It is gigantic. There seems to be endless factoids about the various 60-some bays that make up the harbour. An amazing history.
It was a cold but nice winter day.
Lots of sail boats and kyacks. And some kyack people that really know what they were doing. We were in a medium-sized tour boat and I was wondering why one guy was getting what I thought was dangerously close. He ended up drafting the tour-boat at the stern for a few kilometres. Photo below.
The tour boat went by the Navy base. Disappointing what the tour person said over the loud-speaker. that the HMAS Choules was a lemon.
I just closed my eyes and nodded my head 'no'. Thinking of all the tourists that would hear that again and again.
The history of the HMAS Choules is interesting.
Defence, the RAN and DMO decided not to do their job of maintaining existing logistics ships we already had. This is dereliction of duty. They let those ships get into serious disrepair so they were undeployable.
Around the time when the UK MOD was having one of its going out of business sales (the same one that saw the Harriers go away), they decided that getting rid of the then Largs Bay (now HMAS Choules) was the thing to do.
Australia bought it for cheap, but didn't do a proper risk assessment. It broke right after Australia got it and was out of service for some months.
I suspect it works now and is not 'a lemon'.
(click image to make larger)
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