Beyond Frontier - 25. BF Chapter 25

“Time for some swimming and snorkelling if you feel up to it,” I announced to Rachel and Sarah, as I heard the boys coming down the stairs.

“Eeww, Uncle Anton. Roey has spewed up on the aft deck,” I heard Nathan announce clearly for everyone to hear. I jumped up and went to the cupboard behind the servery. I pulled out a bucket and rag cloth, and using the sink at the servery, I filled the bucket half up and headed out to the aft deck to deal with the mess which wasn’t too bad. When I finished, I threw the dirty water overboard, and put the cloth in the bin under the servery. The bucket I washed out and returned it to its usual storage place, before going to a storage locker to retrieve all of the snorkelling gear for those who wanted to try it.

I stayed on watch on the bridge deck, while Simon went to do some snorkelling together with Rachel, Sarah and the four boys. Finn came up to the bridge to give me a cup of tea, and he stayed to chat for a little while before returning to the galley to finish preparing lunch. Once everyone was back on board and enjoying lunch in the formal dining room, I asked Simon to take us to Beagle Islands, which is a small group of Islands just north west of Leeming, about a 45-minute journey away, where I planned to allow everyone to do some more snorkelling or to explore the islands.

After a really enjoyable day out, we arrived back at the marina just before dark. I noticed my first vehicle parked near the jetty so I presumed that it was Anita, waiting to pick up the boys. As Simon brought the yacht up to its mooring bay, Anita stepped out of the vehicle, holding Micah in her arms. During the journey back, I invited Rachel to stay on board the yacht with Sarah and Oscar, and allocated her one of the aft queen guest cabins. Simon and Finn would also be staying there the night, in their usual forward guest cabin.

After a quick chat with Anita, she loaded the boys into the vehicle and drove them back home, while I went up to the bridge to enjoy a bit of a soak in the Jacuzzi, before I headed off back to my cabin. Roey just lay on the deck and watched as I soaked for about twenty minutes. When we arrived back at the cabin Emma was waiting at the door. She rolled onto her back for a tickle under the chin. I prepared dinner for both animals before I made myself some dinner.

Afterwards, I took Roey outside for a short walk so she could go to the toilet. When I got back I opened up my computer to check on emails. “Dear Mr Hamilton, I am pleased to inform you that the settlement of the land that you purchased has been completed, and that you may now go ahead with planning for building,” the email from the real estate agent stated, which really surprised me as it had been less than a week since I had made the purchase. I just hoped that the application to build, that I submitted to the local council would also be approved quickly.

The following morning, after a shower and some breakfast I took Roey for a walk, before leaving them at home. I then drove down to the marina to see Simon. “Good morning, boss,” he said to me as soon as I arrived.

“Hey, Si. Would you and Finn be fine to take the Research Vessel down to Henderson this afternoon? You can stop overnight at the Fremantle boat harbour, and take a few days off while you are there,” I said to my best friend.

“Yes, that is no problem at all. We will leave just after lunch time,” Si replied. Once I had organised Si and Finn heading to Perth, I returned to my cabin. It was all quiet on the yacht, so I didn’t disturb them.

Back at the cabin I sent an email to the ship building company informing them that the research vessel would be arriving the following morning, and requesting a quote for alterations. I wanted them to strengthen the outer hull, change all windows on each deck to heavy duty strengthened glass, ensure that the engine room was fully sealed from outside and the number of engines was reduced from four down to two, and the generators were relocated to where the secondary engines were located.

Then, ¾’s of the old generator room and central storage room space were to be converted into large buoyancy tanks with just enough room for a passageway for access from the stairs in the forward storage room and laundry to the two engine rooms.

I explained in the email that the purpose of the spaces within the hulls being converted to buoyancy tanks was to make the research vessel into a semi-submersible vessel that could have water pumped into the tanks to sink the vessel so 90 % of the hull was underwater.

This would leave the main deck just one metre above the water during calm seas, and five metres of the hull underwater. I also wanted the crane removed, the undercover area on the main deck to be fully enclosed and water tight, with the current floor hatch to be a water tight hatch to allow access to the water, and an airlock entry from that area to the research workshop laboratories on each side.

