New Frontier - 7. NF Chap 7

“It is definitely arson, the fire department here; says that the whole ground floor of both buildings was soaked with diesel fuel and turpentine. There is absolutely nothing left at all because of the enormous heat of the fire. I am sorry mate, that is all the information that we have at the moment,” Anita said to me.

“Ok thanks for letting me know, can you put Simon back on please,” I said to Anita. “Hey mate, so what do you want us to do? We were having a few days off as we don’t have any bookings at the moment, it has gone very quiet all of a sudden, which is a little strange,” Simon said to me.

“Do you have your laptop with you on the yacht?” I asked, “Yes, all the time now, why is that?” Simon replied, “Can you work with Sarah and see if our website has been hacked into, maybe that may account for the drop in bookings,” I suggested, “Sure, thing boss, we will get right onto it, anything else?” Simon responded.

“Yes, ask the crew and staff, if they would like to relocate to Tasmania? I will speak to you in a few days time, to allow everyone to think about it. Talk to you then mate,” I said, before ending the call. After a long period of thought, Neale spoke up, “What is wrong, has something happened?” he asked.

“Yes unfortunately, while all the staff and crew were out on the yacht near Cervantes, someone set alight our home and both buildings were burnt to the ground. The animals out the back area are all fine and unhurt, it just means we no longer have a home base for our business there, so I have suggested to Simon that he ask the crew, as well as Sarah and Oskar if they would consider relocating to here in Tasmania,” I announced to my brothers.

“That is ok, I don’t like those school books much,” Jedd said to me which made me laugh. “What about all your other stuff? Like your toys and reading books and all of your other clothes?” I asked, “We brought everything that we wanted with us, and all the rest can be replaced,” Neale responded.

“That is true, but we also lost all the photos of Gramps and Mum and all of our trips also, although some of them we have on digital disk for safe keeping, and should be on the yacht,” I replied. “We have only been here for a bit over a day, and I like it here already,” Jedd announced.

“That is good to hear, because I think we will make Partridge Island our permanent home, once we get to see it, which I hope will be tomorrow,”’ I replied. My brothers spent the rest of the day relaxing around the hotel pool, and I even spent an hour with them, before returning to my room to do some work on my laptop computer, which included sending and email to Vic and Rita.

“Hi, just an update for you, we have had some trouble over in Jurien Bay, namely our home and business office burning to the ground, while the crew and staff were out on the yacht. Everyone is safe and well, but we no longer have a base office in Jurien Bay, and the police say the initial investigation points towards arson.

I am hoping that you will allow us to live on Partridge Island on a more permanent basis, due to there being no need to return to Jurien Bay in a hurry, along with our new vessel that will be finalised tomorrow and hopefully our sailing yacht staff and crew will be coming over soon.

We have met George’s old friend, Mr Kilburn, a real Scottish character, it is his motor yacht that we will be purchasing and retaining him and his daughter, Francesca as permanent crew. Regards, Anton.” Less than half an hour later I received a reply.

“Dear Anton, we are so sorry to hear about what happened in Jurien Bay. Yes, you are most welcome to stay on the island on a permanent basis, and we are glad to hear that you have met Mr Kilburn. Take care all of you, Regards Vic and Rita Kenworth.”

The following morning, straight after breakfast, we drove north back to Hobart, so that I could go to the bank and get a bank cheque to pay for my newest purchase, and I withdrew a bit extra to cover some expenses that are bound to appear once we have settled into our new home on the island.

I remembered that Rita had mentioned that they had two cabins on the island, and I thought about this as we arrived in Hobart, and I wanted to do some investigations, to see if there is a building company that builds modular homes, while in the city.

Once I had the bank cheque, and done some investigations about modular homes, we set off back southwards back towards Port Huon and we arrived just before lunch time, and as we relaxed in the hotel restaurant, I thought about what will happen this afternoon.

“Hello again Anton,” Francesca said as we approached the yacht from the small jetty. “Hello, Ms Francesca, it is nice to see you again, how has your day been so far?” I replied. “Very busy, getting ready for our little overnight cruise, once all the business is over,” Francesca answered, as we boarded the yacht.

