Tall Ship Adventures - 3. TSA Chapter 3

I heard Mum inform him that I have remained locked up in my bedroom for most of the day each day, coming down downstairs only for meals, and leaving my room only to use the bathroom or shower each day. She also told Eric that I had handed back the Yacht Club Training voucher, to Mum the night before and told her that I was no longer interested in learning sailing.

That night, during dinner, Dad informed me the deal for the sale of the Trimaran yacht between Eric, Mack and I had been cancelled, and that the yacht was going to be sent down to Fremantle to be sold, which surprised me a little but I knew that there was no point in me arguing about it at all.

Dad suggested that I get some kind of job, to keep me busy for the rest of the school holidays, and two days later I attended an interview and got a job as a Shelf Stacker or Night Fill worker as it is best described, working from 8 pm till 1 am, four days a week, which I was earning just over $300 per week after tax.

A little over a week later, I was asked by Eric, if I could come back and work for him in the processing shed, and I reluctantly agreed, so for the next five weeks during the school holidays, for four days of the week, I was working 6 hours during the night, getting seven hours sleep, then heading off to my other job for four hours.

Once I arrived home from that job, I would eat and relax for two or three hours, before having a short three-hour sleep, then getting up and going to my night job again. Thankfully, I had two days where I only worked one job and one day where I had the whole day off, which I spent either sleeping or just relaxing.

When the summer school holidays neared the end, I was asked by my boss at the supermarket, if I could continue to work two days per week doing night fill, as I was one of his most reliable and hard-working night fill staff. I was surprised by this and informed her that I would have to speak to my parents about it before I could answer, as I was entering Year 11 at school this year, and I knew that it would be a very tough year.

Apart from selecting the core subjects, of Applied Mathematics, Physics, English, Social Science, Chemistry and Environmental Science, I had also chosen Health and Physical Education, as I was a very keen sportsman at school, plus Music, which I enjoyed playing the piano and tin flute and singing, but I refused to be part of any choir music group.

With sports, I am a keen player in field Hockey, I do Cross Country Running and I play Tennis and Cricket during school terms, and on weekends when not working I kayak and Cycling, and when I get the chance, I will challenge Dad to a good game of 18-hole golf.

We live in the large coastal town of Port Dennison, in the Central West of Western Australia, 65 kilometres south of the City of Geraldton and 350 kilometres north of the Capital City, so anything that we don’t have available is not that far away in Geraldton.

Although it only has a population of around 3,000, the town is on the main highway between Perth and Geraldton, it has a beautiful 18-hole grass green golf course, a pretty impressive sports and recreation complex, a drive-in cinema, which are extremely rare these days, a horse race course, a large district high school, a good size marina, and plenty of tourist accommodation.

Unfortunately, the school only goes to year 10, so this year I will be travelling north to Geraldton to attend school, where there are five high schools, two Government, one independent Christian College, one Catholic College and one Anglican Grammar school.

At the end of the third term last year, my parents and I spent three days in Geraldton, touring all five schools, and meeting with the senior staff, and between the three of us, we decided that the Catholic College and the Christian College were not a good option, and the same was felt about the two Government schools, so it was the Grammar School that I would be attending.

As well as the course that I had selected, part of the school curriculum includes attending an Outward-Bound camp in the Great Southern for eleven days, plus an Outdoor Education Camp to Coral Bay or Kalbarri, so I knew that I was going to be exceptionally busy this year, and in a way, I was looking forward to the challenges that I would be facing.

Although the school is only 65 km away from home, it was decided that I would stay at the Student Residential College four nights a week.

I would travel to School early on Monday mornings with Dad, as he heads to work and return home with Dad on Friday afternoons after I have completed my after-school sports activities, to spend the weekends at home. I forgot all about the dramas of not being able to purchase the trimaran yacht, which before school commenced for a new school year, had disappeared from its mooring at the Port Dennison Marina, so I just presumed that it had been sent down to Fremantle to be purchased by someone else.

