Top End Doctor - 16. Dr Chapter 16

“Angela’s partner and our chef is Tracy Archer, the two young men are our deckhands Lance and Dean Tompkins, who are first cousins, and explains why they look so much alike, the other young man is Declan Sengler, who is the galley hand and steward, we did have two stewards, but they left us suddenly in Darwin a few days back. Is that it? Have I forgotten anyone? Oh yes, the two boys are James’s nephew, and he is their guardian since their parents were killed in a car accident last year, their names are Reid and Toby Templeton,” Tim said finishing the introductions.

Declan had a clipboard, paper and pen in hand, which made Uncle James smile. “It appears that our steward is ready to take you names and allocate you cabins, I am guessing there is approximately two dozen of you here, which will be fine, as we have plenty of room, Uncle James said before stepping onto the gangway and heading up to the yacht, with Toby and I following close behind.

As suggested once inside, we remained in the main saloon, ready to give our new guest a tour of the yacht, and to show them to their cabins. A few minutes later Declan arrived, with most of the residents following close behind, as they were eager to check out the yacht.

“Good morning, as Tim said earlier, my name is Reid and this is my brother Toby, and welcome on board the yacht – Going Straight, and for those who are wondering, that was the name of the yacht, when Tim inherited the yacht from his great Uncle last year.

This yacht is 77 metres long and 13 metres wide, and had a total of five decks, because our family has a house nearby, that received no damage from the cyclone, all suites and cabins are available for use, and do we have any families with us?” I said to the group, in the main saloon.

Declan handed me the clipboard and smiled before leaving me to handle the guests, and he headed for the galley. I quickly glanced at the paper to see the list of people. “Ok, I see here thanks to our steward, that we have the businesses or jobs you had in the community which helps a lot with Cabin allocations.

I ask that you all remain here until I have finished allocation of cabins, so as to make sure we have everyone with a bed, for the next week. Firstly do we have any shire councillors or members of emergency services here?” I asked.

“My name is Harry Long, I am the are manager for the Bush Fire Brigade, and my wife Annie here is the Territory Emergency Services Co-ordinator,” one gentleman said. “Excellent, you have been allotted the Master Suite, located on the Owners deck, which is two decks up, any other organisation volunteers?” I asked, “Yes, Gill Anders here is the Co-ordinator for St John Ambulance Service in this area,” Annie said, on her behalf.

“Good, Ms Anders, you have VIP Suite 1, which is on this deck, forward and last door on the right. Mr and Mrs Harcourt, you can have VIP Suite 2, last door on the left on this deck. Ok, any other business people?” I asked, and a lady tentatively put her hand up, “My name is Grace Emanuel, I own Dundee Beach Fisherman’s Inn, or chat is left of it,” the lady said in a soft voice.

“Speak up Grace the boy can’t hear you if you speak that softly,” George called out, which received a few chuckles from the group. “Ms Emanuel, I will give you the Mini Suite, located on the boat deck, which is the deck above us, first door on the left as you are moving forward from the stairs,” I announced.

“If the cabins are as grand as this room, we are in for a treat,” another lady commented, “That is Mary Pincher, she owns the other guest accommodation in town, called the Sholly Shack, and she had two staff with her,” George commented. “Good, Ms Pincher, you will have Double Cabin 1, on the Boat deck, which is one level up, third door on the left, and your two staff can have a twin cabin each, on this deck first two cabins on your right after the main foyer,” I said.

“My name is Brian Hunter, I have the Boat hire business, although some of them are missing, possibly sunk, and I have one staff member with me,” another man said, “Ok, Mr Hunter, you will have Double Cabin 4, on the boat deck second door on the right, by the way, all the cabins are named, so just remember if you are in a suite or cabin and what number it is. Your staff member will have the twin cabin, on the boat deck, right next door to your cabin Mr Hunter,” I announced.

“I am Seamus O’Donnell, and this is my darling wife Irene, we own Skipper’s at Dundee accommodation,” another man called out with a strong Irish accent, “Good, Mrs & Mrs O’Donnell, you can have double cabin 2, opposite to Ms Pincher, Do you have any staff?” I replied.

“Yes, we have two staff members with us,” Irene replied, “Ok, you both have a twin cabin on the owner’s deck, next to Mr & Mrs Long,” I replied, “Hi, we are Alice Parker, and this is my partner June Wright, I am the school head teacher, and my partner is a teachers aid,” a lady replied.

“Good, you can have the last double cabin, number 3 on the boat deck, middle door on the left. Ok, I count that as 17 so far, any more people, “Yea, just the weekender’s mob, people who own a place and only come on weekends or holidays,” George called out, which resulted in Gladys giving him a soft slap on the arm.

There was a total of just 15 weekender’s as George called them, and I allocated them to crew cabins on the main and boat decks, with the yacht’s crew all located on the lower deck, and made a total of 24 people in total, with only one single crew cabin remaining empty.

“Now that I have allocated everyone a cabin, let me give you a brief talk about the yacht, there are a few areas that are off limits to all of you, they are the entire lower deck, which is work areas and crew cabins, as well as the bridge, the room located midships on the owner’s deck, and the galley and crew pantry areas, all other areas are ok to see and use.

