Top End Doctor - 30. Dr Chapter 30

We arrived at Whale Song in the mid morning, and it was a awesome day, with nice warm weather, and here appeared to be quite a few people camping there, so the lads set the anchors with Declan positioning the aft of the yacht facing the beach, at a distance of about fifty metres.

Once the anchors were set, the lads lowered the dinghy into the water, and Uncle James and Declan went ashore, while we watched from the fly bridge, as they met some of the campers and had a chat to them. When they returned to the yacht, they announced that there had been no sightings of crocodiles on the beaches or sharks in the waters, so it should be fairly safe close to the beach.

With that being sorted, we changed into our swimming gear and with Declan on look out, Uncle James and we boys had a swim staying fairly close to the aft of the yacht. Once we were out of the water, the lads grabbed the fishing poles and headed further out to sea to do some fishing, to catch some dinner.

When they returned at lunch time, they were smiling, and showed us their catch of two good sized fish, which they identified as pink snapper. Leaving the dinghy tied up at the aft of the yacht, the lads headed to the galley to clean and scale the fish, ready for dinner tonight, before preparing lunch for all of us.

Toby and I had just moved to the aft main deck lounge area, where there was screams and crying coming from the shore, Uncle James who was on his laptop in the main saloon, jumped up and dashed outside, “What is it?” he called out to the group at the beach which included a few children of various ages.

“Jelly fish, blue looking ones,” one of the parents called out, as a teenager sat on the beach wriggling around in pain, while a child about my age was screaming and crying. “Get the vinegar,” we heard one parent say, “No, not vinegar, that will make it worse,” Uncle James called out, as he dashed inside, and returned a few moments later with his doctors medical bag, with Declan following him, and the jumped onto the dinghy, which I was already in, to get a closer look at what was happening, and we made their way to shore.

“I said no vinegar, it will increase the strength of the stings,” Uncle James said to an adult who was about to pour vinegar on the child’s leg. “What makes you such an expert,” and man demanded, “I am a doctor, specialising in tropical medicine,” Uncle James snapped back, as he stepped in front of the man, and knelt down to look at the sting.

“Someone said blue looking jellyfish?” Uncle James asked, “Yes, like a bottle, oh! Blue bottles, please doctor, these are my children who have been stung,” one of the ladies replied, realising now what had stung her children.

“Is the teenager your child too?” Uncle James asked in a calm manner, know that he knew who the children’s mother is, “Yes, Alexander is 14 and Samuel is 10, the lady replied, “Right, hot water is the only treatment, and the closest we have is at my yacht.

Dec, help Alex to the dinghy, I will carry Sam, you can come too Mrs…” Uncle James said giving instructions, “Its Carolyn, Ms Carolyn Remington,” the lady replied. Meanwhile I was already at the dinghy, turning it around, and I too suddenly was stung, and I saw a blue bottle jelly fish near by.

“Oww! I have just been stung too Uncle,” I called out, as I continued to turn the dinghy around, before climbing in, and I helped the boy into the dinghy, and soon everyone was on board, and we raced back to the yacht, where Dean and Lance were waiting.

“Get the showers hot in the two guest cabins on the main deck,” Uncle James called out to them, and they raced inside to do as they were asked, and soon the two boys and I were under the showers, getting our legs covered in hot water, while Uncle James, wearing gloves carefully removed any remaining tentacles, that were still attached to our legs, as I sat on the floor beside the younger boy, who was just a year younger than me.

“Carolyn, I need to keep monitoring your two boys and my nephew, so you are welcome to stay on board, do you have anything at your camp that you want to bring over to here?” Uncle James asked Ms Remington. “Well our car actually died on us, a few days ago, just short of this camp site, we had one of our fellow campers tow it to the campsite, so we could stay close to our gear.

I will need to get all of my camera equipment and some clothes for all of us, I am a freelance nature photographer,” Ms Remington replied. “Hi, I am Reid Templeton, and that is my younger bro Toby, and this is my Uncle, Doctor James Shaw, he is our legal guardian,” I said to make introductions.

“Thanks for that nephew, I am sorry for not introducing myself earlier, we have had a few eventful past few months, so I wasn’t thinking clearly, especially now when we are now on holidays,” Uncle James said, and the lady laughed, “That is fine, and my friends call me Caro, so you don’t have your partner here somewhere?” Ms Remington asked.

“No sadly, recently divorced actually,” Uncle James responded. “I am sorry to hear that, and I did already know who you are, as I have read the news articles about your medical mission on the Tiwi Islands, before being chased by the cyclone,” Ms Remington stated.

“I see, well as long as you have no problems with that, you are still welcome to stay on the yacht. I have a crew of three apart from my nephews and I, Declan here is our chief Skipper, and I am first mate, and we have Dean and Lance, who are first cousins, who are our deckhands and cooks,” Uncle James explained.

“That would be wonderful thankyou, if you are really sure that you can accommodate us, would you be able to take us to Broome, so I can arrange for my car to be brought back to civilisation, I will probably have to invest in a new vehicle now that this one has died on me,” Caro said.

