Tough Times - 10. Tough Chapter 10

“By the sound of that groan, you know something about that motor yacht?” Sam said to me, and reluctantly I nodded my head yes. “I do… the Blue Seal belongs to a wealthy cousin of my old school friends from my high school days, and I met Mr Stalder a little way back, when he arrived in Western Australia, when I was still working for my friends,” I explained.

“Wow, that’s cool, so have you have been onboard this super yacht?” Liam asked me, “Yes I have, but just once for dinner,” I replied. “Did you get to see all around the yacht?” Jedd asked me, “Yes, I was given a tour of the yacht too. It is very luxurious, and a bit too much comfort for my style,” I answered, as Sam slowed his fishing boat and began to maneuver it towards the wharf, just fifteen metres behind the Blue Seal.

“Do you think we could get to have a look around the yacht too?” Liam asked hopefully, and I chuckled at their excitement at seeing such a large yacht for the first time. “If you scrub yourself clean, so you don’t stink of fish, and if… only if I ask nicely… maybe you may be able to have a tour of the yacht,” I replied, and suddenly both lads disappeared down below, which made Sam laugh.

“Looks like you are doing all of the mooring procedures this time,” Sam said to me, and when he said this, I looked down to where the lads had disappeared and groaned, which made Sam laugh again, before I headed out to prepare to secure the yacht to the wharf.

Once the fishing boat was secured, Sam and I loaded the catch onto the large trolleys, and the processing company crew transported the trolleys into the large processing shed nearby. We had just finished loading the last tub, when Liam and Jedd appeared from below deck, all freshly showered and dressed in clean clothes, and when they saw that we had been working to unload the catch, they stopped where they were.

“Oops, in all the excitement, I think we forgot to finish our jobs,” Liam stated, and Jedd nodded his head in agreement, before they turned to face Sam. “Sorry skipper, we didn’t mean to do that, we just… please don’t sack us, we will happily have some of our pay reduced as punishment,” Jedd said in a worried tone.

“What do you think Devlin, should I make them walk the plank and keep swimming, or should I make them scrub the decks for a month?” Sam asked me, and this made me chuckle. I thought about this for a moment, trying to keep a serious look on my face.

“Well Captain Blue Beard, I think we should make them scrub all the outside decks of the Blue Seal, while out at sea, and if they don’t do a good job make them walk the plank,” I replied as seriously as I could, but as soon as Sam started laughing, I couldn’t help but join in the laughter.

“What the hell is going on Dev? And why is this man, who I am guessing is the skipper of this fine fishing vessel, rolling around on the deck laughing his arse off?” a voice asked from the wharf, and I realised that the voice belonged to my friend Brady Anderson. I smiled and shrugged my shoulders, as I watched my two boatmates squirming uncomfortably at the suggestion of having to clean all the decks of the huge yacht.

“Hey Brady, good to see you mate, did you come down with Mr Stalder?” I asked, “Yes he did, and I asked you to call me Marc,” came the second familiar voice of Marc Stalder, “Oh hi, yeah, I’m still trying to get used to that, sorry,” I responded. “You still haven’t answered my question, and I have another one, what are these two young men who I presume are your deck mates, look like they are about to shit their pants,” Brady asked.

“Yeah well, a bit of a practical joke really, I am Sam, owner and skipper of this fishing vessel, and when they saw this fine super yacht, and when Devlin groaned, I guessed he knew something about it, and asked him. When Devlin said he has met the owner, the lads here asked if Devlin could ask if they can have a tour of the yacht, and…” Sam said, as I continued on from there.

“Silly me, said that I would ask, only if they cleaned up so they don’t stink of fish… it was at that point that they both disappeared below decks to do just that, leaving me to do all of the mooring as we arrived and to assist the skipper here, with unloading our catch, and they reappeared just as we finished the work.

We were discussing their punishment of maybe making them scrub all the decks on your yacht Marc, while at sea and if they don’t do a good job to make them walk the plank. That is when you came along Brady, when the skipper was laughing,” I explained. Brady and Marc were both smiling broadly, “Does this have anything to do with a famous pirate?” Brady asked. “Err, maybe!” I replied cautiously, knowing that Brady was a police officer., and now Brady and Mark laughed.

