 mile beach" in Port Douglas....
We took down two beach chairs, salami, cheese, crackers, a bottle of Vuove Cliquot champagne and 2 glasses..... There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the stars were all there for show and tell.... The only hitch in the giddy up was us.... We didn't recognize the formations, but whatever they are, there were amazing !!!

more pic's of the trip if interested.... diving the "Great
Barrier" was great !!

http://markangelinaswedding.shutterfly.com/419?size=All&startIndex=0
 

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