Beyond Frontier - 32. BF Chapter 32

“The captain asked me to plot a course to Kuala Lumpur on the sea charts, which I did easily, and that is how I became the ship’s navigator, as their last navigator was evacuated to Perth with a medical emergency. So, that is what I have been doing ever since then,” I explained.

“Wow, what are you going to do now… boss?” Simon asked me and I chuckled on hearing this.

“Well, I haven’t really had time to think about it. I was pleased to find the apartment still untouched, after I found the key that I had left hidden, and I settled into the apartment. The following day I came down to Fremantle just out of habit, and I was surprised to see that both yachts were here, with the for-sale sign on the cat.

“I went back to the apartment and relaxed till after dark, then came back with the spare set of keys I had at the apartment. I grabbed the alarm remote from the fly bridge drawer and let myself in. When I saw food in the dry store and the small fridge, I knew that someone was caretaking the trimaran, but I had no idea who, so I locked up again and headed back to the apartment, where I packed up all of my luggage from the past two years, plus everything that was already there, plus the food I bought the day before, and I came back to Fremantle.

“I had no idea that anyone was on board when I settled in, until I heard you, Si, talking to Finn here on the phone. I hid in the cupboard in the study so you would not find me, and I cleaned up the single crew cabin I was sleeping in to hide any evidence of me staying on board. Then as you guys were cooking dinner last night I came up with the idea of preparing breakfast for you guys and the little prank. Sorry, guys, I didn’t mean to shock you both,” I explained.

Simon and Finn looked at me and frowned, then looked at each other. Soon they were both smiling and burst out laughing, “Well, boss, it will be interesting when your Gramps and your brothers are told the news,” Simon said to me.

“Yes, I will have to be careful there with Gramps, but don’t say a word to anyone until I have worked out what to do,” I replied.

“Ok, but it is going to be hard not to say anything. It is so awesome that you didn’t drown, boss,” Finn said to me with a big smile and I chuckled.

“Right, once you guys have finished breakfast and cleaned up let’s look at this maintenance that you mentioned earlier,” I said to the lads. I headed upstairs to the main bridge and opened the safe, which I was pleased to see had plenty of cash in it, plus my wallet was in there as well which I picked up and looked inside and found it to be exactly how I left it in my cabin so long ago, before putting it into my pocket.

As Simon walked up the stairs and walked up to me, I turned around and gave Si a big hug. “It is really good to see you again my friend,” I whispered into his ear, as he returned the hug.

“I have missed you so much, Buddy. It is great to get this hug from you after so long,” Simon said in reply.

“Hey, hands off. He is my boyfriend and not yours,” Finn said as he came up the stairs. Si and I laughed as we separated and Simon walked over to his boyfriend and kissed him.

“Why are you jealous or something?” Simon said, “and where is my kiss?” I added which made Finn blushed.

“Ok, where is this list of maintenance that is overdue?” I asked Simon, and he stepped over to the desk. After shuffling through some papers, he found the list and handed it over to me. After taking a quick look, I could see that a lot of it was replacing parts that had some wear, both indoors and on deck. “Right, Simon, I want you to call Gramps. Tell him that you and Finn are staying on board to start on doing maintenance on the yacht, and don’t say anything about me. Once that is done I will get started on organising getting supplies,” I said to my friend.

“Right away, Boss,” Simon said to me, as I turned to Finn.

“Now standards have dropped since I have been away, so let’s get started on a full spring clean please,” I said to Finn.

“Yes, Boss,” Finn replied and he headed back downstairs to get started on my request, and I headed outside and up to the fly deck, where I sat down to relax a little, and Simon joined me a few minutes later.

“Right, your gramps is happy for us to stay in Fremantle and get started on the maintenance, which he is pleased that we are doing,” Simon said to me with a smile.

“Good. Go and let Finn know that we are both going to the marine store to get some supplies, and let’s get started,” I said to Simon. Just over an hour later we returned with our hands full of shopping bags, and we got to work on all of the outside maintenance.

Finn called us when it was time for lunch, and on arrival in the crew area I was pleased to see that Finn had been busy, giving the place a good scrub to get it spotless. After lunch, we got to work to help Finn with cleaning up all of the indoor areas of the yacht, and as the day come to a close we knocked off work to relax, happy with what we had achieved in one short day.

“What are we going to do once we have finished the cleaning and maintenance?” Finn asked me, just as the yachts sat phone began to ring. I was about to stand up to answer it, when I realised that I needed Simon to answer it. He chuckled at me before going to answer the phone.

“Last Frontier, Simon speaking,” he said as he looked towards us and smiled as he listened.

“Hi, Sarah. OK thanks for that. Yes, we will go and pick them up. Give me the flight details again please,” we heard Simon say, as Finn jumped up and went to get a pen and some paper. “OK, so it is flight Air Canada 9690 via Brisbane, arriving in Perth on Tuesday at 4.30pm. Right, Finn and I will go and collect them and they can help with the maintenance so we can get it done quicker,” Simon said and moments later the call ended.

“So, our stewards are returning a little earlier than planned. How about we spring a huge surprise on them on Tuesday,” I said with a big grin, and both Simon and Finn laughed.

“You are so mean, Boss,” Finn said to me and I just smiled and nodded my head.

“I think once they are on board, we should have all the external maintenance completed, and anything else we can deal with while we sail north to home port,” I announced.

“So, we have under three days to get finished. Let’s have dinner and have an early night, so we are up early to get this work done,” Simon announced, and Finn gave a disappointed look, which made me laugh. Simon chuckled as he blushed a little. We headed downstairs and Finn gave Si and I some vegies to peel while he prepared the meat, and an hour later we were sitting down to a delicious meal.

