Frontier - 2. FR Chapter 2

“Stay on a heading of 345 degrees, and you will be fine,” Mr Adamson said with a smile, and I nodded my head in understanding. After eating his lunch, Mr Adamson headed downstairs, and returned about fifteen minutes later with my lunch plate in hand. He took over the helm, while I ate my lunch.

Mr Adamson kept me at the helm, and questioned me on a number of things regarding ocean navigation as we went, and after two hours on the helm, I could see some islands in the distance.

“That is our destination for today. We will be staying here for a few days,” Mr Adamson announced as he motioned me to step aside so he could take over.

About ten minutes later, we arrived in the fishing and tourist town of Lancelin, approximately 120 kilometres north of the city. The islands and reef system provided a safe anchorage, and Mr Adamson guided us through the reef safely. We set anchor about 300 metres off the beach, about halfway between the mainland and the island. When the catamaran was set in anchor, Mr Adamson sat down in the saloon, and Simon and I did the same. After a long period of silence, Mr Adamson cleared his throat.

“On your last day of term, I was at your boy’s school, and I had a good long chat with your school counsellor. I explained to her that I was your grandfather’s best mate, and that since he and your mother disappeared over nine years ago, I had concerns about your wellbeing,” Simon’s grandfather said to both of us. “She told me that she had noticed bruising on you, and she had asked you about them, and didn’t get a suitable response. So, every time she noticed bruises, she told me she made a note of them on your school file, and now that I have spoken to her about it, and confirmed her suspicions, she has expressed a need to take action, and that is why we have quietly taken this action. Getting you away from your father in a quiet manner, is the best way to deal with this, especially when your grandfather has made provisions for your future.

“Even though you have put aside that money for the past year, you have a trust fund, that gives you a basic living allowance, ownership of this wonderful catamaran, and a good friend that will stay beside you,” Mr Adamson said with a smile.

“Grandad has enrolled us into the district high school, at the Jurien Bay, a coastal town 90 kilometres north of us, and we will be living on board here,” Simon announced cheerfully.

I was surprised and happy, that finally life was looking a lot better for me, and I was pleased that Simon would be with me, as we had grown close over the past year, that we have known each other.

“Will you be with us, skipper?” I asked Simon’s grandad.

“On weekends I will be, but during the week, you guys will be on your own. You are both old enough and responsible enough to look after yourselves.

“The school counsellor at your old school has written a report, and she has submitted it at the police station. I will be your legal guardian from now till you turn 18 years old, and I have listed your new postal address as Eneabba, which you may know is a small farming community, 81 kilometres by road, north east of Jurien Bay, in case your so-called father tries to find you.

“Just 65 kilometres due north of Jurien Bay, and 36 kilometres west south west of Eneabba, I have a small hobby farm, on the edge of Leeman, where I spend a lot of my time now. It takes me only 25 minutes to get to you if I am needed. Since Simon’s parents have divorced, Simon has been spending a lot of time with me on weekends and holidays, so his mum is happy to allow me to take over looking after him, especially when I explained the circumstances.

“The only rule I have for you boys, is that at no time are you to take the catamaran off the mooring, when we get to Jurien Bay. If you do, then we will be making changes to the current arrangement,” Simon’s grandad said, and we both nodded our heads in agreement.

“Oh, and I want you Anton, to be doing additional homework in ocean navigations, map reading, and navigation rules and regulations,” Simon’s grandad added.

After our little talk, Simon and I went for a swim in the bay, which has a number of cray fishing and recreational boats, before we went into town. Using the main dinghy, and tying it up at the town jetty, and we spent a couple of hours just looking around the town, before stopping for some fish and chips for dinner, which we ate on the beach near the jetty. Back on the catamaran, I headed to my cabin to shower and get ready for bed, but Simon knocked on my door and suggested we watch a movie, which we did. We ended up going to bed sometime after midnight.

The next morning, with another fine day, after we had eaten breakfast, we took the dinghy back to town, and we walked to the sand dunes, located on the east side of town, where Simon and I had a great time sliding and tumbling down the steep sandy slopes of the dunes, while Mr Adamson sat and watched us from a distance, on the edge of the dunes.

As we became hungry, we decided to return to town, and we bought a large burger and milkshake each, having burnt up a lot of energy having fun on the dunes. Once we had eaten, the skipper looked at us.

“I don’t know how you two managed to fit all that food in,” he said. Just at that moment Simon let out a huge burp, and we both started laughing.

As we motored back to the yacht, Simon’s grandad looked at his watch.

“Ok, now let’s discuss our plans. It’s 1400 hours now, we can stay here for the rest of the day and tonight, or we can set sail, and arrive at our next destination in just over five and a half hours, with some night sailing and navigation,” Simon’s grandad said to us.

