New Frontier - 11. NF Chap 11

“That is great news that Vic and Rita are joining us, when will they be coming?” Sarah responded. “In about a week, once they have sorted out a few things back at their home in Canada. I am also in the process of trying to track down Toby and Alex, to see if they would like to rejoin the team,” I replied.

“I know where they are, I have been keeping in touch with them. They are currently in New Zealand, working as tour guides,” Sarah informed me. “Excellent, get in touch with them please, and offer them a job onboard the Trimaran as deckhands and stewards, and if need be, you and Oscar may need to be additional crew on the Trimaran when they have big bookings,” I responded happily.

“That is fine boss, and Oscar is really enjoying working on the yachts now,” Sarah replied smiling. “Great news, it sounds like we have everything set then. Once Vic, Rita and the two lads from New Zealand arrive, we will have that team photo,” I said before leaving the cottage.

I was about to step into my cottage, when I remembered something else and headed back to the now admin office, “Sarah, one last thing, we will need an additional cabin, since we have turned this into our admin base, can you try and find out where these cabins came from and arrange for two more to be shipped to here, probably by air crane.

I was thinking we could put them back behind the two on each side, with a connecting board walk between the two cabins on each side,” I asked. “Right boss, I will get right on it,” Sarah replied.

When I returned to the cottage, my brothers were awake and eating breakfast, “Good morning sleepy heads, I’ve been up since 5 am,” I commented to my brothers, “Why so early Anton?” Jedd asked me, “Because, I had a Skype meeting with Vic and Rita, they are coming to join us to skipper the trimaran, and hopefully Toby and Alex will be rejoining us too,” I replied.

About ten minutes later, I found the rest of the team gathered on the main decking area, just chatting and drinking tea or coffee. “Good morning team, just want to let you know a couple of things… I started and when I heard Sarah and Oscar approaching, I waited for them to take a seat.

“I had a Skype meeting with Vic and Rita early this morning, they will be joining us as part of the team to skipper and chef onboard the trimaran, and Sarah is in the process of tracking down Toby and Alex…” I announced and paused to see if Sarah had anything to add.

“No luck so far, neither of them are picking up their mobiles, but I will keep trying,” Sarah announced. “Good, now, with Vic and Rita coming onboard and hopefully Toby and Alex, with Sarah and Oscar as backup crew, that gives us a full crew for the trimaran.

Simon will remain skipper of the Duchess, since he is the only one qualified to skipper that yacht, with Finn, Kirk and Leon as the permanent crew for that yacht.

I will take up skippering my old yacht, now known as Front N Back, with Neale and Jedd as my crew, with Sarah and Oscar backing up when not needed on the trimaran. Is there any questions?” I announced. “Will there be chances to swap crews around?” Simon asked.

“Yes mate, there will be, actually I will be encouraging it, so no one gets bored with being on just one yacht, unfortunately that doesn’t apply to you Si, unless the F & N is not on charter, then you can be part of another crew,” I replied.

“Just to let you all know, the boss and I have set up the new admin base in the second cottage, so that is where you will find me when not on a charter, and the boss has ordered an additional two cabins, that will be air lifted to their new locations behind and between the two cabins on each side of this decking area,” Sarah announced.

“With that been said, we now need all hands on deck to start to build the connecting boardwalks too those two new cabins. We have the steel legs and cross beams, bags of cement mix and all the decking planks for the boardwalks, so lets get started on that right away,” I announced.

As everyone stood and went to prepare to get started, Sarah approached me, “I have the building company that laid down the raised platforms for the other cabins, coming to the island the day after tomorrow, as they are located in Kingston, and they have their own building barge to work from,” Sarah announced to me.

“Good, so they know what needs to be done?” I asked, “Yes boss. They have cleared space in the busy calendar to come and get started on the job right away,” Sarah replied. “Excellent, I like it when things go smoothly for us,” I said.

Over the next two days we were all very busy, firstly setting the led struts for the two new boardwalks, then bolting down the beams. On day three, when the concrete was finally set hard enough, we began work on laying the first lot of planks for the new boardwalks.

When the boys returned to the decking platform after their third trip to collect more wood planks, Neale announced that there was a large barge approaching the island. “We need to double park the catamaran to the trimaran,” I announced, “I will go and do it boss,” Simon responded, and he dashed off down the boardwalk towards the jetty.

The rest of us began to unload the two quad bikes, so that the lads could take them back to the jetty to collect what ever supplies the building team had with them, and twenty minutes later, they returned, with Simon, and four men walking not that far behind.

“You will need to have a chat to your brothers, they nearly run us off the boardwalk, Simon said quietly to me, and I nodded my understanding, and when I had caught my brother’s attention, I glared at them and indicated for them to follow me.

After a good dressing down for their behaviour, I left them to sulk in the cottage, where they were told to read a book, as they have lost privileges on using the computer for the rest of the day. By the time I had returned to the main deck, the builders had already began digging the holes for the support struts for the two new cabins, and the team were getting closer to where the cabins will be located.

By the end of the day all of the support struts were concreted into place, and we were informed that it would take a week for them to be totally dry and strong enough to support the two new cabins, which will be delivered by barge like before, but this time there was a slight problem, with the raised boardwalk been in the way of where the crane would move to get the cabins into location.

This bit of information wasn’t relayed to me until near the end of the day, when the building supervisor contacted his boss, and after a lot of discussions, I was eventually informed of the problem, and I groaned in annoyance. During dinner, Sarah and I were discussing what options there are to resolve the problem.