“I am not sure what Gramps has planned for the company, and I guess we will have to wait till we get there on Wednesday afternoon, but I was thinking that it would be nice if I treat the family and crew to a circumnavigation of Australia, with a stop-over at New Zealand, so we can have some time together without having to worry about guests,” I suggested.

“I think that will be great for your gramps. He has really aged in the past two years since you went missing. I am sure it will make life a lot better for him,” Simon said to me.

“By the way, what happened to my pets, Roey and Emma?” I asked.

“Both of them and Emma’s family are all doing good. Roey missed you very much for the first few months, but your brothers have kept her happy, and she is all grown up now. Emma and her family live in the wildlife yard that you built behind headquarters, and there are a few more additions, including a family of bandicoots, a family of brushtail possums, and a family of rock wallabies,” Finn announced.

“Wow that is a lot more mammals than I expected in that small yard. We may need to try and expand that space. What about Isaac, Si? What is he doing?” I responded.

Simon’s face suddenly changed from happiness to sadness, and I was not sure what that meant. “Isaac passed away from a stroke about three months ago, and your Gramps has been fairly depressed since then,” Finn replied for Simon.

“Oh, Simon, I am so sorry to hear that. He was a wonderful man who did so much for everyone else. He will be missed by everyone that knew him,” I said to my best friend, as I moved over and gave Si a comforting hug.

Once we had finished eating and cleaned up, we went up to the formal lounge to watch a movie before we retired for the night. I had a restless night, as I thought about Gramps and how much he had suffered in the past two years, which I hoped to change when we arrived at home port on Wednesday.

The next morning, I struggled to get out of bed, after having very little sleep. After a shower, I walked out to the crew area where the lads were having breakfast.

“Oh man! You look like shit,” Simon commented when he saw me.

“Thanks, Mate. That’s just what I needed,” I snapped back.

“I am sorry, Anton. That wasn’t meant to be anything nasty. Are you ok?” Simon replied.

“Just worrying about Gramps, so I didn’t get much sleep,” I replied as I sat down. Finn went to the oven and pulled out a plate of breakfast for me before pouring a cup of tea.

After breakfast I was feeling a little bit more alive, and while Finn was cleaning up I finished my breakfast. “Let’s take the morning off to just relax. I don’t have much energy to do much today,” I announced.

“That’s fine, Boss. If you want to rest, we are happy to continue on,” Simon said to me.

“How about we sail over to Rottnest for the day, so we can just enjoy the time together,” I added.

“Awesome! That sounds great,” Finn said happily.

Fifteen minutes later we were cruising out of the fishing boat harbour, and once clear, Finn and I raised the sails while Simon was at the helm on the fly bridge. We joined him once the sails were up and the engines were turned off, and for twenty minutes we headed west towards the southern end of Rottnest Island. Simon announced that we would anchor just inside a small remote bay at the south end of the island.

We had a wonderful day out with a long walk on the island hiking tracks and along some of the remote beaches, plus we did some snorkelling too which was fun. When we arrived back in Fremantle late Sunday afternoon, we saw that the catamaran was missing. Simon picked up the phone and called my Gramps.

“Hello, Gramps. This is Simon speaking. Finn and I went to Rottnest for the day, and we have just arrived back to find the catamaran missing,” Simon said as soon as the call was answered.

“Nice to hear you, adopted grandson. Yes, the new owners took possession of the catamaran at noon today. We got a good price for it,” Gramps replied as Finn and I listened in on the call.

“Ok, we just wanted to check in. How are Neal and Jedd?” Simon asked.

“They have had one of their bad days today. I had to collect them both from school early. They are resting at the moment,” we heard Gramps say.

“Ok. Well, say hi to them from us both. We will be coming up on Wednesday, so we will see you in the late afternoon then,” Simon said.

“Ok, Simon. We will see you then. Bye,” Gramps said and he ended the call.

“So, my brothers are still finding it hard without me, are they?” I said after a few moments of silence.

“Yes, they have their good days and bad days, but it could be teenage hormones also,” Simon replied.

“Oh, yes. They must be 16 and 14 years old now,” I said remembering that they were probably very grown up since I last saw them.

“I think Wednesday afternoon will be a very emotional day for many people. Oh, by the way, do you remember when Sarah rang the yacht and wanted to talk to you 2 ½ years ago,” Finn stated.

“Um, I vaguely remember something about that. Was it anything important?” I replied.

“Well yes in a way. Your friend James, from the station in the Kimberly, arrived unannounced hoping to catch up with you and see if you had a job for him,” Finn said.

“Oh, so what happened to James?” I asked.

“Gramps gave him a job to look after the Wildlife yard and the garden around the headquarters. He shares a house with Sarah and Oscar a block away from headquarters, so he is close to work,” Simon replied with a smile.

“Ok, it will be nice to see him again. Oh, and what happened about you know who?” I replied.

“He stayed for a few weeks. He admitted that he did wrong by cheating on you and was sorry for doing it. When he was better he returned to Perth. He is now a paramedic in Perth,” Finn replied.

Once we had finished mooring in the fishing boat harbour, I decided that we would eat out that night, so we showered, changed and locked up. We walked down to some of the restaurants that are scattered around the area, and we enjoyed a nice night out, before we returned to the yacht and turned in for the night.

All of the next day we kept busy cleaning and finishing doing the maintenance on the yacht, and happily we finished everything that needed doing. We relaxed in the saloon for the last few hours of the afternoon. I suggested that we try another restaurant in Fremantle, so once again we showered and changed, locked up the yacht and headed towards the centre of town to check out some of the other restaurant locations where there was some live entertainment and a fantastic meal. We stayed a little later than usual, since we had no plans for the morning.