“Well I guess we can get going. We have done enough here I think. What do you say Simon?” I said to my friend.

“Whatever you want, buddy. I think we should sail, since we have so much good weather at the moment. It may not last much longer,” Simon replied.

“I agree with you on that. Let me check the 48-hour forecast, to see what is ahead of us,” Simon’s grandad said, as we arrived at the yacht. As he headed to the study, to check on the laptop, the BOM – Bureau of Meteorology website, Simon and I loaded up and secured the dinghy.

“We have some storms approaching. If we are quick, we can get to our next stop ahead of it. Then we will have to settle down there for a few days, till the storms pass by,” Mr Adamson said. As soon as he finished saying it, Simon and I dashed forward to pull up the forward anchor, then headed aft to pull that anchor up, before we started pulling up the mainsail.

Once we had passed the reefs, the skipper suggested getting the jib set, so we could pick up some extra speed, and so we headed to the front sail locker and pulled out the jib. We soon that that in place, and we were skimming along the water, with a good south westerly wind behind us. Just two hours into the journey the wind suddenly changed on us, coming from the north east, which made it harder for us, as we had to change directions every twenty minutes, to be able to continue northwards.

Simon and I had been kept busy adjusting the lines for the mainsail, every time we had to change our direction. I took the skipper a cup of tea every hour, as the temperature started to drop. As it got later in the afternoon, Simon grabbed his grandad’s spray jacket and pants, to help keep the sea spray from getting him soaked, and Simon and I did the same, as the weather started to get rougher, with storm clouds approaching in the distance.

Suddenly the skipper changed directions, this time heading east, and looking in that direction, I could see a small island and a lot of beach shacks, so I quickly raced forward, and brought the jib down, carefully packing it away in the locker, before going to help Simon to bring down the mainsail. Once it was down, the skipper started up the engines, and although there was not much shelter, he steered the catamaran to below the southern end of the island.

We headed towards the large sand bar located between the island and the mainland, cutting the engines just before we beached on the sandbar. “Quick boys, we need to set anchors deep in the sand, to secure the catamaran, to stop it from drifting during the storm. We are going to have to ride it out here I’m afraid,” the skipper said. We got to work to make sure that the anchors were deep in the sand.

Once the anchors were in place, we made sure all the outer hatches were secured, and the skipper pumped water into the bilge tanks, to weigh down the catamaran some more. Meanwhile Simon checked that everything in the galley and servery were stored away properly, while I checked on the rest of the main deck. The wind started to pick up and it was now raining heavily. With everything outside secured, we closed and locked the External door to the saloon, and we put on a DVD to try and distract us from the storm outside.

The skipper had put the catamaran face on to the direction of the storm, but it still made it shake from time to time, when big gusts of wind hit the forward portside of the catamaran. Mr Adamson kept himself busy by preparing and cooking dinner for us, and we ate at the breakfast bar, since the dining room outside, was not available due to the storm. Once Simon and I had finished eating and cleaning up the galley, we resumed watching a movie in the saloon, while Mr Adamson went into the study to check the weather maps via the internet.

I don’t think any of us got much sleep, as the full force of the storm arrived and continued to bash against the catamaran. When I finally dragged myself out of bed, at about 6am, the wind was still blowing, but not as much as last night, and there was still light rain, as I turned on the kettle to make a cup of tea.

“I will have one too please, Anton,” the skipper said making me jump with fright. “Sorry about that,” he added with a smile, as he went into the study to check on the weather report.

After I had delivered the cup of tea to the skipper, I went outside to inspect the catamaran, to see if there was any damage. Walking around the front on the sandbar, I was pleased to see that there was no damage, and I entered the water to wade and swim around the aft of the yacht, to check it fully. I even ducked under water to check the hull in a few places, and I walked back onto the sandbar from between the two hulls, under the main deck, to check if there was any damage underneath. When I was happy that there was no visible damage to the yacht, I climbed back on board from the aft swimming platform, and headed to the galley to have some breakfast. Mr Adamson came out of the study to join me, and I reported to him about the check that I had done for any damage and that I found none.

Simon eventually appeared, and while he was having breakfast, the skipper and I went out onto the sandbar, to see how difficult it was going to be to get off the sandbar. During the night, the anchors had been dragged about two metres, leaving the catamaran only slightly beached, and once we pulled up the anchors, we found that a small amount of physical force was enough to get fully floated again. We climbed on board, with the skipper heading to the fly bridge to start up the engines and pump out the tanks, before we backed away from the sandbar.