All the other external doors on the other two upper decks were airtight doors, so I didn’t need to worry about them. What I was worried about when there was wild weather, was all the electronics on the roof of the bridge.

Once I had sent the email, I went out onto the balcony with Roey, and watched as she explored some of the area around the cottage. After half an hour I brought Roey inside and gave both animals some food, before grabbing my laptop computer and driving down to the marina to speak to Sarah whom I found in the study looking at the company website on the desktop computer. “Hey, I came to chat to you about your duties. I am glad that you are getting familiar with the website. I will need you to keep monitoring it,” I said as I entered and closed the door.

Over the next two hours I showed Sarah the company email address, and we discussed how to deal with all charter bookings, coordinating food and equipment supplies for each yacht and vessel, as well as fuel supplies for each boat. I informed Sarah that this study would be her office until the new administration building was completed. There was a knock on the door, and Finn appeared with two plates of lunch for us, calling an ending to our meeting. We headed out to the dining room to join the others for lunch.

When we had eaten I informed Simon and Finn that we would tidy up from lunch, so they could be on their way. They walked over to the research vessel and launched off for their trip down to Henderson. Once the clean-up had been completed, Rachel thanked me for an enjoyable weekend and announced that she needed to return to the city to prepare for work the following day. So, we said farewell and watched her leave. There remained just the two deckhands, Sarah and Oscar.

For the rest of the afternoon I gave the ladies some time off to relax and do whatever they wanted. Having completed all the business discussions with Sarah I gave her the rest of the day off too, and I headed back to the cabin to relax and enjoy some free time with my brothers.

The following morning I headed to the shire council offices. “Good Morning. I was in here last week making an application to build a home and administration building on a block of land I bought on 42 Oceanic Drive. I was just wanting to know how the application is progressing, as the settlement for purchase has been completed,” I said to the receptionist.

A few minutes later I was seated in a meeting room just off the reception foyer with one of the office staff. “Well, Mr Hamilton, I was just going over your proposal this morning. I am satisfied with the design of the two buildings, but a little concerned with the height of one of them,” the shire department manager said to me.

“Well, sir, with two yachts and a research vessel, it is advantageous to be able to monitor them as they are leaving and arriving at the marina, so the extra height is to allow clear vision over the existing vegetation to be able to see the whole harbour and the ocean leading into it,” I explained.

“With this planned height you will be higher than the Marine Rescue Group and the surrounding warehouses, but since you are at the very end of the street with no blocking sight issues, and also the higher building will be away from neighbouring properties, I am going to approve this application,” the department manager announced. He signed the documents in front of me and handed them over to me. Thanking him for the speedy processing of my application, I shook his hand and exited the room and building.

Once outside I called the office of the steel fabrication company and informed them that I had all the building approvals, and that work could commence right away. I also contacted the building company that was managing the build, and he agreed to meet me onsite fifteen minutes later. Climbing into my car, I drove straight over to the block of land and saw the sign now had “Sold” on it which made me smile.

When the building manager arrived he had with him a surveyor, which was perfect, as I could now get a good idea of where to place the carpark and the two buildings. I said that I wanted 16 car bays straight off the street, with the two buildings evenly spaced, with a 40-metre connecting walkway between the buildings which I wanted to be set back about 5 metres from the edge of the carpark.

The building contractor suggested having the ground level raised by one metre from the end of the carpark, with limestone blocks creating a boundary wall, which I agreed with, as I wanted to establish a native shrub hedge along the top of the wall that would be about one metre high at the most, and a native garden behind the hedge between the front of the two buildings.

I mentioned that I wanted to plant low growth native trees along the back and two side boundaries, with a two-metre high aluminium fence around those boundary sides and a one metre deep concrete underground wall to prevent digging out under the fence.

Because the two buildings, the carpark and front hedges would take up less than half of the property, I had decided to create a wildlife paddock with the remainder of the land. So, I asked for a similar concrete underground wall and fence to be built directly behind the building, to create a ½ acre wildlife sanctuary with plenty of eucalypt trees, various native shrubs - tee trees, bottle brushes, boronias, flax, banksias, myrtles, grass trees, bush peas, paper daisies and everlastings.

