Tough Times - 3. Tough Chapter 3

We renamed her Sans Bellow, as she was based at the Monte Bellow Islands up until we purchased her, and sailed her down to Fremantle. She is fuelled up and ready to go, just needs to stocked up with food supplies, and she is ready for an adventure,” Brady said as he led the way onboard, and I was given a full tour of the small yacht.

When the tour was over, Brady sat down in the main saloon, she isn’t much compared to the Anders Way, but she has all the home comforts, and Kyle and I were wondering if you would like to make this your permanent home, and just be on the main yacht for just charters, that way you will have your own personal space,” Brady announced to me.

“Wow… I don’t know what to say, but yes. I would feel a lot more comfortable living here than onboard the Anders Way,” I replied. “Good, that is settled then, you can move in once this charter is over this weekend, and we hope that you can look after both yachts, as this old girl does need some loving care,” Brady responded.

We ended up having dinner at the Yacht Club that evening, and retired to our cabins fairly early, so we are well rested for the weekend ahead of us. I was in the main galley the next morning, when I heard Brady talking to someone, as he came down the stairs. “That is fine sir, totally understandable, we hope that you can join us for a charter in the future, goodbye for now,” I heard Brady say as he entered the crew mess and sat down.

“As you can guess from the tail end of that conversation, the charter is cancelled, and that is to be expected some times, the question now is that we have all of this provisions on order and no one to feed and entertain. I better cancel the extra crew members too,” Brady said as he dialled a number and waited for it to be answered.

“Marissa, this is Brady, the charter is cancelled due to both families having the measles, can you let your two friends know that they will not be needed this weekend please… Yes, I will arrange for them to get a small amount for the inconvenience of losing work, bye for now,” I heard Brady say.

“So, what happens now?” I asked, “I need to chat to my cousin and see what Kyle wants to do, as joint skippers, it has to be a joint decision,” Brady replied, just as we heard footsteps coming down the stairs. “What is a joint decision?’ Kyle asked as he appeared.

“Hey cousin, I was about to call you, the charter is cancelled due to the measles, so what do you think we should do about all the provisions that we are about to get delivered?” Brady responded. “Hmm let me think about that for a few minutes, see what brainless ideas I can come up with,” Kyle said and both Brady and I laughed at this comment.

We were interrupted by the sound of Kyle’s mobile ringing, and he answered it. “Hello… yes hi, it is good to hear from you, after such a long time, how can I help you?” We heard Kyle say, and as he listened, he smiled and looked at Brady. “Yes, I do know of a perfect weekend function centre for a maximum of ten people, with accommodation available at a reasonable price… What is the occasion?” we heard Kyle say.

“… Batchelor party for the groom and his party and close friends… well, if none of your group are susceptible to seasickness, our family has a 46-metre sailing yacht that just happens to have a cancellation for this weekend, so if you can round up your group, we can make it this weekend, starting from 6 pm this afternoon…” Kyle said into the telephone.

It appears that our problem of not having a charter had just been resolved, as we waited to hear more of the one-sided conversation. “Well, since we had a cancellation, how about we just charge for the cost of the food and alcohol, and make the accommodation at hotel rates, would you be happy with that?” Kyle said to the caller.

“… Good, we will see you in about an hour, bye for now,” he added before ending the call. “As you can gather, we may have a charter after all, a party of ten for the grooms and eight of their friends. I need to call Marissa and Malena, to make sure they don’t change their plans for this weekend, as we will need them,” Kyle said as he dialled a number.

“Marissa, me again, we have a new charter, party of ten for a bachelor party, it is for Peter and Craig, they are getting hitched…” we heard Kyle say and my expression of shock and surprise made Brady laugh. “Yes, he said grooms, and yes, Peter and Craig from our old school,” Brady said to me.

“Wow, I didn’t expect that, they were so…” I said in total surprise, “So straight and manly?” Kyle said after hanging up his phone, and I blushed at this, “Yeah, well if you don’t know, I am Gay too, but I just don’t broadcast it to many, as it has already resulted in me loosing contact with my siblings after Mum and Dad were killed,” I replied.

“We suspected that you were, but we didn’t want to be the first to ask… so does this mean that your Gaydar is out of action?” Brady said as he and Kyle wrapped me in a hug, and between sobs and laughing, I felt safe and loved by my best mates ever.

