Oceania - 13. Oce Chapter 13

The four of us met up for dinner in the hotel restaurant a few hours later, and I could see right away, as we approached them, that Nigel and Mitchell are getting along a lot better than we expected, with Travis turning to me and raising an eyebrow, which made me laugh, as we approached the table were they were already seated.

During dinner, we discussed plans for the next few days. Mitchell said that he had already checked out the boat, which has the name ‘Baby Aquaria’ on it, which was a real surprise, and made me laugh at my father’s little joke.

Mitchell mentioned that he had seen the original layout plans of the boat and that there have been a few small modifications made, with the crew mess area made into additional seating for 6 more people, meaning that a total of 18 passengers can be carried, plus one of the crew cabins was made into a second bathroom.

I announced that in the morning, we should drive down to Newcastle and make the journey back up the coast, but Mitchell said there was no need, as he had arrived a few days earlier than planned, and he had already brought the boat up to Port Stephens, and that the boat is moored in its bay at Nelson Bay Yacht Club.

Pleased that we would not have to spend the whole day on a small boat in open waters, I said that we would instead make a trip to the island, to see what it looks like from the ocean, then later in the day I would arrange for a charter helicopter to collect us and take us onto the island.

Mitchell informed us that the boat trip would take us approximately 45 minutes for the one-way journey, and that he had already checked the weather for tomorrow, and that there would be fairly calm seas for most of the day, which I was pleased to hear, having experienced some extremely rough conditions while serving in the Navy.

After dinner, Travis and I retired to our suite, and I asked my husband what he wanted to do as part of the project. “I am not sure exactly, I have been a personal assistant for most of my working life, so there is not much more that I could do apart from that,” Travis responded.

“How would you like to be my administration manager, you would be coordinating things between us and head office on Wake island, and also with Jocelyn on the Aquaria,” I suggested, knowing that it would be the ideal jo for Travis.

After a little bit of time to think it over, Travis agreed and we spent the next two hours discussing the project before having a shower together and retiring to bed.

The next morning after breakfast, the four of us headed over to the yacht club, with Mitchell driving, and Nigel in the front passenger seat, leaving Travis and me to travel in the back, which I didn’t mind at all. On arrival at the club, we checked ion with the manager, and we were each issued access cards to get onto the jetty, where the boat is moored.

At just twenty-seven metres long, I was not really sure what to expect, but when I saw the boat for the first time, I was a little surprised, as it looked like the size of a tug boat, but was a lot wider with the triple hull, as we approached, and Mitchell opened up the side access door to the main deck, and unfolded a small set of steps, before stepping on board, with the rest of us following.

“The main aft deck here is 9 metres wide and 6 metres lengthways, so approximately 54 m2 of deck area, which should be plenty sufficient for supplies, when we need to transport stuff to the island. As I said yesterday it will take about 45 minutes to get there,” Mitchell informed us.

We looked around the back deck, before following Mitchell through the airtight door to inside on the main deck. When we entered, we stood in a short passageway, with a door on either side of us as soon as we were inside, and Mitchell pointed out that one is a crew cabin, while the other is one of two bathrooms.

Further forward, there are some storage lockers, and on the right another door, that is marked bathroom, and two doors on the left, both marked as ‘Restricted Access, Crew Only’ on both doors. Mitchel explained that the first one leads to the bridge, while the other leads down to the centre hull, where the tanks, generator and engine are located.

Going up two steps, we pass through another door, which is the passenger seating area for 18, that looks very comfortable, and a kiosk kitchen, with a coffee maker, microwave, kettle, fridge and pantry.

Following Mitchell out of the passenger area, we headed upstairs to the bridge, which a chart table, internal controls for the crane, and three chairs, with two side tables between them, that has most of the controls on them, and large screens and other instruments in front of them.

“Right, that is the full tour, if you would like to make your own way back down to the seating area, we will be on our way. Boss, would you mind casting us off please,” Mitchell said after we had a good look around, and Travis, Nigel and I headed downstairs, with the lads heading forward, while I went out on the deck, to release and pull in the mooring lines.

Once we were on our way, and out of the marina, I headed back upstairs to the bridge and sat down next to Mitchell. “So skipper, how long have you been qualified?” I asked Mitchell, who smiled, “About a year, I thought maybe extra qualifications might come in handy one of these days, and here I am skippering a small boat in Port Stephens and heading out into the Tasman Sea,” he responded, which made me chuckle.

“Anything else I should know, about what you have been up to since we last saw each other?” I asked, “Well, I have open water scuba diving qualifications, and I’m a trained paramedic also,” Mitchell replied. “That is good to know. My father has organised for housing to be transported by helicopter crane, once we have the jetty and stairs built, for easier access to the island.

The bigger house, which is in two sections will be my home with Travis, and the second section will be the administration centre, which Travis will manage for me, next door to the admin area will be the second house, which is two bedrooms, which you and Nigel will share.

Once they are in place, along with two sheds, and the tanks, and we are ready to start work on the rehabilitation work, we will install 8 additional cabins to accommodate a further 12 people. Four cabins will be two-bedrooms each and four will be one-bedroom each, and I am guessing that my father plans to keep them on the smaller island as accommodation for tourists,” I said to Mitch.

