05/11/2023
Dear Customers…
No .. That’s not going to work …
Dear Le Bayview Family! (That’s more like it!)
We write this announcement with a bit of a heavy heart (not too heavy though; Life’s too short! Keep it light)..
After months and months of hard work, trying to keep the wheels turning, we have finally hit a dead end, and are forced to shut Le Bayview down..
Ok, ok, we know you’re here for the juicy details, but we’re not big fans of sob stories, so we’ll spare you the gory details, and try to capture the positive content of this moment, as we believe in always looking on the bright side …
The first time we came to see the spot we’ve all grown to know as Le Bayview, we couldn’t help but ask ourselves: What’s the catch?!!
The location where the Bayview Anchorage Marina is situated is probably one of the most magical places we’ve ever laid eyes on, and on some deep subconscious level, we feel as though we’ve somehow snuck under the radar, and into a piece of heaven that has somehow managed to remain a secret in an age where everything is out in the open, and all the beautiful spots are inundated with tourists. The water, the green hills around, all the ship masts, Scotland Island!! (I mean, Hello!!)
What made the experience really magical though, is the community of people we’ve grown to see as our Le Bayview family. We're not sure we know of a word that is more suitable to describe our relationship with this group of people other than absolute privilege (seriously, lookup the word “privilege” in the dictionary).
In the scramble to do everything we had to do over the last 4-5 days to ensure a smooth and clean close of operations, the stories of our interactions with you have been flooding our minds, and here are some that we can’t help but share:
Greg is arguably our first ever, most loyal, and consistent customer. Greg’s face, voice, and iconic hat are the first image that emerges through the fog of memory that lingers as we go back to the start of it all. Greg is there every morning (except for when he disappears to go on his secret agent missions out of town), before the place is open, and is happy to wait for the kitchen to open before he gets his breakfast, while sipping on his usual cappuccino.. whenever we can, we hang out for the stories, and they are countless, and fascinating. For a very long time, Greg would be joined by Dani, who is sadly no longer with us, for endless WWII conversations and the mandatory daily walk, later on Myriam (Dani’s partner until the very end), and more recently, P&I, who stroll in for a couple of coffees and a chat before getting on with their day...
Anthony shows up 3 mornings a week before first light with Winston, an Airdale Terrier who is no longer a puppy. Anthony will have his two piccolos, and march out to face his day with the same energetic stride he had when he marched in 10-15 minutes earlier. He also brings his young beautiful, and more importantly, very clever daughter in for some fish and chips over the weekend (he has a cold bottle of “special grown-up juice” while she eats).
Sweet Annie will drop in for her daily coffee, rain, hail or shine, and take first dibs on the sofa, a highly contested territory of extreme importance, and shared ownership between Annie, Mario, and Val … (Anyone else occupying the sofa when the owners are there is hesitantly tolerated). Mario is really a pirate, so he keeps some pretty weird hours, and Val (our very own local celebrity author and artist (she’s also a celebrity in much much wider circles)), will usually come in for lunch (until recently with her cat Rocky, whom we’ll always have a soft spot for), so the three of them had a very harmonious relationship when it came to the ownership of the sofa (mostly because they knew nothing of each other’s existence for most of the time the sofa existed). (sorry about all the parentheses here, but somehow this bit felt like it was being narrated, and shall here forth be known as the sofa story)
Malcolm and Cathy are there usually around 9:30-10:00 for some long black coffees (the only true way to drink coffee), and pastries from France.
The paddlers have graced us with their presence two to three times a week after their paddles on Pittwater right from the start, and have been a great source of joy and inspiration for us through the various ways we’ve interacted with each member of that group. We will continue to try and make Mondays at the RSL with Julia and Brian, and will forever be grateful to Nola and Graham for being such gracious hosts for our family when they came over.
Speaking of being graced, this wouldn’t fly without mentioning our very own Three Graces, Judy, Cathy and Hillary, who are the only members of this family to have their own items in our till …
Leigh with the kids, Johnny and Pauline, the Angusses (both sailors, both in love with the meat pie. No relation), Jane the sailor lady, Jeff and Sheila, Jackie and Keith, Raouf and Ingrid, Dennis with Oki for the hot chocolate (and Simon with Oki in the evenings for the adult session), Monica from Monica’s doggy rescue, four pawed smiling Bella and Jazz, Prue and Andrew, and so many other names and faces that we are failing mention here.. All characters in a story that we will never be able to forget, and will continue to tell for decades to come...
Andy from upstairs is usually there around the same time as us, and sometimes even earlier, we often tell each other off for being up so early, before we conclude that somebody’s gotta do it…
You’d never guess it if it wasn’t for the occasional grinding noise coming from the back, but there’s a bunch of serious workshops around the marina too, and the crews from those shops have been pivotal for us; Tony from the boat woodworking workshop gracefully did some very important woodwork for us right from the start when we were still the new kids in town, and didn’t even flinch. Chrisso, from the Marine Tune shop is an incredibly cool cat (don’t tell him, we don’t think he knows), and his support and incredibly cool attitude (especially coming in and shouting "Hello Team!” in the mornings) has made us feel like we too can be cool cats when we grow up! Paco, Tom, Danny, and Rob from the slipway, legendary characters like something out of an Ernest Hemingway novel (Seriously, we didn’t think people like that existed until we saw for ourselves).