As we cooked and ate breakfast, we chatted about how things have changed so much since leaving school, and as we were cleaning up, Marissa and Malena arrived. “Hey guys, I have spoken to the boys, Aunty Maria is bringing them over, once they have completed their chores,” Marissa said when they sat down next to us in the crew mess.

“Are you ok? It looks like you have been crying?” Malena asked me, and I smiled and nodded my head. “He is fine, he just told us what we have suspected for years, so they are just happy tears,” Brady said to his cousins. “Well, it is about time, so when are you going to get a boyfriend?” Marissa asked, which made my mouth drop open.

“Steady on there, he has just come out to us, don’t make it too difficult for him,” Kyle said in response, “yeah, it is going to be hard enough with a group of gay guys on this charter,” I said shyly. “I suspect, that not all of them are gay, if I guess who will be in the group, there will be a few straight guys too, so we will have to adjust the beds as needed, once Craig arrives and tells us who is coming,” Brady said.

Just minutes after the junior crew, Trent and Jacob arrived, a deep voice called out, “Hello, anybody home?” and with me being in the fly bridge, I glanced over to the jetty to see the older but familiar faces of Peter and Craig. “Hey guys step onboard, we will be right with you,” I said before heading down to the main deck, where the two skippers had appeared just moments before me.

“Hello Devlin, we had no idea that you were part of this pirate crew?” Craig said to me, as he held out his hand which I shook, before shaking Peter’s hand. “Hey guys, I believe congratulations is in order,” I said to them both, “Thanks mate, you don’t appear surprised?” Peter said to me.

“Oh, he was, about an hour ago, he was here when I took your call,” Kyle replied, “I was asked if my Gaydar was out of action too,” I announced. “You too, wow. We had no idea, you guys were just called the three pirates, as you were always close mates,” Craig said smiling, “yea well I decided to come out to the crew, when I learnt who the guests for this charter are to be, and if you are wondering, I am the Bosun,” I replied.

“Guys, you remember my cousins, Marissa, who is our chef, and Malena, who is our Chief Steward and paramedic, and Brady’s brother Trent and my brother Jacob, who are our deckhands?” Kyle said to our guests, “Yes hey everyone, we appreciate this sudden booking, we have one issue thou. We can’t start until tomorrow morning as two in our group are still travelling here tonight,” Craig announced.

“That is not a problem, we will be ready to go by this evening, so that is fine. Now can you tell me how many are single and how many are partners, so we can rearrange the beds to fit accordingly?” Brady asked. “Yes, there will be three couples including us, and four straight guys, oh and if you have space, my younger twin brothers have permission to come along too, as they are part of the groom’s party,” Craig replied.

“Tom and Sam are coming, wow that is cool” Jacob commented as he glanced over to his younger cousin, “Well that answers that question, they are your age I presume?” Brady asked his younger cousin, who nodded his head yes. “They can be allocated the crew twin cabin midships next to the office,” Kyle suggested, and Brady nodded in agreement.

“That gives us a full yacht, even without the other two crew members,” I commented, “Other crew?” Peter asked, “Yes, two of my work colleagues were going to join us before the earlier charter was cancelled, but it is also good that they are not coming because, I have this feeling that there may be some issues, for a charter like this, which Marlena and I have no problems with, especially since we already know you guys,” Marissa said in response.

Craig and Peter were given a tour of all guest access areas, plus shown the twin crew cabin that the teenage guests would be using, and when they returned to the main saloon, both of the guests smiled broadly. “We are very happy with what you have here, and we have already consulted both our parents, and we would like to do that full two-day and two-night charter starting from 8 am tomorrow and ending after an early breakfast on Monday,” Craig announced.

“If you two gents are free tonight, how about joining us overnight as our guests?” Marissa asked, as she glanced over to Kyle and Brady, who both nodded in agreement, “Yes, that would be wonderful thank you, we will just have to go home and pack our gear, and I think we will be back at about 5 pm, if that is ok with you guys,” Craig responded.

