Top End Doctor - 27. Dr Chapter 27

“Oh; and why is that?” Uncle James asked sounding a little surprised, “Because I have a letter from your ex husband, who asked that this be passed onto you,” Mr Hunter said as he handed over an envelope, which Uncle James opened and pulled out a card.

“I am sorry our relationship did not last, I hope that we can remain friends. The sale of the house in Darwin resulted in a bigger return, so I bought you this as a small share of the money of the house. Regards Tim,” Uncle James said as he read out the message.

“What is this, that he is… no way… he didn’t, did he?” Uncle James said shocked as he glanced over at the yacht, “Yes he did. We received a request from him to come to Darwin to collect it and bring it back to Dundee,” Bill Hunter said.

“Well, I can’t see how I can own it, when all I have is a small craft skippers ticket,” Uncle James responded, still shocked at what he now owns. “She is a beautiful sailing yacht to sail, and is the sister yacht to the famous, Hemisphere, at 44 metres in length, 16 ½ metres beam, 3 ¼ metre draft, three double guest cabins, one twin guest cabin, one master guest cabin, three single crew cabins. She has a cruising speed of 12 knots, with a range of 7,000 nautical miles, with a fly deck as well as indoor bridge, with a casual lounge saloon, formal dining and a small study, as well as plenty of outdoor living space on the main deck plus the fly deck.

Mr Hope suggested that with me as captain, we could use it for fishing tours, we have a number of river systems close by that would be ideal for yachts like this,” Mr Hunter said. “I see, well I guess you had better give us a tour of the yacht,” Uncle James said, as he began walking towards the jetty where one of Mr Hunter’s dinghies is always tied up.

Soon, Uncle James, Toby and I stepped onto this new yacht, which is 33 metres smaller than the other yacht, but it looked just as nice as the last one, with the aft deck having an outdoor dining area, and we stepped into a much cosier main saloon, and main dining room.

We were amazed at how nice a catamaran yacht can look, considering it only has just two decks and the smaller fly bridge, and Toby had already selected the aft twin cabin on the port side as his, while I would have the double cabin just forward of that. “What do you think of her, do you think you would like to keep her, as I would be very happy to be the captain for cruises,” Bill said to Uncle James.

“I will have to think about it Bill, give me a day or two to see if it will be viable to keep it,” Uncle James responded, “Very well, you are the boss, now would you like me to take it around to your home jetty?” Bill responded.

“Yes please, if you wouldn’t mind, I will meet you there and bring you back to town, and Mrs Kennedy, we will have to postpone the trip into Darwin for another day very soon, I am sorry fro the sudden change of plans,” Uncle James said.

“Not a problem Doctor, just let me pick up a few things from the store, as we a little low on some food items,” Mrs Kennedy replied, and so we dropped off Mrs Kennedy, before heading home to collect Mr Hunter, after he delivers the yacht home, and once we had brought him back into town, we collected Mrs Kennedy and returned home again.

“Does this mean we are going on medical missions again?” Toby asked as we walked into the main part of the house, “I am not sure what is going to happen with the yacht yet Toby, I have to do some serious thinking about it, Uncle James replied.

When we arrived home, we decided to just stay around the house, while Uncle James retreated to his office to make some phone calls.

“Mrs Kennedy, Dean, Lance and Declan will be having dinner with us tonight,” Uncle James announced, about half an hour later, and since Toby and I get along with them, we were happy that they are coming over to the house.

After dinner, Uncle James all of us to gather in the office, while Mrs Kennedy is cleaning up, which made me get a feeling that our lives are about to have a sudden change. “Right, as you know, my ex-husband has gifted me a 44 metre sail yacht, which I have decided on what to do with it, and I will brief Mrs Kennedy on it later.

I have decided that we are going on an adventure, I am not sure for how long, I just want to give my nephews a chance to explore more of this world, and I would like you three lads to be part of the crew,” Uncle James announced.

“Where will we go, Uncle?” Toby asked, “Anywhere we wish, with the income that we get from the properties that we own here in Dundee, we can easily survive, that is if our crew agree to just a small wage, for their work,” Uncle James responded.

“You bet we will, this is awesome,” Dean said excitedly. “You will have to excuse my cousins enthusiasm, we used to so some sailing at home in Queensland, when ever we could get the chance,” Lance said, and Uncle James smiled and nodded his head in understanding.

“Excuse me sir, I too have done a lot of sailing, including stints at Boson, First Mate and as Captain of smaller sail boats,” Declan announced.

“Yes, I know, that is what made me think of the idea, when I was thinking of what to do with this beautiful sailing catamaran yacht. So are you all in agreement for a sailing adventure, firstly along the top of Australia, and then into the Pacific Ocean?” Uncle James asked.

