New Beginings - 5. NB Chapter 5

“Well I am glad that you are ok, how are the boys?” I said, “they are good, and thankyou for talking to Joachim, when he called you, he was pleased to be able to talk to you” Seb said to me, “Well thanks for letting me know that you are ok, and the boys are fine too” I said, thinking that this was going to be the end of the telephone call. “A few weeks a go, I had secured a contract, that negotiations started with my father, before he passed away, as a result, I will be in Western Australia, for a few weeks each year” Seb announced.

“What sort of contract is that Seb?” I asked Sebastian, “One that will be quite an amazing adventure, and if you like, I would like you to join the boys and I” Seb said in a criptic way, “I will have to know a bit more about it before I can give you an answer on that” I responded, “That is why I would like to speak to you again in person, I am making plans for the boys and I to travel to Perth in two weeks time, arriving on November 16th” Seb announced.

“Ok, well I have school for another two weeks after that, as I have my final exams starting in a week” I informed Sebastian, “Ok, and by the way, is your passport still valid” Seb asked me, “yes, I still have another 4 years left on it, why is that?” I responded, “I will tell you, when we get there, speak to you soon, bye for now” Seb replied and we ended the call.

Two days later, as Kyle and I were travelling home from another day at school, with me now being in full study mode, in preparation for the fast approaching exams, Kyle informed me that after his mum’s announcement at choir rehearsal at lunch time, some of the choir members started to hassel him about finding out who was involved in the ABC television feature” I suggested to Kyle that he inform his mum about this, and that if he didn’t, then I would.

Annette was not at all happy, when we reported that Kyle had been pressured to tell the choir members who these two mysterious singers are. Kyle reasurred his mum that they didn’t get any information from him, and never would, which Annette was pleased about. I didn’t bother to tell them about the pending arrival of Sebastian and his younger brothers, as I wanted to concentrate on my pending exams.

Two days later, I decide to sneak into the chapel and listen to the choir rehearsal, and staying out of sight, I saw the choir members chatting as they waited fro rehearsal to commence. “Right you lot, silence” I heard Annette say in loud angry voice, “Don’t blame my son, as I have other sources, I have been informed that certain members of this choir have been ignoring my warning, about seeking information, regarding the two students who will be featuring on the Sunday morning programme on ABC television.

This is to cease here and now, this is yoru very last warning, be advised that the headmaster will enforce a school suspension to anyone who breaks this warning. For now, there will be no rehearsals for the remainder of this week, as a final warning from me, now go away” Annette announced, and the choir members drifted off out of the chapel, with Kyle remaining behind.

“You can come out of hiding now” Annette said, and I stepped out from behind a pillar with a smile, “it is hard to hide anything from you Rev” I said as I walked towards the front of the chapel. “Hi mate” Kyle said to me as I reached them, “Hey, I thought I might check in to see how things are brewing with the choir” I said to Kyle, “Well we have one very pissed off choir mistress” Kyle replied taking a step away from his mother, to stay out of her reach, which made me laugh.

After a few minutes of chatting I exited the chapel via a side door, and I headed off back to my locker, to prepare for one of my last classes for my school year, and the remainder of the school day was uneventful. On the drive home to Toodyay, Kyle and I just chatted about anything of no importance. “What do you want to do after you have finished school?” Kyle asked me as we were approaching town.

“I was thinking of mybe shutting up the house and renting an apartment in the city and attend university” I havent even made any enquiries about it, as things have happening in life, that keeps disrupting doing anything about it, what about you?” I replied. “I don’t think I want to do another year at school, so I may go to college and do something, it just depends on if mum continues as chaplain at the school, and as rector here in Toodyay” Kyle replied.

Once the final day of school had ended before the start of exams, I had made the decision that I would jsut relax all weekend, with a few hours reveiwing my studie in preparation for the exams, I had always been good at school, nad found it easy to retain information on everything that I learnt, so I was confident that I would do well with the final exams. On Saturday evening the phone rang and I automatically said hello in Italian, and I heard a chuckle on the other end, “How did you know that it was me?” I heard Sebastian say in English, “Well you keep calling me at this time of the day, so I just guessed” I replied with a smile.