“While you and your skipper are cleaning up, with Marc’s permission, I will show them around the yacht, and we will discuss this some more a bit later,” Brady said to me. I nodded my head in understanding, before heading to my cabin.

“Welcome back Mr Alpike,” the 1^st Officer said to me as Sam and I stepped into the boarding reception area, onboard the Blue Seal, after we had showered and changed into casual clothes. “Thanks, this is Mr Sam Hutchins, skipper of the Sea Breeze,” I replied to the officer.

“Welcome onboard Sir, I will let Mr Alpike give you a tour of the yacht, I have to return to the bridge,” the 1^st Officer said to me. “Ok, now don’t blame me if we get lost, I have only been on here just once,” I said to Sam, who laughed, “I am sure you memorised the whole yacht on your first visit, lead the way,” Sam replied.

“Oh, ok, well there is no real need to go below. Here on the lower deck, on the aft, as we arrived, you would have seen the aft swim deck, and from there is the beach club area and garage spaces. Mid ships on this deck are the engine and generator rooms, which is right behind us, and forward of here is the main galley, crew work space, crew living areas and sleeping quarters.

The Sub deck below us has additional crew work area, tanks, engine space, and cold storage for supplies, and that is all for these levels, shall we take the elevator to the next deck up?” I said to Sam, “Yes, lets do that,” Sam replied smiling. “This is the main deck, and back here we have the main saloon, and bar, and as you see outside, we have the splash pool and aft deck lounge space.

If we move forward… on the right, we have a massage and hair salon, to the left is crew work space and twin staff quarters. Forward of here we have the guest cabins, of which there are four queen and two twin cabins,” I said, as I knocked on one guest cabin door, and when not hearing a response, I opened the door to reveal a prepared guest cabin.

“Wow, you are right about it been very luxurious,” Sam responded, after he had a quick look inside the cabin, “in the fore area is the emergency generator, additional storage space and the anchor lockers,” I informed Sam, as we headed back to the main foyer, where the stairs and elevator are located.

“This is the Upper Deck, where we have the sky lounge and dining area, which is the more formal space of the yacht, with additional aft deck space as well. Now if you follow me, we will move forward, where we have the VIP suite, and opposite that is the gym,” I informed Sam, as I opened the doors to the two areas to allow him to see inside, and I spotted two familiar suitcases and a bag sitting next to the bed.

From here on forward is restricted, as it is the Officers quarters, Captain’s office and the Bridge, and the next deck up is all of the owners deck, so that is off limits too, but I can show you to the Sun Deck above that, where there is more deck space with sunbeds, casual dining, a bar and a jacuzzi,” I said as we entered the elevator and went up to the top deck.

“Great view from up here, my fishing boat looks so small from up here,” Sam said to me, as we looked over the side towards his fishing boat. “So, what do you think of Marc’s yacht, pretty impressive isn’t it,” Brady said as he arrived on the sky deck via the stairs.

“Yes, very impressive indeed. So how do you know Devlin?” Sam responded, “oh, we go back many years, he and my first cousin have been good mates all through high school, and we are also school colleagues of Mr Stalder’s cousin, Craig Hunter.

When I received Devlin’s voice message on my phone, and I informed Mr Stalder, he insisted that I join him to sail to Esperance to find Dev, as we have all been quite worried about him since he disappeared, and even more when we learnt about the wrecked car, up in the Mid-West. With me having a connection with Devlin, my boss agreed to let me have some time off, to travel and find out what happened,” Brady announced.

“Hey we are moving,” I heard Jedd say as he and Liam appeared from the stairs, “Yes of course, as a special treat, Mr Stalder, has asked the Captain to take us out on a short cruise, so just sit back and relax, and dinner will be served in about an hour,” Brady announced, which totally surprised Sam and the lads.

“Wow, really, this is so awesome,” Liam said excitedly, and Jedd nodded his head in agreement, and I just chuckled at this, as I sat down and watched them as the yacht moved away from the wharf and slowly made its way back out to sea, while Brady sat next to me.