“Perfect, dinner will be at 6 pm, so that gives you time to settle in and relax and chat beforehand,” Marissa said happily. Once Craig and Peter had left, we got to work to make one double cabin into a twin and after some discussions, when I suggested that I take the twin crew cabin, we started to do a shuffle of cabins, with Kyle returning to his old cabin, leaving the aft guest cabin he was using to be made into a twin cabin for the guests.

Just before 3 pm, Kyle received a call from Craig, and we were all informed that his twin brothers would also be joining them for dinner and overnight, and they would be arriving at 4 pm.

Brady arrived with a box, revealing new uniforms for all of the crew. This included casual shorts and shirts, deck shoes, plus formal wear for arrival of guest and during dinner service, with Kyle suggesting that everyone get changed into the formal wear, ready for the guests arrival at 4 pm. “Attention all crew, guests are approaching, please be on the aft deck for guest arrival right away,” we heard Kyle say over the crew radios, and I quickly joined the rest of the crew on the main aft deck.

“Wow, don’t you all look very smart,” Craig commented as he and Peter plus the twins arrived, carrying a small suitcase each. “Welcome onboard the Sailing Yacht Anders Way,” Kyle said formally, just as Marlena arrived with a tray of drinks for the guests.

“Wine glasses with bubbly for the adults and smaller glasses with apple juice for the teenagers,” Marlena said to the guests, as they took a glass each, “We hope that you will enjoy your charter, with a plenty of relaxation and fun available,” Brady commented.

“Oh, we do hope so, what do you have planned for us?” Peter asked, “Well, we have a bit of a surprise for you actually, as a special package for the charter, we will be transporting your guests up to Lancelin in the morning, where we will meet them there, as we will be sailing up there tonight,” Kyle announced.

“Wow, and we thought we were just going to be hanging around Rottnest Island all weekend,” Peter responded. “Yes, well once you have settled in, we will be on our way, as we have a bit under six hours of sailing ahead of us,” Brady announced.

“Any other surprises line up for us this weekend?” Craig asked, “Well, we thought we would consult with you first, but what we would like to do just after lunch tomorrow, after you have had some time on the sand dunes, is that we sail north to Jurien Bay, where you can spend the rest of the weekend.

On Sunday afternoon, we have arranged for you all to take a hired mini coach bus back to Perth, leaving at 4 pm, as it is a two-hour drive back there,” Kyle replied. “Or if you like, we can remain anchored off Lancelin, where you can enjoy the beaches, spend more time on the sand dunes, and eat and drink at the Endeavour Tavern, for the whole weekend,” Brady added.

“I think we will just stay at Lancelin, as I am not sure how the others would feel about spending half a day sailing out on the ocean,” Peter said, “That is fine, we can do that, I will just adjust the transport to leave from Lancelin at a later time, since it is only an hour out of Perth,” Kyle said.

“How long will it take to sail back to Fremantle from Lancelin?” Craig asked, “Six hours approximately depending on the wind, or just three hours to the Two Rocks Marina, near Yanchep,” Brady responded. “I think we will take that option please, so we can just take a bus home from there on the Monday morning,” Peter replied.

“That is not a problem, we will adjust our sailing itinerary to suit whatever you want,” Kyle responded, as he headed up to the fly bridge to prepare to set sail. The sail up the coast was uneventful and we arrived in the sheltered waters of Lancelin shortly after 10 pm.

Although we had to have dinner while we were sailing, that was not a problem for the crew or the four guests on board, and we set out anchors on the east side of Lancelin Island, where there is a bit of a small bay, which would protect the yacht from any strong winds, which can sometimes be very unpredictable at night time.

Kyle, Brady and I were having a chat in the crew mess when Craig made an appearance. “Hey, I just wanted to inform you of something about two of your guests, the ones who would have landed in Perth around about now. Marc Stalder is actually my cousin on my mother’s side, and he will be my best man.

The other guy travelling with him is Hans Berge, who is a business associate, but really, he is Marc’s minder and body guard, due to Marc having a number of threats against him and his company, by a group of neo-supremacist thugs who are against having developments built in a number of environmental sensitive areas of Western Europe,” Craig announced to us.

“I hope that there will be no threats on us or my crew, by having him onboard?” Brady asked, “No chance of that my friend, the group had been shut down completely, with those still alive, spending many decades in prison,” Craig replied, before wishing us all a good night and he headed up to his assigned cabin.