Disputed Sea - 14. Disp Ch14

The following morning, our first at the station, while seated at the table eating breakfast, I could see that Douglas and Fraser were thinking, and I was guessing it had something to do with yesterday’s conversation about the research facility. “Err, we have been thinking, and we are wondering if this research facility that you were talking about yesterday evening, has anything to do with a corporation that owns a couple of ginormous research submarines?” Fraser asked us, and I chuckled while Joshua smiled.

“That is correct young man, I am the grandson of the Lloyd Family Corporation that owns and runs the two research subs in question, the RSV Aquaria and the RSV Oceania, plus we have some smaller support submarines as well, that are known as the Poseidon. The family corporation also owns what is known as Ocean City, which is located in the Abrolhos Islands, that provides accommodation for the cray fishing community there, as well as tourists.

My partner here owns Ashburton Research Facility, which is a large barge, with research labs and accommodation, which is what we were talking about last night, which will be shipped up here and placed in the small bay just south of the creek, about three kilometres south of the Island Cottage. Along with the Research facility, is a tri-hull research support vessel, and we are also bringing up my other power yacht, known as the Silver Cloud, which will be an additional support vessel, both will be moored at the research facility when not in use,” Joshua announced.

“With both vessels and the research facility, we will have an additional four staff on the station, I think they will like to live onboard the Research Facility, where there is everything there for them, I think we can look after ourselves for breakfast, and I will get Trent to prepare pack lunches for us here on the station, and in the evening, we can either eat here at the homestead or the research facility, just for a change of scenery,” I said to the lads.

“That sounds very interesting, how long before all of these changes happen?” Fraser asked us, “Possibly next week, all three vessels have to be loaded onto a cargo ship to be transported up here, then offloaded again, with the research facility to remain out of sight, and will be offloaded here at the station instead of at Exmouth Marina.

The four additional staff, are the Silver Cloud Skipper – Amanda and her partner Olivia, who is the Engineer and 1^st Officer of the yacht, plus the Chef – Trenton and his partner Alex, who is a senior Steward,” I replied. “Do you have a recreational skipper’s ticket at all Douglas?” Joshua asked, “Yes, I have a Recreation Boat Licence, and a Marine Operations 1 Certificate too, as I spent some time as a deckhand in Esperance,” Douglas replied.

“That’s good to know, you may be handy if and when we need to do an extended research trip in the gulf,” I commented, “Don’t even try asking me, as I get horribly seasick. I will stay put on land thankyou,” Fraser added to the conversation, “I see, well that is not a problem, there is always plenty of work on the station to keep you busy,” I responded.

That evening, as we settled in our bed, Joshua was silent for a while, and I knew that this was a sign that he was seriously thinking about something, so I waited patiently for him to say something. “I was thinking… you know how the lad’s family is in Esperance and they have been struggling a fair bit over the past few years… do you think that maybe…” Joshua said leaving the question incomplete.

“You mean have the whole family move here, that way we can employ Mrs Turner to do the cooking and housekeeping and they will have a secure home for as long as they want… But, what about us, where are we going to live, as that family will fill the homestead?” I said adding to his question.

“There is always the beach cottage, that way, we are a bit closer to the research facility, and we have our own private home, and we can always keep in touch with the homestead via radio,” Joshua replied, and I thought about this a bit and smiled, before getting out of bed, just in boxers, which had Joshua wolf whistle as I headed to the study.

I returned a few moments later with a slip of paper, having checked the station staff records and finding the info I needed and jotting down a phone number. Once back in bed, and with the handheld of the phone in hand, I dialled the number. “Hello, Mrs Turner, this is Kipling Ashburton speaking, I am the new owner of Exmouth Gulf station, where your two oldest boys work…” I said when the call was answered.

“You sound awfully young to be a station owner?” came a response, and I smiled at this, “That is quite true Mrs Turner. I am actually about the same age as Douglas, my family owns two stations located in the Pilbara just southeast of Roebourne, where I grew up and have assisted with running the second station when not away at university studying Marine Science.

