Frontier - 37. FR Chapter 37

“Look, Guys, you do what you think is best for the both of you. Sure we will miss you heaps, but this is a job in your home country, so I won’t stand in your way. Have you left any of your belongings on board the yacht?” I said to the lads.

“Yes, there is a little bit still there. Can you pack it all up and send it to us please?” Leon replied.

“Sure, Guys, that will be fine. I have Vic and Rita’s current address, so I will send it there. You guys take care of your selves, and say hi to Vic and Rita for me,” I said with a sad tone, realising that I was losing two good crew members.

“We will, and we will come and visit you one day,” Kirk said.

After the call had ended, I sat in the lounge area of the bridge for some time, and didn’t notice that someone was talking to me.

“Anton, are you hearing me?” I heard Simon say to me, not sure how many times he had called me.

“Oh, sorry, Mate. I just had a chat to the lads in Canada. They won’t be re-joining us, as Vic and Rita have offered them a job at a wilderness lodge in Canada,” I responded.

“Really? Wow! That will be something different for them. They will have to grow their land legs back, eh,” Simon said with a smirk on his face, and I laughed.

“Mike is back. I showed him into your cabin, so he could see what we did, and to look at your idea for the forward storage area,” Simon said to me, now that I was listening to him.

“Ok, Mate, thanks for that. I just got to call Jasper, and let him know that we are in New Zealand, so we can organise getting him back to the yacht when his holiday ends,” I said to Simon, who smiled and nodded, before heading back downstairs to the galley.

“Jasper’s phone, 1^st mate Nathan speaking,” came an unexpected voice when I rang Jasper’s mobile, and I heard some soft laughing in the background.

“Hello, Nathan. This is Anton speaking. I presume then that you guys are on the catamaran?” I replied to Nathan.

“Hi, Skipper. Yes, we are just having a day sail around the Jurien region, with a few friends on board,” Nathan replied. Then there were some rustling noises, and I heard some background talking.

“Hello, Anton. This is Anita speaking. Jasper’s at the helm at the moment. We have a day charter, with some locals and their families experiencing a day out on the water,” Anita said to me, and I smiled.

“That’s great to hear, Anita. Can you get him to give me a call back on the sat phone, but no later than three hours please, because of the time difference,” I said to Anita, and she said she would let him know right away, and ended the call. About 3 ½ hours later, as we were finishing dinner, the sat phone rang, and Simon answered it as he was closest to it, on the galley bench.

“Hamilton Sail Charters, good evening,” Simon said.

“Hello Simon, I am returning the Boss’s phone call. Sorry it took so long to call back,” Jasper replied.

“That’s fine. I will hand the phone over to Anton,” Simon said before handing me the phone.

“Hey, Anton, what did Simon mean by evening? It’s only about 1700 hours over there in Tasmania,” Jasper said to me and I chuckled.

“Well yes, that might be the case if we were there, but we are not. Simon, my brothers and I sailed to New Zealand. We arrived in Invercargill earlier today our time,” I responded.

“Holy smokes, that must have been an interesting trip,” a surprised Jasper announced.

“Yes, it was. We went through a gale force storm on day three, but we came out of it undamaged, just a little shaken up,” I replied.

“Boss, I think I want to stay here in Jurien for a while, to spend some time with Anita and Nathan, plus I have been getting plenty of enquiries about charters in the region, so I will be busy. I will have to find some crew members to help. Do you think Toby and Finn might be interested?” Jasper asked me.

“Just ask them. I’m sure they will jump at the chance, as they loved every moment of the trip they did with you from Christmas Island to Jurien,” I replied.

When the call ended, I put the sat phone down on the table and returned to the last of my dinner, and when I finished, I sighed heavily.

“I think I will retire for the night. I am quite tired since I didn’t get a sleep at the end of my shift this morning,” I announced, and I said good night to Simon and my brothers and headed to my cabin for a hot shower and a good night’s sleep, leaving Simon to mind the boys for the rest of the evening.

The next morning, I woke to the sound of Simon preparing in the galley, and I could hear that the boys were also awake. Looking at my watch, it was almost 0800 hours, so I jumped out of bed and had a quick shower, changed into some fresh clothes and I headed to the crew mess to get some breakfast.

“Good morning, All,” I said as I entered the crew mess and galley area.

“Morning, Boss. Mike and his crew will be here in half an hour. I had a call from them a few minutes ago,” Simon said to me.

“What are we going to do today, Anton?” Neale asked me.

“I thought maybe we will spend this afternoon doing some more exploring of Invercargill, once Simon has come back from his shore leave,” I replied as I looked towards Simon, who smiled back. Once breakfast was completed, I said to Simon, to leave the cleaning up for us, so he could go on shore leave for 4 hours, asking him to get back by 1300 hours.