We have onboard a small fitness gymnasium, a nine seat movie cinema, located on this main deck, this is the main saloon lounge we are in now, there is a second one on the next deck up, and directly above us, which has a baby grand piano, for anyone who can play, at the back or aft of the yacht on this deck under the covers, is a splash pool, and there is a jacuzzi located on the sun deck, above the bridge.

Accessed from the rear stairs on the boat deck, you can get up to the Helipad, which has plenty of recreational space, and if you ask the captain really nicely, she will arrange for the two wave runners, four kayaks, and for those interested in fishing, we have two sports fishing boats with all the fishing equipment.

One last thing, as Tim mentioned earlier, we are minus our two stewardesses, who left us suddenly, so please be patient, when it comes to meals, and we ask that you assist us by keeping your cabins clean, we ill provide cleaning supplies when needed.

There are layout plans of the yacht in the foyers of each deck, in case you get lost, you can use the light green in-house phone, to get assistance with directions or any information, we will leave you all to explore and get settled in, thankyou,” I said ending the briefing.

We waited for everyone to slowly dissipate before we headed up to the bridge to find Angela. As we passed the owners deck, we heard a lady call out. “Oh, my gosh! Will you look at his Harry, this is incredible, it is like a 5 star hotel in here,” she called out, and we just smiled as we continued upwards.

“I think Mr and Mrs Long are over pleased with their 5 star accommodation, as we passed Uncle’s Suite on the way up,” I said to Angela as we walked in, and Angela chuckled at this. “Oh, my gosh! Will you look at his Harry?” Toby said trying to imitate Mrs Long, which made Angela burst out laughing, and I couldn’t help but laugh too.

Tracy entered a few minutes later and frowned, “Did one of you boys make my wife cry?” she said to us, which shocked us a lot, “They are tears of laugher dear, that is all,” Angela explained.

“Well, that is alright then, so what was so funny to have you crying with laughter?’ Tracy asked, “As Toby and I were heading up here, we overheard Mrs Long exclaim in delight at the five star accommodation they have been allocated,” I said before turning to my brother, who repeated the imitation act, and soon Tracy and Angela were laughing loudly, and I suddenly realised that the door wasn’t closed properly, so I quickly pushed it shut.

When the internal phone buzzed, I picked it up and Angela and Tracy tried their best to stop laughing, “Angela’s happy hour, Reid speaking,” I said into the phone, which had the two ladies burst into laughter again.

The phone went dead, and I looked at it for a few moments, shrugged my shoulders and return the phone to the receiver. Less than a minute later, Uncle James entered puffing from all the running, and he closed the door behind him.

“What on earth is happening up here?” Uncle James demanded, not sure what to expect from seeing both Angela and Tracy laughing their heads off, as Tracy tripped and landed heavily on her backside, which brought more laughter from the two ladies.

Uncle James looked at the both of us with a frown, and I just shrugged my shoulders, and indicate to my brother to follow as we headed downstairs to escape the madness on the bridge, and we ended up into eh galley, where Declan was doing some meal preparations.

“Hey boys, what had your Uncle dash up to the bridge in such a hurry?” Declan asked as he continued working, “I think it is best that we leave that up to the Captain to explain that. Can we have something to eat please,” I replied.

Declan made us both a strawberry milkshake, and found a packet of biscuits in the pantry, and we ate and drank as we watched Declan working. “What was the final count for guests staying?” Declan asked, “32 guests and 5 crew, our family will be having dinner at home I think,” I replied.

About twenty minutes later, Tracy entered the galley, rubbing her sore backside, “Thankyou boys, that has been the best laughing session I have had in a long time, even if I did get a sore rump as a result of it all,” Tracy said, and I heard Uncle James chuckling in the doorway behind here.

“By the way, on the way down just now, Mrs Long asked me who it was that was trying to imitate her,” Uncle James said, “Oh my gosh, that is hilarious, she actually heard it? What did you tell her boss,” Tracy said, “I said that the young man responsible will be given a long lecture on having good manners when on a yacht full of guests. That been said, the lecture is over, are you boys coming home with me? We need to go and collect the fresh food that we brought off the yacht yesterday, so we can feed all this lot,” Uncle James said.

It took me a few minutes, but when I realised that what Uncle said, was all that we were being told off for, with no other punishment, I smiled broadly, as we stepped off the yacht and headed for the Land Rover, for the 16 kilometre ride to our new home, to collect the food supplies for the yacht.

By the end of the afternoon, everyone was emotionally and physically tired, as everyone came onboard the yacht, to cleanup before dinner. As I had guessed, Tim wanted to head home to have dinner with just the family, so we jumped into the vehicle for the drive home.

The next morning during breakfast, Uncle James informed us that during the night, the yacht floated above the mud, and they relocated to a creek, where they anchored just 1200 metres from a boat ramp that is located just 350 metres north of the western end of the airfield runway and 900 metres from the lodge.

Uncle James said that Angela has placed the two sports boats into the water before setting anchor, so they are behind the yacht, and they provide transport to the Dundee residents to get to the community.