Tough Times - 4. Tough Chapter 4

The following morning started with a beautiful day, plenty of sunshine, a light wind and clear skies, with the forecast of 32 degrees Celsius. All crew were up early, to make sure that everything was clean and tidy ready for the rest of the guests to arrive at 9 am, and we were all sitting in the crew mess finishing breakfast, when we heard footsteps above.

“Sounds like our guests are up an about, let’s get to work team,” Kyle said and while Brady and Kyle cleaned up the galley and mess, Marissa continued preparing breakfast for the guests, and the rest of us headed upstairs, with the deck crew moving to the front of the yacht, while Marlena went to attend to the guests, and I followed her.

“Good Morning Mr Hunter and Mr King, I hope you both slept well,” Marlena said to Craig and Peter. “Yes, thanks Marlena, and please call us by our first names, we are old friends after all,” Craig responded, and Marlena smiled and gave a nod of the head.

“Would you gentlemen like to have some breakfast?” I added, “Let’s start with some coffee please, then maybe a full cooked breakfast,” Peter replied. “Coffee and cooked breaky coming up,” I said as I turned and headed back down to the galley to place the order, only to find two trays of cooked food already to be served.

“Wow, that was fast, I only got the order just a moment ago,” I commented, and Marissa laughed. “A full cooked breakfast is fairly standard on a yacht, you take the trays and I will follow with the coffee and tea,” Marissa replied, as I picked up the trays and headed back up to the main deck.

The twins were seated next to their older brother by the time we arrived back in the dining area, and they got to work polishing off all of the food, with Marissa heading back down to collect two jugs of fruit juice, and I headed to the guest area to give the two cabins a quick clean and tidy up while they were eating.

The twins were in the jacuzzi, while Craig and Peter were up on the sundeck when the remainder of the guests arrived, shortly before 9 am, and all the crew were back in their best uniforms on the main deck to welcome them onboard.

“Welcome onboard the Anders Way, we hope that you enjoy your short stay with us, especially our international guests… Our Chief Steward Marlena and our Boson Devlin would give you a full tour of the yacht,” Brady announced to the guests, before he and most of the crew set off to change back into main work uniforms.

“This is a beautiful yacht, it is the first time that I have been onboard her, but I have heard a lot about her from my cousin?” Mr Stalder, the lead international guest stated with a strong Swiss accent, but very good English. “Yes, I have only been on board a short while, so Marlena will be able to tell you a lot more about her,” I replied.

“I have a motor yacht a little bit bigger than this, at 74 metres long and 13.5 metres wide, but she has a total of six decks including the sun deck, so a lot more room available for guests and crew,” Mr Stalder stated, “How many crew does it carry?” Marlena asked.

“We have accommodation for twenty crew, 5 officers - Captain, 1st Officer, 2nd Officer, Chief Engineer & 2^nd Engineer, 5 Senior crew - Bosun, Senior Deckhand, Chef, Chief Steward & Senior Steward and Junior Crew are the Galley Cook, 4 Deckhands and 5 Stewards, but I usually get by with just eight crew, 3 Officers, Bosun, Senior Deckhand, Chef, Chief Steward and Senior Steward when it is just me and a few close friends onboard. When I know I am not in need of using the yacht, I will make it available for charter, and that is when there is a full crew onboard,” Mr Stalder replied.

“Where is your yacht based at Sir?” I asked, and Mr Stalder smiled and winked, which caught me by surprise, and I felt my face start to blush. “Usually, it is based at Genoa in the Med, but for the past three weeks it has slowly been making its’ way towards Singapore, which is where I have been for the past week,” Mr Stalder replied.

“So, you are bringing your yacht to Australia, to the East Coast?” Marlena asked, “Yes and No. Yes, to Australia and no, not the east coast, I’m bringing it here to Western Australia, where I am closer to my Australian cousin’s. She set sail soon after I stepped off, to head to the airport to come here, so she will be in Fremantle in about seven days weather permitting, with just a crew of five,” Mr Stalder answered.

“Wow, that sounds interesting, what sort of yacht is she?” Marlena asked, “The Blue Seal”, is a motor yacht, and was built on 2017 and had a refit last year, and it includes an elevator for all but the lower deck.

