Aquaria - 20. Aqu Chapter 20

After the meeting with the government officials, we spent an hour looking around the island, before returning to the plane, and heading back to Wake Island, arriving just before sunset, with the pilots circling the island twice to allow us an amazing view of the islands, before landing.

“I think we should have a separate community for the submarine, there is a cleared area on Wilkes Island, that we could utilise for that purpose, what do you think” my Dad said to me as we left the aircraft once it had stopped outside one of the bunker hangers.

“Yes, I think that would be a good idea” I replied, as we climbed into the jeep, with me at the wheel and drove back towards the south west end of the island.

“There is a very thin passage between the reef on the north side close to that channel between Peale Island and Wake Island, which I want to widen, so that we can have visiting yachts come into the lagoon, and where those two narrow strips of land in the bay, we can make into two jetties, for yachts to berth” Dad suggested to me, “Yes I think that would be fantastic” I replied.

“Would you mind if you were taken away from working on the Aquaria, and take on a more important job?” Dad asked me after a period of silence, as we passed the boat harbour, “Oh, and what would the more important job be?” I queried, “I would like you to become the Island Administrator”.

I jammed on the brakes, stalling the vehicle, and stared at my father. “Are you serious about this?” I asked, and Dad just nodded his head, yes. After a long period of silence, I started up the vehicle again and continued the short drive, to the end of the island, where the submarine towers over the land, as the sun disappeared over the horizon.

A single floodlight lit the area around the gangway, as we left the vehicle parked near the channel and we boarded the vessel. “Welcome back Mr Lloyd and Mr Blackthorn, did you have an enjoyable afternoon?” the security guard at the airlock door said as we approached, “Yes thank-you, you can lockup now please” my Dad replied.

We headed up to the senior officers dining room, where the rest of the family was already seated and eating dinner. “Sorry we are late, we had some business in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, our nearest neighbours” my Dad said as we entered the dining room.

“That sounds interesting, I wondered where you flew off to?” Uncle Jonah responded, “It is a very beautiful country, lots of small islands, that combined form one country, goodness knows how they manage, the distances between some of the atolls are quite large.

On a totally different subject, I have been offered a challenging new job, which I am seriously thinking of accepting” I said.

“What is it and where will you be relocating too?” Julia asked me, “I am to become the first Administrator of Wake Island” I announced, which brought an unexpected round of applause from all that were in the dining room, which made me blush a little.

“Does that mean that I won’t see you very much Daddy?” Joshua asked sadly.

“Well if Daniel and your mother accept an offer to remain here too, then no, we will see each other nearly every day” I replied as I glanced over to Dan. “We will have to discuss it some, and get back to you on that” Dan replied, with Julia nodding her head in agreement to her husband’s response.

“That is fair enough, Dad can we have a meeting after dinner about this please?” I said, “Sure son, I will be here for a few more days yet, and I have lots to tell you about our plans for the island” my Dad replied.

Half an hour later, I said goodnight to Joshua, as his mum lead him out of the room, and after we had finished eating, Dad, Jonah, Dan and I headed to the executive conference room just down the hall, to discuss the plans for the island, with where I am going to live as one of my key questions.

“I am going to be introducing a more modular style of housing for you Trenton, and some more buildings on the cleared site, on the south side of the small bay from the main village. I have already been working with a building company in Australia, who are repurposing shipping containers.

For the Administrator, you will be having a nice big house, raised slightly above the ground, in case of storm surges and king waves, which I would like to place on the water’s edge, on the edge of the parking apron atthe West end of the taxiway.

In the clearing on Wilkes Island, I want to build a large community centre, consisting of one large semi-open community hall on the upper floor, and a number of smaller community rooms on the ground floor, but raised off the ground like the administrator’s house, which can be used as a school, for community meetings if need be, or any other use.

I would like for the Aquaria to remain in the Pacific area, with Wake Island as its base, but travelling around the area, monitoring the ocean for the benefit for everyone. Jonah, you may need to promote one of your senior officers to 1st officer if Daniel accepts the position of Deputy Administrator, and if he does, we will have a containership house built for him too, with a location yet to be decided” my father announced.

“Sir, if it is alright by you, I will accept the offer to be deputy, I think it would be better for the family if are in one location, and here is one great place to be” Dan said, “Good, we will get onto finding a good location for your home as well.

The flat cleared area south of the village, I would like to turn into a commercial shopping area, with cafes, restaurants and shops, that will benefit the community here and in the Marshall Islands, as I would like to trade with them, and bring some of their handicrafts onto the island” my father said.