“Yes, that is not a problem. Dean and Lance have just caught some snapper a while ago, so we have plenty of food for dinner, and I am sure they are making extras for lunch as we speak,” Uncle James said. “If Declan can take me back to the beach and help me collect everything from our camp and car, then that would be appreciated,” Caro asked.

Three return trips later, Caro had all of her photography equipment and laptop computer, plus three suitcases, two boxes and an esky of food, three containers of fresh water, and two bags of camping gear on the yacht, with the vehicle now empty of all possessions, and with the windows left down a little to stop it from getting too hot inside during the day.

With us boys who were stung, now feeling a little better, we all gathered for lunch on the aft deck, with Dean and Lance excelling with their cooking skills once more. Caro had settled into the starboard guest cabin, while her two boys would share the cabin next door.

“I must say, this is a very comfortable yacht you have here Dr James,” Caro commented, “That it is, Ms Remington, and we have an awesome boss too,” Declan responded smiling, and the lads nodded in agreement, and all Uncle James could do was laugh.

“Oh, one other thing, we do have one other crew member, but he is a secret, because he came to Australia illegally, and he has chosen to stay with us,” Uncle James announced, nodding to me, and I gave a little whistle and moments later Blue Beard flew down from his perch on the fly bridge.

“Scrub the decks, walk the plank, man overboard,” Blue Beard said, which had all of our guests laughing, and we all smiled. “Wow a Macaw parrot, isn’t he beautiful,” Caro commented, “That he is, he was with a large group of smuggled birds and reptiles that were released, when two men from a cargo ship jumped ship not far from our home, about 55 kilometres south-west of Darwin.

Blue Beard here decided that he wanted to be our pet, and when we left for holidays, he caught up to us, and has been with us since,” Uncle James explained

“What happened to the two men that had jumped ship?” Alex asked, “Well sadly one ended up being crocodile dinner, while the other one was captured about a week later at a nearby resort,” Declan said. “Poor crocodile, eating a bird smuggler,” Sam responded, which made us all laugh.

After lunch, while our guests were relaxing up on the fly deck, Uncle James asked Toby and I to follow him his own cabin for a family chat. “I have a thought, and I wanted to check with you boys first, and that is, if Caro, Alex and Sam chose to stay with us for more than just a few days, how would you boys feel about that?” Uncle James asked us.

“I think it would be great to have other boys for company and I bet you wouldn’t mind having another adult closer to your age to talk to from time to time,” I responded, “My, what a wise nephew I have here, yes that would be nice, and I do like them, even in the short time we have known them,” Uncle James said. “What about if we wanted to have paying guests? We won’t have the accommodation for them,” Toby asked.

“I have thought about that too, and if you boys don’t mind sharing the forward crew cabin, adjoining the crew mess, then Caro can have the double that you are in Reid, and her boys can share the aft twin next door to her,” Uncle James suggested.

“Let’s go and see what it is like for two of us in there,” I suggested, and we exited the master cabin crossed over to the other side of the yacht, and down the stairs that lead to the crew mess, galley and the forward cabin.

“Wow, that is a lot smaller than my cabin, but I guess that is because the two single beds are ground level, where these are bunks,” Toby commented, “Yes, it is a bit of a squeeze, but I think that we should be fine with it, we can always use the crew mess as an extra living space,” I added, with Uncle James standing in the crew galley area, listening to us.

“So, what do you think? Will you move to this cabin together?” Uncle James asked, “What no, if anyone needs to move, it is us, we will share this cabin, and you boys can have the two single crew cabins, which can be reached from the main galley,” Dean said from behind Uncle James.

“Are you sure about this Dean, what about Lance, should you ask him first?” Uncle James commented, “I agree with my Cuz, it should be us in the twin crew cabin, not your nephews, so we will move into there, so the boys can have their own cabins still,” Lance said from the stairs behind his cousin.

“OK, it is settled then, before we leave here tomorrow or the next, we will do the cabin changes, and that way we can keep the main deck cabins free for paying guests once we get to Broome,” Uncle James said to all of us.

“Is this a crew meeting, have I missed anything? Declan asked when he appeared from the stairs, with Dean and Lance having already sat down in the crew lounge. “Yes, you missed the meeting, and it doesn’t effect you, so you are all good,” Lance replied smiling.

“We are just having some cabin changes, so we can free up the two main deck guest cabins for paying guests, when we arrive in Broome, you will stay put, Reid and Toby will move to the single crew cabins next to yours, and the cousins will share the twin crew cabin forwards of the crew galley,” Uncle James explained.

“Oh, I see, so are Caro and her boys going to be staying longer then?” Declan asked, “I am not sure, but with the cabin changes, I am hoping they will, as they will make a nice addition to our crew,” Uncle James responded.

When we all returned to the main deck, Caro and her boys were in the main saloon, “Ah, there you are, I was wondering where everyone disappeared too,” Caro said, “Sorry about that, we were having a crew meeting in the crew mess,” Uncle James explained.