She has a VIP suite plus four double and two twin guest cabins, as well as my master suite and two twin staff cabins, plus there are 8 - twin crew cabins forward and 4 officers' cabins midships on the lower deck and the captain’s cabin which is on the bridge deck.

At the moment, the only permanent crew that I have, are the eight currently sailing with her. All are of Swiss nationality like me, and all are bilingual, fluent in three languages, English, German and Italian, while the officers are also fluent in French and Spanish too,” Mr Stalder stated.

“Wow, that is a lot of languages to learn, I don’t know how you can do that, I struggle with just English with Australian been my main language,” I responded, smiling broadly as I finished, and Mr Stalder laughed, “You Aussies have a good sense of humour, I like that,” he said.

I let Marlena do all of the talking during the yacht tour, and only answered a question that was directed to me, and once the tour was over, I excused myself and headed to the main deck to see what needed to be done on deck, and I found Brady and Kyle chatting to the younger crew.

“Hey guys, what’s on the agenda now?” I asked, “Well you and me are taking the guests to the sand dunes to do some sand boarding, followed by a visit to the beach for a swim. During lunch I will enquire on what the guest would like to do in the afternoon, which may include a tour of the island or a bit of scuba diving or snorkelling,” Brady replied.

“I don’t have scuba qualifications, but I am fairly good with snorkelling,” I responded, “Good, you, Kyle and Jacob can take those who want to snorkel to the reef, and my brother and I can take those who want to go scuba diving,” Brady replied.

The two days at Lancelin was full of activities for the guests, and in the last afternoon on Sunday, we were sailing south again, heading for Two Rocks, arriving there just as the sun was setting, and dinner was ready to be served to the guests.

“I hear that one of the guests may have a bit of a crush on you?” Marissa said to me as I entered the galley to help Marlena with the service of dinner, and I nearly dropped the plates that I had just picked up, before placing them back on the bench, and glared at Marlena.

“I’m sorry Devlin, Marissa happened to see him winking at you and looking at your cute butt during the tour, and she asked me about it,” Marlena said to me, and I went beat red with that comment, which had both ladies laughing, “Cut it out you two, we don’t gossip when we have charter guests onboard,” came the voice of Brady as he entered the galley area from the crew mess.

“Yes skipper, sorry,” Marissa and Marlena said together to Brady, “right now let’s get service started shall we, the guests are hungry,” Brady added, before turning and heading back upstairs, and Kyle appeared a moment later, looking a little shocked.

“Are you ok boss?” I asked, and Kyle smiled and nodded his head, “Yes, I just go a bit of a shock surprise, or to be precise, an eyeful of four naked and horny teen boys in the jacuzzi,” Kyle replied. “Yeah, I discovered that late last night, but decided to wait until after the charter to mention it to you guys. I just suggested to them that they be a bit more discrete when going in the nudie,” I replied.

While the crew where having dinner, Kyle, Brady and I headed up to the sun deck to have a private discussion, about tomorrow’s itinerary. All the crew except Brady and myself would travel back to Perth in the morning on the bus with the guests, while Brady and I bring the yacht back down to Fremantle, where we would arrive at about lunch time.

I would remain on the yacht to continue with cleaning up after the charter, while Brady heads off to work for the afternoon, and both Brady and Kyle would come and have dinner with me after work. I was also informed that the plans for me to move over to the smaller yacht would not go ahead, as Brady and Kyle had decided to sell the smaller yacht, so as to help pay for the continue maintenance and upkeep of the Anders Way, and to make space for when Mr Stalder’s yacht arrives in about a week’s time.

With the twin crew cabin next to the office, now my permanent home, I was now in a regular routine of keeping the yacht spotlessly clean, as well as enjoying the comforts of a jacuzzi and a sun deck when I have finished work for the day. Not having to pay any rent, I was now able to afford a bit more in the way of decent food and a night out once in a while, which I couldn’t afford when living in the caravan, as well as doing some well overdue maintenance on my beat-up old Ute.

With no charter booking for the weekend, and with both of my friends working all weekend, I would have the yacht to myself for all of that time. The lads had been coming over to have dinner with me every second or third day, and Marlena or Marissa would call in at lunch time on most days during the week.