I am calling as I am in a position to offer you a full-time job here at the station as a housekeeper and cook at the homestead. The position will include accommodation and meals for all of your family, plus access to ‘School of the Air’ education, or the children can travel 56 kilometres each way to the Exmouth District High School, which we will cover the travel costs.

My partner and I have separate accommodations available to us approximately six kilometres away, so that your family can reside in the homestead, which we are happy with, and your two boys reside in the cottage just behind the main homestead, so they will be very close by to you. Apart from my partner and I, there will be four additional staff, who work for me in the area of marine research, and they will be residing on a research barge near to where my partner and I will be, and for some of the nights during the week, depending on what research projects are in place, so you would be cooking for all of your family plus six staff.

There is one matter that I need to let you know about, which your sons are fully aware and accepting of, and that is that my marine research staff, my partner and I are all gay…” I said and I waited to hear what response I would get to this information. “Yes, I am aware that you are gay, and that is not a problem for me, as long as my younger children are not at risk of being harmed in any way,” Mrs Turner responded.

“I am confident that they are not, as I have known my research staff for some years now. Amanda is the skipper and her partner Olivia is the engineer, for my partner’s power yacht which is used as support for my research facility, and Trent is the chef and his partner Alex is the senior steward on that yacht, who will be able to assist in the kitchen when we all dine together at the homestead,” I replied.

“Let me think about it and I will get back to you with a reply. Do my two boys know about this offer?” Mrs Turner asked, “No, not yet, we wanted to make the job offer to you first, and if you wish I will leave it up to you to inform them of your decision,” I replied. After the phone call, Joshua and I discussed the idea of having to move to the beach cottage to make room for the Turner family, and after a bit of discussion, Joshua suggested that we could always have a cyclone-graded modular house built to accommodate the Turner family, that way we can remain in the homestead.

We left that thought for another time, as we settled down to sleep, as we have a busy few days ahead of us, with the big cleanup now our main priority. For the next two days, Joshua, the lads and I were busy collecting, sorting and piling in heaps all of the metal waste in the homestead paddock, plus we also dug a huge hole with the loader, and all we regarded as junk was placed in the hole, and the rest was stacked up against two sides of the shed.

Just two days before the installation of the anchors, Joshua and I took the tinny out for a bit of a look around the area, which included going further up the creek, and I felt that the research platform would be better protected if it was sitting on the mudflats, about 1300 metres upstream from the mouth of the creek, just north of where a side branch of the creek enters the main creek, so we placed an anchored floating marker on the spot, which is protected by mangroves and is just 240 metres from the nearest solid shore, after waiting for low tide, to see how low the water is in the bay.

We would need to install some floating pontoons, to make access to the research platform easier when it is low tide, but I saw no problem with that, but we would only be able to get the MV Warambie to the platform, due to the low tide levels, so the Silver Cloud would have to remain based at the boatshed, which I don’t think will be too much of a problem, as it can be stored at the shed, and the crew can live at additional housing that I will need to have installed quickly, and I decided that it would be best to have it located close to the boat shed.

Over the next few weeks, we were kept busy making the required preparations and changes for the arrival of my floating research facility, as well as the arrival of the MV Silver Cloud and the MV Warambie to the station, as well as the arrival of the additional staff.

Joshua and I moved into the beach cottage, meanwhile, we had two modular cottages placed near the boatshed to accommodate Amanda and Olivia in one cottage and Trent and Alex in the other cottage, while Jocelyn and her four younger children moved into the main homestead, while her eldest two remained living in the cottage next door.

While Mr Lloyd’s health continued to improve, Julia continued to manage the corporation, with Mr Lloyd taking a more supervisory position, once he was well enough o get back to work. The Lee Point Hotel was permanently shut down, to deter any more terrorism from a certain foreign government.

That government continued to make official protests to the UN Security Council and the United Assembly, but these protests were ignored, as the Lloyd Corporation continued to provide a barrier preventing their naval and fishing vessels from ever getting back below the 15^th parallel, finally restoring peace to the South China Sea once more.