“Are you still planning to turn the H shaped buildings into tourism accommodation?” I asked, “Yes, I think it will be good to bring some tourism here, and hopefully they will go south to the Marshall Islands of East to Hawaii, for their benefit also, and where the other three H shaped building use to be, I think we should make that area a community sports field” my father said.

Where you are pulling down those eight huts, there is a basketball court near there, maybe we can add a few more of them and a few tennis courts as well” I suggested, “Yes excellent idea, any other proposed suggestions?” my father replied.

“I would like to suggest a ban on all types of fishing inside the lagoon, and within a 3 kilometre radius of the islands reef and islands” I said, “I second that brilliant idea, we are here to observe and collect data, not to kill and eat the sea life” Dan added, “Good, I will make that one of the new regulations for the island” my father stated.

For the next few days, we had many more long meetings, with Dad updating us on things that he has already put into action, like the houses, shopping area and community area, with a lot of the work already having been completed, and that the buildings were being furnished before being put onto a cargo ship, for ocean transportation to Wake Island.

We already had quite a few bits of machinery, a tractor with a slasher on the back, to keep the grass and a low and tidy level, a front-end loader, for digging and levelling out ground where needed and carrying heavy materials, like old machinery and drums that are being gathered so they can be transported off the island.

We also have a small truck and trailer, that can carry rubble or heavy shipping containers, and there are 6 Landrover’s, and six quadbikes, with attachable small trailers, for the island staff to use for all the odd jobs, with every Landrover and quadbike having a two-way radio to keep in communication with the administration office.

When the day came for Dad to leave, the family gathered to say farewell, as he boarded the Wake Island plane, for the two-hour journey to Majuro, then onto Nauru and Brisbane, where he will be staying for a while to coordinate everything that needs to be shipped to the island.

One of the first things to be sent up will be a dredging barge, to dig out the winding channel, that will be used for visiting yachts, along with the barge, there will be 160 tonne of bluestone rock, to be used to create a quay wall, to keep back the drift sand, and keep the channel clear, plus some of it will be used to create the base for the two jetties, in the lagoon bay.

It was decided that Dan and his family would have their house 800 metres from the Administrator’s house, alongside the entrance channel to the boat harbour, were there is room for another four or five houses, if need be.

A day after Dad had left, I moved into one of the vacant houses, closest the runway and maintenance sheds, while Dan and his family moved into a nearby house a little further away, and with a new 1st officer selected and promoted, Uncle Jonah and his crew set off to do some research, in the outlying islands near Midway Island.

During one of the meetings, it was decided that once all the major clean-up work has been completed, and work has begun on planning the first lot of trees and shrubs, that a film production team would be sent to film a series of tourist advertising adverts, to promote the island, and its neighbouring Marshall Islands. Two days after Dad had left, I received an email from him.

“Just finished doing a deal with Marshall Island Government and with a US Airline, once a week there will be a flight from Honolulu, to Wake Island via the Midway Islands. Beginning in 6 weeks’ time, departing Honolulu at 0800 Mondays, arriving at Wake Island at 1720 local time Tuesdays, with a 3-hour stopover in Midway.

The flight crew have an overnight stopover, with us covering the costs for their stay, and they depart Wake Island at 0700 local time Wednesday, arriving at Majuro at 0915 local time Wednesday, departing at 1130 local time, and arriving in Honolulu at 1850 local time Thursday.

I know it all sounds confusing, but it is because the plane crosses over the International Dateline between Midway and Wake Islands, and again between Majuro and Honolulu, technically the plane only travels for two days, but. because of the International Dateline, it is away from Honolulu for three days, 11 hours.

Anyway, leaving that aside, we can have tourists coming to Wake Island once a week, with a maximum of 160 visitors, per week, so we will need to get things moving on the island. The dredging barge will be arriving there in a few days’ time, along with a load of blue metal rocks, a pallet of bagged cement powder.

Next week a small cargo ship will deliver two shipping container homes, and the community centre and school buildings, and the following week it will deliver the container shops, eight large gazebo shelters and the equipment for 3 more basketball courts and two tennis courts.

In that same week of the second ship load, a cargo plane will be arriving, delivering 16 outrigger canoes, plus a crate load of Marshall Island art and handicrafts, clothing and footwear, which we are selling on behalf of the artist, with very little profit, that will go towards a community development fund. I hope you are settling in ok, with your new job and responsibilities. Regards your father”.

It had only been a few days, but things were moving along quickly, some of the islanders were busy planting trees and shrubs, on Peale and Wilkes Islands, and another group of islanders were removing the poles that supported the former small bridge that crossed over from Wake to Peale Island, to have a clear path for the yacht channel.