The Smart Boating team, led by David Grice and Martin Lyall, who have both been very supportive and generous with advice, Ryan, who is incredibly bright without anyone ever knowing it, Prue and Liz in the office, Will, YiChen, and the boys on the wharf! There are also the people who came and went over the last three years: Sonia and Miguel, who are now conquering new frontiers on a small island in QLD. JJ, who is only up to some mind boggling adventures. Andrew, who is very impressively working on saving our coastlines! And many more.
The Windcraft team, led by Anthony, who lives for his wife and two daughters, Tom, Dave (whose shipwright skills we are aware of just because of all the epic stories we’ve heard from people in the know), and the rest of the team..
The offices upstairs are occupied and run by people who seem to inadvertently inspire awe in us, like Kirsten, Toby, Pam, Matt (who is building the AirBnB for boats website). For a while, we also had Simon there, who designs, engineers, and builds Aeroplanes for a living!!
(If someone tried to tell us about this collection of individuals, we would have called them a liar)
This brings us to our special people: Mario and Nick aka Herkey (short for Hercules), who run the rigging workshop upstairs, Mario designed and built the tall ship rigs for Johhny Depp to swing from in Pirates of the Caribbean, and Nick is one of the hottest race sailors around (he’s been winning everything under the sun) when he’s not busy making some pretty revolutionary rigs. And Joh and David, Joh and David are so engrained in our lives that we wouldn’t know where to begin if we wanted to tell stories about them, Joh was one of the first people to welcome us into this little microcosm when came into the cafe after a few days of us opening and broke the ice by introducing herself in the most elegant way we’ve ever experienced. Joh doesn’t come across as elegant in day-to-day life, but that’s exactly what’s special about Joh, the deeply engrained internal elegance that she tries so hard to hide, she is one of the most generous, caring, and loving people we’ve encountered, and the only reason we know is because the plants told us. (yes, we’re a little coockoo too). David, aka Skip, the quiet type with abundant knowledge and experience and a strong penchant for humanity that are only visible if you know how to lure them out. David also skippers the mighty Love and War on her journeys back from Hobart after the annual race. John, aka Pres (short for The President, as in, The President of the Marina), owner of the mighty Viking, an amazing sailboat that lives in the marina, and is over a hundred years old. Justin, owner of PaddleCraft, the kayak hire business in the marina, who has been battling some rather harsh market conditions that have affected his businesses, and who consistently shared his own stories with us, allowing us to feel normal in some pretty abnormal conditions, and contributed to our strength and resilience in the face of adversity.
Our staff: Over the last 3 years, approximately 75 different people have worked for Le Bayview, some stayed longer, some shorter periods of time, most were decent people, and a select few have been exceptional! Most recently, we had Amber (aka Awesome), Elise aka Barbie (shared awesomeness with Amber), Kieran (our very own Scotsman), Kelly (aka Kiddo... our adoptive daughter), and Ruby (aka Amazing/Speedy). These are the people who constituted the remaining members of the dream team. Without them, the place would have had no chance of providing you with the service you’ve received. Each of them as unique as their story, these young people are definitely going places.
Along the line, and mainly from the shadows, we have been graciously supported and, pushed along, by an unexpected and probably unlikely ally through this adventure. In the beginning, we didn’t know much, and we heard stories when we first landed here. Stories that made it sound like we really, really needed to be careful to avoid all sorts of potential trouble with our landlord. At first, we didn’t know what to believe, but as events progressed, we’ve found that the rumours were simply untrue. Our landlords have been nothing short of a solid rock for us in this storm. At a time when they themselves have been feeling some rather devastating effects of Covid and an economic downturn, their patience, understanding, and incredible and unwavering support and encouragement have been absolutely instrumental to Le Bayview surviving for as long as it did. Had it not been for this, had the rumours been true, this story would have ended way earlier than it did. For that, we are appreciative, and grateful beyond words, and have nothing but utter respect and admiration for Leon and Brigitte.
As we bring this chapter of our lives to a close, we can’t help but look at all of this as an experience we were only lucky to have. We’ve all heard some pretty unique stories from around the world, but to us, this one is not only unique, it is also stunningly real. You tell us, how many people do you know who can tell a story as incredible as this, and swear it’s all real? We can only wish to be so lucky in our next adventure whatever that may be.
In the meantime, we would like to express our love and gratitude to every one of you, and to everyone who has been a part of this story. We would love to stay in touch and hear from you going forward. This page will stay open, and you will be able to reach us through here, over the phone, email, etc .. so don’t be a stranger!