“So, my friend, as much as I am glad to see you are safe and well, I am not very happy with you just disappearing like you did,” Brady said to me, and I sighed loudly, as I thought about his statement.

“Yes, I know and I am sorry, but I just needed some space, and time to think about things. Not that I have had much of a chance to do that much, with the car roll over, and the odd jobs I have been doing,” I responded. “The rollover, what happened there?” Brady asked me.

“I was approaching the railway crossing, and even though the warning lights were not flashing, out of habit I checked both ways, and when I did, I saw a freight train fast approaching, and as I checked that the lights were still not flashing, I quickly had to turn to avoid colliding with the train, and I ended up going bush and rolling the car a few times.

From what I remember, which is a bit patchy, I woke up still strapped into my seat, and I managed to get out and walked into town, with as much of my belongings that I could carry. I booked into a motel, and next I know I am in hospital, where I stayed for a few days for concussion and stuff like forgetting, and since no accident was reported, they thought I had been in a punch up of some kind.

Once released from hospital, I went to the main hotel for dinner, and that is where I found a replacement vehicle and I bought it the next day and continued onto Kalgoorlie. During the trip there I saw an advert for station workers wanted, and I contacted them, and managed to get a job on this station just east of Boulder, but I had a few problems with one of the workers, who didn’t like me one bit.

So, after just a week there, I packed up and headed south to where we are now, and this is my second trip on Sam’s fishing boat, the first trip we were out for four days, and the last one, we were out a bit longer, as we were caught in that storm on the way back in,” I said to Brady.

“Wow, sounds like it was a bit rough for you,” Brady commented, “Yes, you could say, I have had a bit of a tough time,” I replied, and Brady nodded his head in understanding, as we watched the guests eyeing the jacuzzi with interest, and I walked over to the bar and picked up the phone. “Yes sir, how may I help you,” came a voice on the other end, “Devlin Alpike here, can you send up some robes and towels to the sky deck please, I think our three guests would like to take a dip in the jacuzzi,” I said.

“Right away sir,” came a response before the call ended, and I sat back down and waited, with the chief steward arriving a short while later, with an arm full of robes and towels. “Here you go guys, towels and robes, so you can take a quick dip before dinner,” I announced to Sam and the two lads, “Awesome, thanks Devlin, you’re an awesome ship mate,” Jedd replied, which made me smile.

As they stripped down to their boxers and jumped into the jacuzzi, Brady and I headed downstairs to the upper deck sky lounge, where we found Marc Stalder relaxing, and we hesitated when we saw him there. “Come in guys, sit and relax, I have been informed of the other guests enjoying the sky deck, so we have some time to just relax a while,” Mr Stalder said to us.

“Devlin, I was a little shocked and disappointed that you disappeared so suddenly like that, I was hoping to get to know you some more, but you were dealing with a few issues, and that you wanted some space, but by heck, you have some of us very worried about your health and safety… we are just glad that you are ok,” Marc Stalder said to me. “Yeah, as you say, I just needed space to think, mind you that is not exactly how things turned out thou, as I have already explained to Brady,” I replied.

“Will you please stay here with us, and in a day or two we can sail back to Fremantle, and I hope in that time we can get to know one another a bit better,” Marc said to me, and I was not sure what to say or do to this, and decided to remain silent. “I know it is a lot to take in for now, just stay and relax and we can decide on what to do in a day or two ok?” Brady suggested, and I eventually nodded my head yes.

“By the way, is that my belongings from your yacht, that I spotted in the VIP Suite?” I asked Brady, who smiled, “It is, and yes, that is your assigned cabin, and I suggest that you don’t argue about it,” Brady replied. “Ok, but you know I hate been looked after, I hated been fussed over, when I you and your cousins were taking care of me,” I complained.

Brady gave a short laugh, “Yes, I do remember, but it was Marc who insisted that you have that cabin, not me. I am in the Staff Cabin on the Lower deck, where I am very comfortable, as Hans has the other Staff Cabin closer to his boss,” Brady said to me smiling. “Where is he, I haven’t seen him yet?” I asked. “I had him take a few days off and do some sight seeing since we are in such a nice part of the state,” Marc replied.