With the rain easing, and the wind being strong, coming from the south east, Simon joined me on the main deck to raise the mainsail, and we were soon on our way heading north once more, with Ridgeway as our destination for today.

“How long till we get to Jurien Bay, if this wind stays as it is?” I asked the skipper, as I arrived on the fly bridge.

“About 6 hours. I expect the wind to swing around to the south west sometime around lunch time, so depending on its strength, when it does swing, will depend on when we get there, but for now I estimate a 1400 hr arrival. How about getting the jib out again, and let’s take advantage of this good wind,” the skipper replied, and I headed downstairs, where I found Simon finishing cleaning up the galley.

“Time to get to work on deck,” I said to Simon with a smile, as I headed outside. Simon followed. We worked to get the mainsail up, before we moved forward to get the jib up, and once we had done this, we both headed up to the fly bridge. We stood behind the skipper, as he instructed us on different matters of sailing a large catamaran, which can be a lot more difficult than the much smaller recreational catamaran. After over three hours at sea, about 5 kilometres out from the coast to avoid all of the reefs and islands, Simon headed down stairs to start preparing lunch for all of us. The skipper allowed me to take the helm, instructing me to stay on a heading of 350 degrees, and I felt alive and free standing at the helm, with the wind in my face, and the occasional sea spray, which I didn’t mind at all.

According to the GPS in front of me, we were making good time. The wind had changed about half an hour ago, and as predicted it was now coming from the south west. We were just south of the last coastal town of Cervantes, before arriving at Jurien Bay. About half an hour later, Simon brought up my lunch. He returned downstairs to eat his with his grandad, and I happily continued to stay at the helm, grabbing mouthfuls of lunch over the next 15 minutes.

Mr Adamson appeared at 1pm, and looking at the GPS and compass he smiled, and told me to take a short break, while he took over at the helm. I dashed downstairs to go to the bathroom, and went to the study to check the weather forecast, before returning to the saloon, where Simon was relaxing, after cleaning up the galley. I made myself a cup of tea and made one for the skipper, and headed back up to the fly bridge, to deliver a cuppa to the skipper.

“I have changed to due north, that will put us just west of the reefs when we arrive at Jurien Bay in about an hour’s time. I will help Simon to get the jib down and packed away. I think the mainsail is all we need for the rest of the journey,” the skipper said to me as he stepped aside, to let me take over at the helm. Skipper took a seat at the back of the fly bridge, to enjoy his cup of tea, before heading downstairs, to sort out the jib.

I was really enjoying spending the long hours at the helm of the fly bridge, absorbing everything that the skipper told me about sailing, and I was looking forward to my new life in a new town, with my good friend and a new home that floats. The skipper stayed beside me as we passed through the reef, and approached the town of Jurien Bay. Once inside the reef, I started the engine, as Simon and the skipper pulled down and stowed away the mainsail. With the skipper, back beside me, he talked me through the procedure of entering the marina, and approaching the mooring bay that he had leased for the catamaran. Simon secured the catamaran to the jetty.

Once we had the catamaran secured, we walked into the centre of town, which took around half an hour. When we arrived at the Tourist Information centre we gathered some information about the town, including a map so we don’t get lost. The high school was behind the tourist centre, so it was one thing that we didn’t have to go searching for, and the main shopping centre was across the road, which is where we went next.

With two shopping trolley’s full of food, we loaded it into a taxi, and made our way back to the marina. While Simon and I packed it all away, the skipper went to his cabin to pack his gear, and he returned to the saloon with his luggage, just as we were finishing in the galley.

“I have to go home and check that everything is in order there. I will be back the day after tomorrow, so we can get you started on your training to become a sailing skipper,” Mr Adamson said to us both.

“Thanks for everything you have done for me and my mate Anton here, grandad” Simon said as he hugged his grandfather.

“Yes, thank you so much. I am so happy to be away from that place at last,” I said with tears in my eyes.

A taxi arrived at the marina and tooted its horn, so the skipper shook our hands, told us to behave ourselves, and that he would see us in just under two-day’s time. With the skipper gone, and it being late Sunday afternoon, we decided to go for a walk around the marina. We noticed that we were one of three sailing yachts in the marina, with the majority of the other boats being cray fishing boats. We went towards the light industrial area, where we found the marines supplies store, which was closed, like most shops are on a Sunday.

Going down to the end of the street, we found ourselves on the main road and we headed towards town, passing the recreation centre. When we saw the fish and chip shop, we decided that we would have that for dinner. Luckily, I had brought my wallet with me. Once we had our dinner, we walked towards the coast, where we came across a park area and the town’s main jetty, which was a good 200 metres long. Not far away there was a swimming platform, which we estimated to be over 50 metres away from the beach, and about the same distance from the end of the jetty.