The ground was already very sandy, so it would be ideal growing soil for most of these plants. I also wanted to have a few piles of granite rocks, so the animals can climb and hide in amongst them, and I wanted to also create some artificial burrows, of various sizes, to allow some animals to go underground.

The building manager suggested that I get most of the ground work for the sanctuary done before any work was done on the carpark and two buildings, and he recommended a landscape gardener to me, who I called right away. She said that she could come over right away. Fifteen minutes later I began to explain my rough idea of a wildlife sanctuary behind the buildings and she quickly drew up a rough plan on a large sketch pad that she had brought with her.

She also suggested two chill-out areas at either end of the buildings, with a gazebo and lawn area near the administration building, and just a lawn area beside the house. When she finished the sketching, I was amazed at how it would look: so much better than I had imagined. In the sketch she had included the groups of boulders, a number of burrows with access hatches above the nesting area, and a wide variety of native plants as I had recommended.

She suggested some grevilleas and wattles as well, but I said clearly that I did not want any of those in my native garden and sanctuary, as I knew they could cause allergies. Once the landscaper had left, and the surveyor had completed his work, and also left, I thanked the building manager for all his assistance so far, and I headed off back to my cabin, thrilled that I was going to have this absolutely awesome new home and work place.

Once at home, I had a think about everything that had happened that morning and I started to get an ill feeling in my stomach. I pulled out my phone and called the landscaper gardener. ‘Hello, this is Anton Hamilton speaking. Before we start on any work, I would like a more detailed landscape plan of just what I asked for this morning, plus an invoice for drawing up the plan and your time this morning please,” I said clearly.

“Very well, sir. I will be able to have the landscape plan ready for you by lunch time tomorrow,” the landscaper replied. Happy that I had done that, I fed Roey and Emma before taking Roey out for a walk around the paddock. When I returned to the cottage, I left Roey inside and jumped into my vehicle. I headed down to the marina where I checked in on Sarah.

She informed me that there were two more charters booked, one for each yacht, with the trimaran to do the Fremantle to Abrolhos Islands - 5-day charter, and the catamaran to do the Fremantle to Busselton - 3-day charter. She had spoken to Simon and Jasper regarding these charters, and that Simon and Finn were coming back to Jurien by bus later that afternoon. I was very pleased with Sarah’s work so far. I asked for her and Oscar to pack up their belongings to move to a two-room motel room that I would book them into while the catamaran was on charter.

I headed home to the cabin to have some lunch. Then I called Jasper to see how far up the coast he was. Jasper informed me that they were passing Lancelin when they received the call from Sarah for a new charter, and that they were now on their way back to Fremantle. Glad that everything was organised, and running smoothly, I relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

When school had ended for the day, Neale and Jedd came down to the cabin to see me. “Hey, guys. How was school today?” I asked them when they entered.

“It was fine, thanks,” Neale replied as the boys sat down on the floor to play with Roey. I noticed the boys look at each other for a moment.

“Ok, you two, what do you want to say or ask?” I said to them both.

“We have been thinking, for some time actually… we want to change our last name to Hamilton,” Neale said to me.

“Well, this is a bit of a surprise. Yes, I would like that too. Are you both very sure about this?” I responded.

“Very sure. So, what do we have to do to make this happen?” Jedd asked me. We discussed this matter a little bit before the boys headed up to the house to do their homework.

After another quiet evening with my pets, I retired to bed early. In the morning after breakfast I picked up Roey and carried her out to my vehicle and we drove into town, stopping at the marina to check that Simon and crew had everything that they needed for their charter to Busselton.

After watching them leave for their trip to Fremantle I headed over to my new property where I was pleased to see that work had begun on the boundary fences. Trenches had been dug along the back and side boundaries, with concrete poured and fence posts added, and there were about a dozen large piles of dirt in the middle, plus a limestone wall was being built 6 metres in from the road, marking the front of the parking.