I was thinking about what to have for dinner on the Sunday evening, just as the sun was about to set, when my mobile rang, and the caller ID informed me that it was Craig calling. “Hey buddy, has the other yacht been moved yet?” he asked me right away, and I glanced over to the empty space, which had been vacated earlier that day.

“Yes, as of about 10 am today, why is that?” I replied, “Because my cousin’s yacht is about to arrive in the boat harbour, and I forgot to check in with you about it earlier,” Craig said to me. “Oh ok, I am looking forward to seeing this yacht belonging to Mr Stalder,” I responded. “I heard that Devlin, please call me Marc, I am no longer a charter guest,” another voice said into the phone. “Yes sir, I mean ok Marc,” I responded in surprise.

“That is better, now when we arrive and have tied up, I expect you to come over and join us for dinner as my guest,” Marc said to me, “Yes, I look forward to it thank you,” I replied. “I am already onboard, as I joined the yacht at Hillary’s Marina about 90 minutes ago. Brady, Kyle, Marissa and Malena will be joining us for dinner too, we will be docking in about fifteen minutes, bye,” Craig said before ending the call.

Quickly I showered and changed into some fresh smart casual clothes, and I stepped out onto the aft deck just as a power yacht was turning to prepare to reverse into the yacht pen next door, with the transom reading ‘The Blue’, I glanced at its sleek body, it was definitely a very nice small expedition yacht, and I was looking forward to getting a tour of her.

I waited until the yacht was fully secured to the jetty, before stepping off the catamaran, where Craig stood on the aft of the power yacht smiling, as he looked back and Marc Stalder appeared. “Hello again Devlin, please step onboard, so we can give you a tour,” Marc said to me smiling.

After a half hour tour of the whole yacht, including looking at two of the vacant crew cabins, we returned to the main deck, where we found Brady, Kyle, Marissa and Marlena seated in the main Saloon, chatting with Craig and Peter. “So, what do you think of her?” Craig asked me, as we joined them.

“Very impressive, but with the low bridges on the Swan River, you won’t be able to get very far up stream,” I commented. “That would be very true, at its current position, it wouldn’t even fit under the Fremantle railway and two road bridges. But this yacht has a very special feature, where the mast area, that includes the radio mast and the two satellite domes, can be folded down, plus there are two large tanks, that when filled, will drop the yacht down by one metre, so it will just fit under the three bridges at low tide,” Marc announced.

“Wow, that is amazing,” Marissa stated in surprise, “Yes, they are very special features, that I had included during the refit, so it can fit under any bridge that is 7-metres in clearance. Unfortunately, it won’t fit under the Causeway or the Canning Bridges, so it can only go as far as the South Perth Yacht Club before the Canning River Bridge, or Heirisson Island before the Causeway,” Marc said.

“Even so, that is and amazing feature to be able to do that, I thought only those large special heavy cargo ships could do that partly submerge trick,” I commented, which had Marc chuckle, “Where do you think I got the idea to do that from,” he said in response smiling.

During dinner, it was general conversation, until while finishing dessert, Marc asked me a question and all went silent at the table. “Tell me Devlin, when not working on the catamaran, what do you do for work?” Marc asked me, “Well sir, err I mean Marc, I was let go during the Covid outbreak, and I have just been surviving as best as I can. I am a qualified carpenter and cabinet maker by trade, and I was doing quite well, until Covid happened, as well as a few other events,” I replied.

“Oh, what sort of other events?” Marc asked me, and that is when I started to get a panic attack, which I tried to hide from everyone at the table, until Marissa jumped out of her seat and rushed towards me. “Breath Devlin, in and out nice and slow everything is ok, just breath,” she said to me calmly, and I nodded my head in response to her instructions.

“Devlin has been going through a few family problems, which includes the loss of both parents, and his siblings disowning him, so until we found out about it, Devlin was not doing too well, but we have started to turn that around with a new job and home onboard the yacht,” Kyle explained to our host.

“Oh, I am terribly sorry to hear that, and I am glad that you have such good friends that are helping you to get back onto your feet again,” Marc responded. “The caravan park where he was living had a major incident not long ago, which resulted in the start of these panic attacks, so we are just trying to assist Devlin to get through them as best as he can,” Brady added.