“I just called to wish you all the best for your exams starting this coming week” Seb said to me, “Well thankyou for that, I appreciate it” I responded with a smile. “By the way, you may have some media in your city at the end of this coming week, that you should take notice of, bye for now my freind, see you in just over a weeks time” Seb said and he ended the call. Once again, Seb had given me a criptic comment, which I had no idea what it meant, so I decided to just ignore it and to relax.

With me about to start exams, Annette had decided that she would stay till school ended, to bring Kyle home, as my exams varied each day, and so for the first week, I attended one or two exams a day. As I came out of the last exam for the week, I climbed into my car, to prepare for the long drive home, and I turned on radio, as i drove out fo the school grounds, just as the 1pm news came on.

“Fremantle has received a visit from a very unusual vessel this afternoon, what looks like a kind of barge or cargo ship, flying the Norwegian flag, the vessel is moored in the restricted customs area at the Fremantle Ship Terminal, and there has been no one leaving the vessel, apart from the customs and quarintine officers, who boarded the vessel as it arrived, we will bring you more information, when it becomes available” I heard the news reporter say, and my thoughts on Sebastian’s comments during our last conversation came to mind.

Once I was home and changed out of my uniform, I decided to do some laundry and do some house cleaning, both which were well oerdue to be done. When I was busy doing this, my house phone rang, and once again I answered it in Italian. “Hello Huon, how was your first week of exams? Did it all go well?” Seb said in reply. “Hi Sebastian, yes it all went well, thanks. Now would a news report of a strange looking vessel with a Norwegian flag have anything to do with you?” I replied.

I heard Sebastian chuckling at the other end of the line, “that I presume, means the answer is yes?” I added, “Yes, my friend, it is a yes, that is my vessel, it is a multi-purpose vessel, that can be used for research, cargo transportation or just as a small luxery cruise vessel” Sebastian replied. “I see, and this vessel has something to do with your recent contract?” I asked.

“Yes, it is the main purpose of the contract, we have had to delay our travels to Perth by a week, so we will now arrive Monday, November the 23rd” Sebastian said to me, “Ok, so will you be staying onboard the vessle when you arrive” I asked Seb, “Yes, we will travel directly to Fremantle from the airport, now as of tomorrow, you will have access to the vessel as my guest, you will need to present your passport to Customs when you arrive.

A suite has been prepared, in case you want to stay for the weekend, so take a weekend bag with you, the crew are at your service 24 hours a day, and I will arrange for you to be given a full tour of the vessel, you may need to hide from the media, so what I will do is have you collect a parcel from a Fremantle freight office, so you can pretend to be a delivery person, to get past them” Seb said to me, and I chuckled at this plan.

“Ok, I will take up your offer for a visit of the vessel and a tour, and I will consider staying overnight” I replied, “Very well, I will let the captain know that you will be arriving tomorrow, and I will see you in just over a weeks time, speak to you soon, oh, and my brothers asked me to say hello to you” Seb said before he ended the call. Once I had hung out the first lot of washing, I called the rectory.

“Rectory, Kyle speaking” I heard when the call was answered, “Hi buddy, how are things been at school? Iv’e been so busy with exams, I havn’t had a chance to catch up with you this week” I said to Kyle, “Hey Huon, everything is good, Mum informed me yesterday, that she won’t be the school chaplain next year, and that we will be staying on in Toodyay” Kyle announced.

“Well that is good to hear that you are staying, as I was hoping you could do something for me, I have decided that I won’t be staying on the farm next year, and I want to offer to you and Annette, the use of the homestead paddock, which is the small section of the farm that is not leased out, and look after the house, orchard and vineyard. You can stay there rent free, just pay for any power usage, the homestead paddock has its own water bore, so water is free, and there is solar panels on the roof, that supplies most of the heating” I said.

“That would be fantastic, I will happily accept the offer” Kyle said happily, “I am not sure what I am doing yet, but there is something in the pipline that I will know about after the exams are over, and i will let you and your mum know when I know everything about it, I am going away for the weekend, so I will catch up with you some time next week” I said, and soon after I ended the call. Once I had finished doing the laundry and cleaning up the house, I went for a walk down to the river to sit and relax, as the last half an hour of the day slowly sank in the western horizon, and I wwalked back to the house, and collected my car keys, to head into town to get some dinner.

