THE 5500 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk have farewelled Sydney

and $10 million of their money spent 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 aboard the aircraft carrier and its four support vessels spent $2million a day during their visit to Sydney - or about $280 a crew member a day.

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.

The Australian Hotels Association predicted as much as a 30 per cent spike in trade, while one brothel manager told The Australian business had been "very, very good".

The Kitty Hawk is due to berth in Brisbane - where local businesses can anticipate a similar increase in trade - before leaving 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 - 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.

It will be 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.

"We'll be heading out to do some more operations and have fun right up here off the Australian coast," Lieutenant Commander Tom Ray told Sky News.

"We do have another port call coming up in Australia, we'll have one in Brisbane."

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