After a few severe thunderstorms during the night, we woke to a rather dull, overcast day, but, thankfully, the rain held off. The weather, however, was certainly not going to dampen our spirits, since today was a special day; Happy 60th Birthday to a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, brother and son, oh ya and captain. Chocolate cake and a mexican cutie for breakfast was a great start to his day, no doubt!

Then it was off to enjoy the birthday boy's gift; a day out in the historic area of Sydney, The Rocks. After a mid-morning coffee at the Munich Brauhaus, we then enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch at "Fish at The Rocks"; sashimi starter, followed by a seafood linguine for Roy, mussels in a tomato and white wine sauce starter, followed by blue-eyed cod for Elaine. Coffees and a soft centred hot chocolate cake to share with a birthday candle, complements of the staff, completed the meal. Yum!

What began as Sydney's convict settlement, The Rocks is a neighbourhood in the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. From cobbled laneways and sandstone warehouses to Australia's oldest pubs, it is also home to Cadmans Cottage, claiming the title as the first building to have been built on the shoreline of The Rocks area, the second oldest surviving residential building and the third oldest building in Sydney, having been built in 1816. It is one of only a handful of Sydney buildings that remain from the first 30 years of the colony and was used for the governmental coxswains and their crews.

It was also home to John Cadman, born in January 1758, and one of Sydney's first convicts, sentenced to death in England for stealing a horse, but his sentence was commuted to transportation to the colony of Australia in 1797 at the age of 40. From 1806 he worked in Castle Hill as a convict labourer, then transferred to Government Docks in 1809. In 1813 he was appointed as Coxswain of Timber and Lumber and received a conditional pardon in 1814. After serving as Coxswain of the Antelope for 4 years, he received a free pardon by Governor Macquarie in 1821, eventually becoming Master of the 30 ton cutter, Mars, which was later shipwrecked off Port Stephens. In 1827 he was appointed Superintendent of Government Boats and lived in the cottage, with his wife and two stepdaughters, from 1827 until his retirement in 1845, staying a total of 18 years, the longest time served by a governmental coxswain until the position was abolished after Cadman's retirement. He died in 1848.

John Cadman was born 200 years, exactly to the month and the year, before Roy. How uncanny is that!