Just as Simon was leaving, Mike and his team arrived, and they got to work to making the changes to the forward storage area. Neale and Jedd asked if they could go into the Jacuzzi, and I said yes. Once I had found a suitable book to read, I followed the boys up to the fly bridge, and I sat down to supervise, while I read the book. I watched as Mike and his crew went back and forth from their large van to the yacht, and I heard the electric saw and drill going on occasions. I was curious to know how it was progressing.

After the boys had spent an hour in the Jacuzzi, they climbed out and headed to their cabin to shower and change, and I sat in the crew mess area continuing my reading while that was happening. When the boys reappeared, I suggested that we go up to the bridge lounge and make a list of movies, games and books that they wanted to buy, when we went shopping later. When the list was completed, I looked at it. It included Wii Game system and X-box Game system, plus a dozen games with each system.

I informed the boys that I would only allow G and PG rated games, and G, PG and M rated movies. They accepted my decision, and so some of the games and movies were struck off the list. While the boys relaxed in the formal lounge to do some reading, I went down to my cabin to have a look at the work that had been done so far.

“Hello, Anton. What do you think of it so far?” Mike said to me, when he saw me enter the cabin. I thrust my head into the forward storage area to see what they had done. I saw the framework was all completed for the whole room, and it looked so much different. There was heaps of extra storage space, including bookshelves, and storage cabinets, and there was space for lighting to be installed along both sides, above the seating.

“It looks wonderful, Mike, and you have done so much so quickly,” I said to the carpenter, with a smile.

“We do our best to keep the clients very happy. We should have the carpentry all finished by late tomorrow afternoon, and all the electrical and sound system completed by mid-morning the next day,” Mike said to me.

“That would be awesome. Thanks, Mike. I look forward to seeing it when it’s all finished. Oh and can you have some heavy-duty locks installed on the inside of the hatch, so it can’t be opened from the outside,” I replied.

I headed back to the bridge, to do some web searching on the laptop computer. I had already estimated that it would take ten hours to sail from Invercargill to Dunedin, and I looked for where we could go to buy the game systems, videos and books that afternoon, so the boys would be entertained enough for the journey, even though most of it would be done overnight.

I made the boys some sandwiches for lunch, and let them eat in the lounge, while they continued to read their books, and I stayed with them and read my book, till Simon returned at about half past twelve. Armed with a number of shopping bags, he went over to his pontoon cabin to unload everything that he had bought, before coming over to the formal lounge.

“Hey, Boss, how is the carpentry work going?” Simon said to me cheerfully.

“It’s going good, Mate. They are on lunch break at the moment. They will have most of it done by late tomorrow, and finish all the audio and lighting by the following morning,” I replied.

“Well, I have done my fair share of shopping, so if you and the boys want to head off now, that is fine with me,” Simon said to me.

“Ok, Buddy. I will round up the boys and we will head off shortly, as the boys have a huge list of things that they want to buy. Oh and can you mention to Mike, that we would like a space below where the big screen television will go, for two game systems, Wii and Xbox, which we will be buying today, along with the television, sound system and speakers,” I said to Simon.

“Will do mate,” Simon replied with a smile.

About half an hour later, the boys and I arrived in the main shopping district of the city, and lucky for us, the four shops that we needed, were all within a two-city block radius. We were soon busy selecting what we wanted. I chose some books and movies that I wanted, adding them to the large selection that the boys had chosen.

After nearly four hours, we had bought everything that we needed, and some more, and with a very full taxi, we made our way back to the yacht harbour. Simon came to assist with transferring all the shopping to the yacht. Mike and his crew had already left for the day, and I left all of the main shopping in the lounge on the bridge, while my brothers unwrapped all of the books, dvd movies, and video games.

I left the television, sound system and speakers packed in their boxes, for Mike to unpack, when it was time to install all of the equipment, when the carpentry was completed, and I sat in the crew mess and chatted to Simon while he was preparing dinner. I suggested to Simon that he take tomorrow morning off, to go and explore more of the area, and my brothers and I would remain behind to keep an eye on activities on the yacht.

After we had all eaten dinner, the boys and I cleaned up, while Simon relaxed for the rest of the evening, and we all retired early for the night, since we had a few busy days ahead of us. The next morning after breakfast Simon set off to the city to see some of the sights that he hadn’t had time to see the day before, and since there was a drizzle of rain that morning, the boys elected to watch some of their new movies, while I remained on the bridge, researching for the coming journey to our next destination of Dunedin.

Mike and his crew arrived at 0800 hours, and got to work right away, and I stayed out of their way, as they came up and down the stairs, with wood supplies, and soft furnishings. When they stopped for a lunch break, I asked Mike when the cabin extension would be finished, so the entertainment could be installed.

“We have finished the carpentry just now, so we will have the television, games systems and sound system installed by the end of the day,” Mike announced with a smile.