“G’day there Anton and boys,” came a voice from overhead, and I looked up to see Mr Kilburn standing there smiling to us. “Good afternoon, how are you today?” I responded, “Good thanks, happy to start a new stage of my life, as an employee with no concerns or worries, instead of an owner with everything to worry about,” Mr Kilburn replied.

Within twenty minutes, all the paperwork had been completed and we shook hands to seal the deal. “Do you have overnight luggage?” Mr Kilburn asked, “Yes, in the hire car,” I replied as I handed the keys to Neale and the two boys set off to collect the luggage.

When we had our luggage with us, we walked into the main saloon. “I have set up the suite for you Anton, and the boys I have put in the twin cabins, with one cabin each,” Francesca announced to us, “Ok thanks for that,” I responded just as the motors of the yacht started up.

After dropping off my overnight bag into the suite, I headed up to the wheelhouse, to speak to Mr Kilburn, and I knocked on the door, and opened it without waiting for a response. “Hello there boss,” the skipper said to me and I chuckled at this. “Well skipper, do you have a set destination for us?” I asked.

“Yes, your new home of course, Partridge Island. It will take us just under two hours to get there, so you will have time for a short walk around before it gets dark,” Mr Kilburn replied. “So, I am presuming that you have many years of maritime experience?” I asked.

“Yes, I started with the Royal Navy from the age of 17, left there at the age of 25 after eight years of service, with the rank of Chief Petty Officer. I then became a Merchant Navy Seaman, and after two years, I migrated to Australia, with my bride, where I remained in the Merchant Navy, and climbed up the ranks to 2^nd Engineer, when I was given redundancy eight years ago, and that paid for this yacht,” Mr Kilburn responded.

“Wow, that is an interesting life that you have had,” I commented, “It has be a very happy one, although I do miss my dear wife a lot,” Mr Kilburn replied. “Yes that must be hard, my brothers and I lost our mother quite some years ago, and I still miss her,” I commented.

“I understand you don’t know very much about Partridge Island?” Mr Kilburn stated, “No nothing really, apart from knowing that there are two small cabins on the island,” I replied. “Well the island has it’s own 30 metre long jetty, with bollards to secure boats to it, and from there, is a 450 metre long walking track, that leads into a semi cleared area, with a number of large shady trees, where the cottages are located, although now there are six not two.

For the past six years, George has had a conservation group visiting twice a year, to clear away any noxious plants, as well as building a raised boardwalk, over the top of the walking track. One of the last times I saw George before he died, he proudly gave me a tour of his little paradise as he called it.

At the end of the boardwalk, there is a covered raised decking, that is six metres by six metres in size, with two cabins on each of the sides of the decking, with another short boardwalk that leads to the final two cabins. Each of them have solar power panels on the roof, which powers the cabins, as well as the lights set into the decking, about half a metre from the sides, plus along both sides of the board walk and also the lights on the jetty.

I can tell you, George was the most proudest I had ever seen him that evening, as we sat in chairs on the decking with the rain softly landing on the roof of the decking area, with the soft lights, not affecting the view of the sky which on some nights you can view the Aurora Borealis, which is an amazing sight on its own,” Mr Kilburn said to me.

“Well, that is a nice surprise, I look forward to seeing it all tomorrow,” I responded, “That you will Laddie, that you will, but for tonight we will just anchor just off shore, in a small bay on the eastern side of the island, where you will see that it is very peaceful,” Mr Kilburn said.

I noticed that we were travelling at a leisurely pace, a lot less than the 11 knots cruising speed, and I didn’t complain, as it was much better to enjoy a cruise at this speed. Francesca’s cooking was a lot better than I expected, when dinner came, and it made me wonder why she was wasting her talents working on a small expedition yacht.

It was indeed very peaceful, as we anchored in a small bay, just north of the island’s jetty, for the night, and I was looking forward to exploring the island some more the following day, and after a wonderful dinner, we relaxed in the upper saloon, we headed to bed early.