“Yes sir, Toby and I are interested,” I said, “It will mean that we will be sailing in some very fierce and dangerous seas, and at times when the seas are even slightly rough, you two boys will have to remain indoors, and everyone will have to wear a life jacket and be attached to a safety line when out on the decks at sea,” Uncle James said.

“As long as we are going with you, I have happy to go anywhere,” Toby announced, “Me too,” I added, and you can count us in to boss,” Declan said after looking at Lance and Dean who were smiling broadly.

After announcing to Mrs Kennedy of what the plans are for the future, she said that she was sorry to see us leaving, and because she does not like boats, she asked if we could drive her to Darwin, and she will look for more work there.

Two days later, after a 2 ½ hour drive into Darwin, we said a sad farewell to Mrs Kennedy, and after a bit of looking around town, we called into the marine supplies store, to see what they had available there, and it was decided that we would have a better look at the yacht, to see what we do need, then come back to the store with the list.

After an early lunch and a quick stop at a pet supply store, where we bought two large chicken feeders, and six large bags of wild bird seeds mix, we headed back home to Dundee, arriving back mid afternoon, and we found the lads busy at work in the community gardens, which are starting to look nice.

“Lads, do you know where the majority of the Council members are?” Uncle James asked when we stopped on the side of the road near them. “Yes, they are all at the lodge have a discussion about staffing, as Declan and us have submitted our resignations this morning, Dean replied.

“Ok, well when you have finished work, we need to go through the yacht carefully to see what supplies and backup spares we need for the trip,” Uncle James said.

“Not a problem, Declan had lunch with us today, and we were actually discussing that,” Lance replied. “When you lads decided to move onto the yacht, make sure that you give your residential units a good clean, so they are ready fort he next tenants,” Uncle James instructed them. “Yes sir, we will, we have already commenced packing, so in a day or two we will move, and start cleaning,” Dean answered.

“Ah Dr Shaw, we hear that you and your staff are heading on an adventure in the near future,” Seamus O’Donnell said when we arrived at the Lodge, “Yes, unfortunately, it has come to a point, where we need a change of scenery for a short while, although we don’t know how long we will be away, Dundee Beach will always be our permanent home,” Uncle James replied.

“That is good to know, and it is a shame that you are taking three of the towns hardest working lads with you,” Bill Healy said, “Yes, sorry about that, I guess they wanted to join in the adventure, and they were our crew before arriving here, so I have to let them chose.

I will send you post cards of the places we have called into on the way, and to let you know that we are alive and well. We still have a few weeks of preparations to make first, so I will let you know what our departure date is.

I have one request, and I guess I am steering this towards Seamus and Irene, Mrs Kennedy has already returned to Darwin, and I would really appreciate it if you could live in the house as my caretakers, while we are away,” Uncle James asked.

“We would love to, and I look forward to exploring your tropical jungle garden a lot more,” Irene replied, “Well the boss has spoken, so I guess we are going to be property caretakers,” Seamus replied. “Good, come over any time, and we will give you a full tour of the house and a few little secrets in the garden,” Uncle James responded.

“Secret’s Eh! Now that sounds very intriguing, I can hardly wait,” Irene said smiling, “How about coming over for lunch on Saturday, and we can go through things then,” Uncle James suggested, and the O’Donnell’s accepted the invitation.

When we arrived home, we carried the bird feeders and seed to the gazebo, where a small number of birds were gathered, and we set up the feeders, so that they can self feed when ever they get hungry. Back on the boardwalk, we returned to the house the long way, taking a look at the northern lookout, before heading back as far as the driveway, and following that to the house.

“Hey Uncle, it appears that the yacht has an extra passenger,” I called out from the verandah, where I had gone out to see the yacht down at the jetty, and when he came onto the verandah to see what I meant, he laughed at the sight of a blue Macaw sitting at the top of the mast of the yacht, the same bird that landed on my arm when we first discovered them on the property.

“I hope he doesn’t stay there when we leave or we may have some quarantine issues,” Uncle James commented. About half an hour later, we heard an outboard motor approaching, but instead of it being Bill Hunter in one of his aluminium dinghies, it was the three lads in a rigid dinghy, and the three of us headed down to the yacht to greet them.

“Hope you don’t mind, we borrowed the dinghy from the yacht, to make it easier for us to get here from town, since we are only meant to use the quad bikes for work purposes,” Dean said, as they climbed up onto the jetty, just as the macaw squawked, and the lads looked up.

“Well I’ll be. It is a Macaw Parrot,” Declan commented, as I held out my hand, and the blue macaw swooped down and landed on my lower arm, and hopped onto my shoulder. “A pet Macaw?” Lance asked sounding surprised, and Toby shook his head no.

“Nope, they are all wild, but we visit and feed them regularly, so they have come used to us, and this fellow was the first one to land on my arm, and scared the… well you know what I mean,” I replied.