“Wow, that is great. I can hardly wait to see it when it’s all completed,” I replied, and I headed to the galley to make some lunch for the boys, and myself, and brought it up to the formal dining room, for us to eat there, so that I would not be tempted to take a peek at the carpentry work. When we had finished eating, we decided to watch a movie in the formal lounge, and Simon returned around halfway through the movie, with some food shopping.

When Simon returned from the galley, I let him know that the carpentry work was completed early, and they were now installing all the entertainment equipment, so they would be finished by the end of the day. I suggested that we leave Invercargill a day early, since the work would be completed early, and Simon agreed with this suggestion. Shortly after 1600 hours, Mike appeared from downstairs, to announce that everything was now completed, and ready for our inspection.

Simon and I followed Mike downstairs and forward to my cabin, where I found the front wall only went halfway up, and that in the top corners, there were speakers. When we looked into the new extension, we were amazed at how wonderful it looked. At the front, the large screen digital television was the main feature, with plenty of book shelving on either side for the Wii and X-Box games and DVD’s. Everything looked perfect, I was very pleased with the results, and I was full of happiness. Leaving Simon to look at the room some more, I headed up to the bridge, and I retrieved the full amount of money for the job plus more to adjust for the currency exchange.

When I returned downstairs, Simon and Mike were in the crew mess talking over a cup of tea, and when I gave Mike the full amount for the job in Australian currency, his mouth dropped open in shock. Both Simon and I laughed.

“Would you prefer that I go to a bank and cash it for a bank cheque?” I asked Mike, who stared at the cash in front of him.

“Um, no. This is acceptable. I just wasn’t expecting it to be all cash that is all,” Mike replied eventually, and he joined in the laughing, while Simon retrieved a paper bag, and placed all the cash into it, before handing it to Mike.

After saying farewell to Mike, we prepared to get going, by checking that everything was in order on the yacht. Meanwhile the boys were checking out the new crew lounge area with the game systems. As 1500 hours approached, we released the mooring ropes, and motored out of the harbour. When clear, we raised the mainsail and headed for the open ocean once more. We headed north towards Dunedin, a ten-hour sail away, with Simon at the helm.

I headed down to the galley to see what was available to cook for dinner that night, and I was surprised to see that a roast beef was already slowly cooking in the oven, so I got to work preparing some vegetables to be added in about an hours’ time. Once I had peeled and chopped up the potatoes, onions and pumpkin, I covered them and placed them in the fridge, before checking on the boys in the crew lounge.

“This is awesome, Anton. I’m sure we won’t get bored any more,” Neale said to me with a smile, and I chuckled as I left them to play their games, while I headed outside and up to the fly bridge, to see how Simon was going. I sat down on a lounge chair facing the aft of the yacht.

“Did you see the roast in the oven?” Simon said to me sometime later.

“Yes, Mate. I have prepared some pumpkin, potatoes and onions to go in later,” I replied with a smile.

We chatted for an hour before I headed downstairs to add the vegetables to the roast, which was doing very nicely and would be ready by 1800 hours. Once this was done, and having checked on the boys again, who were now watching a movie, I returned to the main bridge to get a current weather report. I was pleased to see that we had good winds and mild seas for the whole journey.

At dinner time, I dished out four plates of roast, and the boys and I headed up to the fly bridge, to have our dinner with Simon, as the sun was now setting. During dinner I explained to the boys that when we arrived at Dunedin, we would go and have a look at the farm and their old home, before we went and checked on the legalities of ownership. The boys mentioned that they were a little nervous and uneasy of going back to their old home, and I asked if they wanted visit their father’s grave site, which had both boys in tears. I told the boys not to worry about it for now, and we would discuss it more tomorrow.

Simon and I swapped places, and he collected the plates and headed down to the galley. Ten minutes later he signalled to me that he was in the main bridge, so I let him take control again, and I locked up the instruments panel and headed downstairs, and locked the saloon doors. The boys were in the formal lounge playing a board game, and I headed down to the galley to start cleaning up from dinner.

When I had finished cleaning up, I asked the boys to shower and get ready for bed, and while I went up to the bridge to relax for a while before I took over at the helm from Simon. He headed down to his temporary cabin to get some sleep, with just four hours remaining before we arrived at Dunedin at around 0100 hours. The journey was enjoyable and we entered the Otago Harbour just after midnight. It was another 14 kilometres before we reached the Portobello Jetty in Latham Bay, just before 0200 hours.

I decided to anchor just a few hundred metres away from the jetty, just north of Pudding Island, and once both anchors were set in place, I headed to my cabin to get some sleep, stopping at the galley to leave a note for Simon.

“Anchored just off shore, at 0200 hours. Can I be woken up at 1000 hours please?”

After a quick shower, I went to bed and fell asleep almost right away.