It was some months later, during the mid-year holidays, which is during the Winter months, that Dad asked me if I wanted to try giving the sailing course a go, as he still had the gift certificate, which had a 12-month expiry date on it. “You kept it?” I asked sounding shocked, as Dad looked at me with a bit of concern, “Yes, well we thought that you may change your mind again after some time,” Mum said to me.

“To be honest, I haven’t even thought about it, as I have been so busy with school, sports and other things like my weekend & holiday job at the supermarket,” I responded. Since the start of the school year, I have been working Friday and Saturday nights, doing Night Fill at a supermarket in my hometown.

During the holidays, I have been working three or four days a week, working as a checkout rooster, as we call ourselves, instead of a checkout chick, as two other blokes do work in the checkout apart from myself. “Well, I have sort of lost interest, since what happened at Christmas time.

There is no way in He… well no way that I could earn enough to buy a trimaran that expensive, so there is no point in doing it is there,” I added. “I think you should do it dear; you never know when the sailing skills will be of great use, sometime down the road in your life, Mum said to me.

“Let me think about it, and I will get back to you with a decision,” I eventually said, after a few moments of thought, “That is all that we ask you to do son,” Dad smiled and nodded his head, before smiling at Mum, which had me wondering what plan or scheme, were my parents up to.

“Well, don’t take too long thinking about it, and also, you better let your work know that you are not free for the second week of the holidays as our whole family is going away on a trip,” Dad announced. “I have already said that I am available for the whole two weeks of the holidays thou?” I replied.

“Well, I’m sorry, but you will have to change that, as I can’t change the dates for my holidays as easily as you can, and I would like us all to be together for this trip,” Dad said to me. “Ok, I guess they will have to roster someone else on instead. So, where are we going for this holiday next week?” I asked.

“Ningaloo, and Exmouth, and with it being the dry season up there, it will be warm and sunny,” Mum said happily. “Cool, that sounds perfect, I can work on getting my summer tan again,” I replied cheekily.

For the rest of the week, I worked at my supermarket job, and although not happy about it, my boss let me take the week off, so I could join the family for our one-week holiday in the North West, and we would be leaving at 6.45 am on Saturday for the one-hour flight south to Perth followed by the two-hour flight north to Exmouth.

When we arrived in the remote town of Exmouth, it was a beautiful dry season say, with a forecast of 21 degrees and a few clouds, as we booked into the Ningaloo Beach Resort at the southern end of town, with an uninterrupted view and very short walk to the beach. I had a feeling that I was going to enjoy this holiday, which was the first one our family had had in quite some time as we checked into a luxurious two-bedroom apartment.

After a quick look around the apartment, and putting my luggage away, I let my folks know that I was going for a short walk along the beach and that I would be back in half an hour. Once outside, I started to head for the beach, when in the corner of my eye, a very tall rigging caught my attention, so I changed direction towards the marina.

I soon realised that the tall ship moored there is the STS Leeuwin, Fremantle’s own Sail Training Ship, which has been based in Western Australia for many years now, giving kids and teenagers the chance to experience real sailing, as I continued to head in that direction for a much closer look.

“G’day, I didn’t know you guys were up here in Exmouth, last I heard, you were near Geraldton,” I called out to a crew member, after watching them working on the deck for a few minutes. “Hey. Yeah, we travelled up a few days ago, we are doing a couple of sailing trips around here before starting back towards home base,” the crew member replied after giving a wave of hello.

“Awesome, I did a basic sailing course when I was like 12 years old, and I may be doing a more advanced course a bit later this year. I am Zac by the way,” I said to the crew member, who looked to be in his early twenties, “I am Jordan Sanderson, and I am only a volunteer crew member, but you should see if you can give this a go, it’s an awesome experience.

This will be my fifth voyage as a volunteer on the STS Leeuwin, after I did the voyage experience when I was 16,” the crew member – Jordan said to me. “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind giving it a go someday. Could you tell me a bit more about it?” I responded.