“Sounds interesting, I look forward to when it all gets started, do you know how long it will be before we can get access to the island by boat, as I am guessing that a lot of the island’s coastline is rocky cliffs, but there are a number of beaches as well,” Mitch asked.

“Our base will be located on the smaller Little Boughton Island, which was not affected by the fire, and I am told, that a pedestrian bridge already exists between the two islands, and that is the area where the boat jetty will be located, once it is built, and that access to the bays where the beaches are will be restricted to all boat traffic,” I said.

“I see, from what I have seen from the Google Maps, the long beach, known as Providence Beach, on the north side, is a large open area, while the small beaches on the south-west side of the main island, mostly disappear at high tide.

The smaller two smaller beaches in the long bay also disappear at high tide, while the two bigger beaches at the end of the bay are where the camping area originally was located,” Mitchell said to me.

“True, I have a topographical map of the island, which I brought along with me, and that bay is the main area that we want to block off, to stop boat traffic from entering that area, do you think that maybe we can get a heap of floating buoys with signs on them to achieve that?” I asked.

“I guess that is something you need to discuss with your father,” Mitchell replied, as he picked up some more speed, as we reached the end of the protected waters of Port Stephens.

I headed back downstairs, where Travis and his cousin were deep in conversation, and I saw Nigel’s face go bright red and Travis laughed at this. “What are you two up to?” I asked. “It appears that wed have a new relationship blossoming,” Travis teased, which made Nigel go and even brighter red, and I chuckled at this, as I sat down next to Travis and gave him a nudge with my shoulder.

“Leave the poor boy alone, that is his own business, even if he is your cousin,” I said to my partner, and Travis reluctantly agreed to stop teasing his cousin. “Go and make yourself useful, go and make the skipper a cup of tea, white with one sugar,” I said to Travis who grumbled at been made a slave, which just made me laugh.

While Travis was delivering the drink to the skipper on the bridge, I retrieved the map of the island and opened it up over the shared table. When Travis returned, the three of us discussed ideas for the island, and it was agreed that we should establish raised boardwalks on both islands, to reduce damage to the island, and to allow animals to be undisturbed, once they are re-introduced to the island.

On Little Broughton Island, it was suggested to have one single boardwalk, down the centre of the island to as far as where the new village will be located and no further. On the main island, Nigel suggested that there also be just a single boardwalk built down the centre, to the peninsular on the north-west corner of the main island, with a few smaller boardwalks branching off it, one north to Providence Beach, with stairs leading down to the beach itself.

Another heading south to the middle of the end of the peninsular, and a smaller branch of that one, leading to a raised lookout, located between the two main beaches in that bay, with no direct beach access, which I fully agreed on.

The main boardwalk will be approximately 2.4 kilometres long, and the shorter one southwards will be 800 metres long, while the one on Little B Island, as my father calls it, will be just 450 metres long. As I was rolling up the map, a crackle came from a speaker in the room, “Bridge to passengers, come up to the bridge guys, you will want to see this,” we heard Mitchell say over the PA system.

A few minutes later, we entered the bridge, on the right was Little B Island and to our left, the main Broughton Island, but right in front of us, was quite a surprise, there we could see a good-sized bridge spanning the distance between the two islands, with a rocky island in the middle of it.

I looked over to the Little B Island side, where there was a landing of sorts, looking to be about 300-metres long, but it was only about 1-metre wide, with mooring posts spread out about 50-metres apart, and looking up, I saw a crane has already been put into place above it.

Looking over towards Bought Island, I was surprised to see a larger jetty already in existence, similar size in length of the jetty, but it was a lot wider. At the end of the jetty, there is a square staircase, leading up to the bridge, which appeared to be about ten or so metres above the jetty.

“The main jetty I think please skipper,” I said to Mitchell, who turned direction slightly, and slowed down as we approached, and I dashed outside to get ready with the mooring ropes. Even with the boat properly secured, there was still a bit of swell causing the boat to rock, as we disembarked fort he first time, and walked the length of the main jetty, which I was fairly close to my estimation on how long it is.

Mitchell allowed me to take the stairs first, and as I reached the top, I found my father smiling at me. “What the… how did you get here?” I said totally surprised. “Hello to you too son!” Dad replied, and we shook hands before Dad pointed over towards the smaller island, where I could now see a helicopter sitting there, with a man standing next to it.

“You cheated, and took the easy way over here,” I said smiling and Dad just nodded his head, as he greeted Travis, Mitchell and Nigel. “Welcome to the Broughton Island Group, now a private freehold property, owned and managed by our company. There are three small islands and some rocks that are included in this group, with that island to the north being the third largest of the group.

As you can see I have had the jetty and supply landing already constructed, along with the stairs up to the bridge, and the supply crane installed, plus here on the bridge, we have the two access gates, to limit who comes onto the island this way.

Let’s go to Little B Island first, as we need to work out exactly where to put the main houses, the sheds and the staff village, which I intend to make into guest cottages, when all is completed,” Dad announced, and he whispered to me the 6-digit code to me, to open the gate.