At breakfast time, we all ate down in the crew mess area, and when the skipper arrived, I nodded to him. “Now that we are all here, I wanted to ask a few questions,” I announced, and I waited till everyone had stopped eating. “Skipper, apart from the steward that you have part time, do you have any other casual crew members?” I asked.

“Yes, we have a couple of cousins who come down from Launceston on school holidays, when we have a full yacht of guests,” Francesca said. “My niece and nephew are a little younger than Francesca, and they have always enjoyed going out on the yacht, and more recently, Helena and Isaac who are 18 year old twins, have been doing the required training to be qualified yacht crew,” the skipper added.

Once we had eaten and helped to clean up, the Skipper headed to the bridge, and we were soon on our way, but only for five minutes, as we approached the jetty, with my brothers at the fore and aft of the yacht with mooring ropes in hand, ready to secure the yacht.

“I bet you boys have done that more than once,” the Skipper said to my brothers when he came down from the bridge, after shutting down the engines. “Yes sir, with our catamaran yacht and now our trimaran yacht,” Neale replied. “Yes off course, and you just said Trimaran, that must be interesting to sail on,” the skipper commented.

“It is a dream to skipper it, between my good friend Simon and I, we have skippered the yacht thousands of nautical miles, over the past few years,” I replied. “I look forward to seeing it one day,” the skipper said. “Oh you definitely will, if I know my crew, they will be in full preparation mode as we speak, and once they have left, it will take them approximately 6 to 8 days to get here,” I replied smiling.

“Wow, that fast eh, it must be very sleek to get some good speeds. How many crew do you have on her?” the skipper stated, “yes, she is definitely fast, up to 16 knots when the winds are good to us, and in regards to crew, we have Simon and his partner Finn, who is the yacht’s Chef, and Kirk and partner Leon, are the stewards and deck hands, and Sarah Nichols who has been my Business Administrator, but also works as Galley hand when needed, and she has a son Oscar, who is the same age as Jedd,” I replied.

“Well that is a lot of crew, how do you fit them all into one yacht?” Francesca asked as she exited the galley. “Easy, the yacht has two retractable outer hulls, each one has two crew cabins in them, with their own bathrooms, there is also double, twin and single crew cabins in the forward section of the yacht, plus a master guest cabin and two double guest cabins aft and a double and twin guest cabins midships,” I replied.

“Wow! That must be one very special trimaran yacht,” the skipper responded, “Yes it is. I actually bought it off Vic and Rita Kenworth, it was when I met them at the Cocos Keeling Islands, that I saw her for the first time, and for a time, we had her and a catamaran that I already owned jointly with our late Grandfather,” I said.

As we reached the end of the jetty and the start of the raised boardwalk, I was impressed at how well it was built, with it being approximately one metre above the ground, and two metres wide, with one metre high side rails. “Is there any reason why the boardwalk is so wide?” I asked, as we continued to walk.

“Yes, George wanted it to be wide enough for two wheel chairs to pass each other, or a quad bike to drive along it, to cart supplies,” the skipper replied, “I see, very sensible forward thinking,” I responded, as the board walk wound around groups of trees and eventually we came to a clearing where the four cabins and the main decking was visible ahead of us.

“You said six cabins, I only see four,” I asked, George chuckled, “the other two are behind those groups of trees, these four cabins are each 56 square metres in area, while the other two are 92 square metres, of which one was George’s home, as you will soon see,” the Skipper replied.

After looking around the spacious decking area, with a full roof and half walls most of the way around, to keep out weather, we checked out one of the cabins, which are all identical in layout. The cabins has a lounge dining area, with a small kitchen along one wall of the corridor, that leads to a twin bed bedroom, and master bedroom, with a bathroom and separate toilet in the opposite corner.

Compact but functional for a holiday cabin, which I guessed George used to accommodate the conservation workers when they came to the island. The continuing boardwalk to the other two cabins was only 150 metres long, and I could see that these cabins were more suitable for longer term living, with a wide front veranda on each, to provide shelter from the weather, and there was a storage shed between them.

Looking inside George’s home, it was well furnished, with bookshelves filled with hundreds of books, and there was a number of African artefacts that look like they come from a holiday in Africa somewhere at sometime.