It was Kirk came up with the already thought of idea of lifting off every single plank of wood, and every cross beam to allow the mobile crane to carry the cottages to the main decking area, and onto their new mountings, then putting the cross beams and planks back down.

“What if we did that but in a much smaller scale, by placing the two new cottages, much closer to the jetty,” Simon suggested. “What is the maximum reach of one of those cranes?” Sarah asked, “That would depend on a number of factors, firstly the amount of counter balance required to be able to lift the heavy cottages, but for a guess, I would say approximately 50 to 70 metres,” Simon replied.

“Can the mobile crane move while lifting the cottages above the tree line?’ Kirk asked, “Yes, that is possible, but it would require a lot of preparation, and very careful monitoring while the crane is moving. What do you have in mind?” Simon responded.

“What if we bring the cottages to the area from a different location of the island, from the north east side, where there is a very short distance, and also the trees are fairly thin in that area, so getting the crane through should be easy,” Kirk replied.

“I like your thinking mate. Let’s go and check it out?” I replied. Twenty minutes later, we returned to the decking platform, happy with a solution to the problem. It was just 150 metres from the rocky beach to the clearing, and as Kirk has said, the trees were fairly thin in that area of the island, so getting the crane through without damaging any of the trees would not be a problem.

Once in the semi clearing, it is just another twenty five metres to the boardwalk and the now built support pads for the two cottages. A phone call to the manager of the building company made the decision final and it would take place in a week’s time, once the concrete is properly cured.

The following morning the building team and their barge headed back to their base at Kingston, while Sarah and I sat down in the office to do some work on marketing, for promoting the company at its new location. With each vessel having different cruising speeds, we worked out a couple of alternative cruise routes.

We decided that the Huon Duchess would remain on its current route of down the west side of Bruny Island and to Jetty Beach Bay, then back to Du Point Jetty at Margate, over a three day cruise.

Meanwhile the two sailing yachts, will be doing a different route, starting from Kingston Beach Sailing Club, and heading south east past Tasman Island, and up the east coast to Darlington on Maria Island, before returning to Kingston, and this route will also be a three day cruise.

On day that the builders returned to assist with the placing of the two additional cabins, Neale, Jedd and I were packing to be ready to relocate from the cottage, in to one of the new cabins, which I had the builders make a slight adjustment, with an upper level, to accommodate a master bedroom and bathroom, and a large private balcony, that will be our new home.

As soon as I knew that Vic and Rita were definitely coming to work for us, I made the decision to move to a new cabin and had the builders make the required additions, which wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Sarah had made all the arrangements for Alex and Toby to travel over from Auckland, New Zealand, and they would arrive the day after the cabins are in place.

Meanwhile Vic and Rita had informed me, that they would be making their own arrangements to travel to Australia, Tasmania and even to Partridge Island, and they would be arriving four days after the new cabins are in place, and I wondered if they had some sort of surprise lined up when they arrive.

The lads and I had settled into our new home, by the time Alex and Toby arrived, with Simon and crew taking the Duchess to go and collect them from Hobart Airport, and I was presuming that Simon would find a spot close to the airport to collect them from.

When I received a phone call from Simon just 45 minutes after the due arrival time of the plane from Auckland, I wondered if there was something wrong. “Hey Si, what is the problem?” I said as I answered the call.

“Hey boss, I have the lads, but oh man was things going crazy at the airport, there was media all over the place, who are trying to catch up with some Baron or Lord or something like that, do you know anything?” Simon replied, “No, but I do know someone who may know something, I will let you know when you guys get back home,” I responded, “Ok boss, we will see you in about four hours or so, bye,” Simon said before ending the call.

It was great to see Alex and Toby again, and we had them settled into their cabin quickly, before a celebration BBQ dinner began, now that we had all of the old team back again, well apart from Jasper, who had arrived home safely and was back at work.

“So boss, did you find out anything about all the crazy carrying on at the airport today?” Simon asked me, when he sat down at the huge central table in the centre of the decking. “No, I am waiting to hear back from my contacts, who have conveniently switched off their phones, but as soon as I know, I will let you all know,” I replied.

“When are Vic and Rita arriving?” Toby asked me, “In approximately three days, but I have this strange feeling that they are already in Tasmania hiding away somewhere,” I responded.

“Hiding from what?” Jedd asked me, “That is a good question bro, hiding from what indeed,” I answered. For most of the evening we listened to all the adventures that Alex and Toby have been in while working in New Zealand, and as Sarah stood to start clearing away all the plates and cutlery, I indicated to her to sit.

“While everyone is here, I would like to make a small announcement. I was originally going to build raised boardwalks north and south of here, but after some more thought, I have changed my mind, tomorrow, we will start pegging out an extension to the boardwalk, branching off in a southerly direction, about 120 metres from the jetty and for a distance of 180 metres, then turning east for fifteen metres to the edge of the island, where I want to establish a wharf, to be able to handle bigger vessels if need be,” I announced.

“Why is there a need for a wharf?” Sarah asked, “I can’t say just now, but we need to start on it before the arrival of Vic and Rita, so first thing tomorrow, with the supplies that we have now, we can get the boardwalk done, and make a start on the wharf,” I replied.

The following evening, as we all sat down for dinner on the decking, my mobile beeped with a message. “Hi Anton and Team, we have been delayed, and won’t be coming to Partridge until late next week now, most probably on the Saturday. Regards; Vic and Rita Kenworth.”

I was pleased with the delay, as it meant that we will be able to get most of the new project completed before they arrive. Already we had all the support struts concreted into the ground, and we would be waiting two days before starting to install the support beams, and then the walk boards, which would be a two day job.