I was up very early the next morning, and quickly dressed and packed an overnight bag, and after locking up, I drove down to Perth, and on to Fremantle. It was before 7am, when I arrived and I parked the car in an undercover long term carpark, and I walked over to a nearby taxi rank, and caught a taxi to the passenger terminal. Where I was pleased to see no sign of any media, but there was also no sign of a way to get inside.

After rattling some doors, I finally aroused the attention of a security guard, and I opened up and showed my passport against the glass door, once the security guard had looked at my passport, he made a call on his radio, stepping away from the doors as he did this, and a few minutes later he returned and unlocked the door. “Mr Devonport, I have been informed that you have permission to board the MV Southern Explorer.

What I saw in the news last night compared to seeing the vessel right infront of me, was quite a surprise, as I stepped out of the terminal onto the wharf. It was alot bigger than I expected, and as I stepped closer, and leaned over to look down the side of the wharf, I could see one deck above the water, one deck just below the top of the wharf and there was a further three decks above that, including the bridge.

“Mr Devonport, I presume, welcome to the MV Southern Explore, please come on board” a voice with a strong accented said, as I was still looking upwards towards the bridge. Seeing steps leading to the second deck above the water, I carefully made my way down, where a man in a naval type uniform stood smiling, and he offered his hand, which I accepted and shook.

“My name is Captain Hans Erik Jorgen, the Captain of this fine brand new vessel” the man said with a big smile, and he led the way off the deck and indoors to a large saloon lounge, where there was a large group of uniformed staff all lined up, in total there was 22 crew, from the captain down to the stewards, and included a helicopter pilot. I didn’t get all of the names, as there was to many of them to remember.

I was informed that although the vessel can hold a maximum of 43 crew, the owners had decided that 22 was enough for the purpose of the vessels operations, and when I asked what that was, the captain smiled and informed me that the owner, Mr Wagner would tell me when he arrives. I asked what the nationalities are of all the crew, and the captain said that all officers and bridge crew are Norwegian, while the remainder are British and German, but everyone onboard was fluent in English.

Passing by a semi formal dining area, we entered a lobby area, were there was stairs and an elevator, which the captain, a steward, who had now carried my overnight bag, and I entered, and moments later, we were on another deck, “the steward will show you to your suite, and the chief steward will be along shortly, to give you a full tour of the vessel, I will see you later at lunch” the Captain said to me, as he continued further up in the elevator, I presume to the bridge, when he was actually heading down.

“Sir, we are currently on B deck, you came on board on A deck, from here onwards there are only stairs to deck D, it is a little confusing at first, but we have two areas of the vessel, the public area which has a total of 5, they are, the lower deck, main deck, plus decks A, B and D, while Deck C is senior crew accommodation, and can not be accessed from the main two stairs and elevators.

The crew area consists of the Bridge, Deck C, plus the forward sections of the Main Deck and Decks A and B which is additional crew accommodation and living areas, while the forward and aft areas of the Lower Deck is work areas of the vessel, there is also a Hull Deck below that, which contains the main engines and generators.

The Mid section of the Lower deck is the only public area, and contains a Cinema theatre, with 22 luxery theatre seats, also there is a gymnasium, plus a steam room and sauna. In the original design, there is suppose to be a massage room and tropical shower, but these have been converted into two small lounge rooms.

On the main deck, we have what is called the beach club lounge, two large hydrolic doors can be lowered to create two side decks, over the water, near the back there is the deck, with two side and the rear swim platforms. Just indoors, there is ten queen guest suites, and jsut forward of that is the large hanger, designes to hold pleasure boats and toys, but will be used for other purposes to do with this mysterious contract.

The hanger covers an area of two decks, including A deck above it, which you saw as you came onboard, with another covered outside deck, saloon lounge, dining room and crew areas beyond that” the steward said. We walked along a wide foyer area, to a smaller set of steps, and we began to climb up them. “B Deck which we just left, is the VIP and Owners Deck, with a huge owners suite, a VIP dining room, and side deck, plus the another outside deck. We are passing C Deck, and now here at the top of these stairs, this is D Deck, the VIP deck where you will be staying” the steward announced.