Tall Ship Adventures - 1. TSA Chapter 1

I enjoyed the school holidays. Well, all three days of it so far, as I had done virtually nothing. Well apart from mowing the lawn, and doing my laundry, since my parents were always so busy with work all the time, I thought that it was time that I did my bit at home, instead of facing the nagging of my Mum when she came home each day.

Dad was a radio announcer and producer, and travelled 65 kilometres each way, each work day, leaving at 5 am before anyone else in the family was awake, and returning home at 4 pm, with a large selection of audiobooks in the car, he was usually relaxed, by the time he arrived home.

Mum was a librarian, working part-time at the high school library, plus part-time at the community library, and when school was out for holidays. With just a week until Christmas, we sat down for dinner as a family as usual at 6 pm, and with it being a Monday evening, it was the one day that Dad was home all day, and he also had a half day at work on Saturdays.

“So, boys. What are your plans for these holidays?” Dad asked with interest, as Mum served our dinner and then sat down. “Can I go with the Griffiths family on a camping trip after Christmas?” my younger brother – Alistair asked eagerly.

I watched as Dad and Mum shared a long glance between them before facing my brother. Alistair is eight years younger than me, and at eight years old, my parents considered him a bit too young for anything like that, even if it was with the family that have been best friends of my parents for many years, well before both of us were born.

“I will discuss it with Michael and Anita, and see what they think about that idea,” Dad said in reply, which my brother accepted as yes, he was going on a camping adventure. “What about you Zackary? Do you have any plans to keep you busy during the holidays?” Mum asked me.

I so hated that name, but it is the name I was given at birth, and my middle name was just as bad, I refused to use it, and regularly reminded my parents and brother to never speak that name.

As I considered the question, I wondered if the casual summer job that I have had for the past few years was still available, which I had enjoyed, and began just two days after Boxing Day. “I don’t know, nothing until after Christmas, and after that, I am hoping that I will have my usual old job,” I replied.

I was a fish processor at the local Fishing Co-op, separating the different species before they were gutted and cleaned before they were packed and placed in cold storage, and before being shipped to the city. “That reminds me, I had a call from Eric, he wants you to call in tomorrow to discuss a change of jobs this summer,” Dad announced. “Oh, do you know what the change is?” I asked curiously.

“I might do, but I will leave it up to Eric to tell you what that is all about,” Dad replied smiling, which had me thinking that it might be a good change. For five weeks each summer, I have been working from 11 am to 3 pm, six days a week, and over the past two years, I have managed to save most of the money that I earned.

At $50 a day, I had earned $300 per week, which ended up being $1,500 each summer, which was safely tucked away into the bank account that had been opened especially for me, and at last glance at the bank balance, the tally is a little over $4,500 including interest.

The following day, having done all my chores from the day before, and with Mum at home day, so she would be keeping an eye on my younger brother, I decided to go for a long stroll along the beach, which is one of my favourite things to do, and this included strolling past the dry storage yard of all the boats and yachts at the local yacht club.

I had always been amazed at all the different kinds of boats and yachts there were sitting there, and each time I wandered passed the yard, I always stopped at one particular spot, where a large bare-looking trimaran sat, with a tarpaulin over the top to protect it from the weather.

Once a special project, to restore it to its original glory, the 32-metre-long and 14-metre-wide Trimaran had long ago been abandoned and destined to be scrapped, but seeing it today, I spotted a large sign clearly saying that this was now for sale, and make an offer.

Remembering that I had to go and see Eric, my seasonal employer, I reluctantly left the boat yard and headed off towards the main fishing jetty, where the fish processing shed is located, and I walked into the administration area a short time later.

“Hello Eric, I have a message that you wanted to speak to me, regarding my summer job?” I said as I saw my boss, shortly after entering the administration reception area. “Hey, Zac. Yeah, I wanted to know if you wanted to try work as a deckhand on one of the fishing boats, are you interested?’ Eric asked me.

I had no idea what it was like working on a fishing boat, but I decided why not, I said yes to the proposal, and I was informed that I would need to be at the beach ready for work at 4.30 am and that the day usually ended at around 11.30 to 1.30 each day, with Sunday being the one day of rest.

“Do you have any questions?” Eric asked me after giving me a detailed rundown of my duties with my new job that I would be starting straight after Christmas.

“Yes, just one, but it’s not about the job. I often walk through the dry storage, and I noticed that the large old trimaran, that looks forgotten is now for sale and is up for offers, do you know anything about it?” I asked.

Eric chuckled and smiled, “Yes, I do, it belongs to Old Mack, a retired fisherman, who is quite frail now, and it was a retirement project, that he never got around to finishing. He lives just down the road from where I live, so I will have a chat with him in a day or two and get back to you,” Eric replied.

“Thank you for enquiring, it is more of a general enquiry, I am not sure that I would be able to afford to buy it, as I only have what I have saved from working for you the last few years, and apart from the basic sailing course I did when I was twelve, I have done very little sailing since,” I said to my boss, “Let’s just wait and see what Old Mack says shall we,” Eric said to me.

I was told by Eric, that as a deckhand, I would be earning a percentage of the catch, plus a small hourly wage when working on the deck, and that I would get paid at the end of each month, so I had no idea how much I would be getting paid, but I was guessing that it would be a bit more than I usually earn when working in the Fish processing shed.

For the remainder of the week leading up to Christmas, I was either minding my little brother at home or taking long walks along the beach, dreaming of what I could do with a magnificent catamaran yacht, like the one that is currently for sale.

On Christmas morning, Alistair excitedly opened up his presents, with wrapping paper flying everywhere, and for me, I was given a new laptop computer, which was awesome, and with it was a large envelope, that I had put aside until I had checked out the computer properly.

“Are you not going to see what is in the envelope?” Dad had asked me, and I stopped what I was doing on the laptop, and placed it beside me, before picking up the envelope and turning it over a few times, trying to work out what it would be, as it looked a bit bigger than a standard Christmas card.

Inside the card, was a gift certificate from the nearby yacht club, for a 72 hours of Advanced Sail Training, with twelve hours per weekend for six weeks. “Eric told us that you enquired about a certain yacht project that is for sale, that you may be interested in, so we thought that we may contribute to your training so that we know that you are safe when out on the water,” Mum said to me.

“Wow, thanks for this, but isn’t it a bit early to even think about doing the yacht training, when I don’t even have a working yacht to sail yet?” I asked, “That depends,” came a new voice from somewhere, and Dad showed me his mobile, “Is that you, boss? Why would it depend?” I asked, and I heard a chuckle sound coming from the phone.

“It depends on if you wish to accept paying just $5,000 for a share in the trimaran from Old Mack, which not only included the yacht, but also the mast, sails new rigging, and other bits and pieces in storage, which have already been paid for. I have been on board the trimaran the other day, and it is not even close to being finished,” Eric said from the phone.

“Yes, I am happy to pay that much, if you think it is worth that amount. How far from not been finished do you mean?” I replied. “Oh, it will be worth far more than that when it finished, but when I explained to Mack that you are a teenager, who has a keen interest in sailing, is working very hard on holidays and will soon be working on a fishing boat, he was happy to drop the asking price to well below its value, because it is going to a young man just starting his sailing journey,” Eric replied.