Beyond Frontier - 4. BF Chapter 4

Once they had placed their luggage in the cabins, I showed them the forward lounge, then the multi-use room that they could use which had the two benches down and two chairs ready. Once I had shown them their work space, I headed downstairs to the mess, where all the crew were sitting drinking tea and coffee.

“We should be ready to go in about half an hour or so. Ladies if you can make sure the guests are comfortable and have all that they need, while we prepare to get underway once the loading is completed. By the way, we won’t be going as far as Port Hedland, only to Exmouth. We will be calling into nearly every coastal town from Jurien Bay to Exmouth, to deliver food supplies, due to the truck driver’s strike,” I announced to all the crew gathered.

“I will be down below, checking that everything is operational,” Simon said to me, as he headed to the port engine room door. Finn began to gather all of the used cups and headed to the scullery to do some washing up, and Mathew and I headed upstairs to the bridge.

Once on the upper deck, I headed to our cabin to use the bathroom, before I came onto the bridge, where Mathew was studying the charts. “It all looks very confusing. You will have to show me how to properly understand these maps. It’s all gobble-de-gook to me,” Mathew said to me.

“I will show you how to understand the charts in little bits, as we travel up the coast. Then when we get back to Fremantle I will give you a test on it,” I said with a big grin. Mathew smiled before heading outside to check on the progress of the loading.

“It appears that they have finished by the looks of it,” Mathew said to me as he came in about twenty minutes later. Shortly after we heard the door downstairs open and close and the sound of someone coming up the stairs.

“It’s just me, bringing up a cuppa each. I’ve been informed that all the loading is completed,” Simon said to me as he handed us our cups. I placed mine in the cup holder and picked up the radio mic, before switching over to on board PA system.

“Attention deck crew. Prepare to get under way. That is all,” I said in the mic, while Simon grabbed a two-way radio, and went out to the balcony to check that Lisa and Rachel were in position, while I started up the engines.

“Away with the mooring ropes,” we could hear Simon shout from outside, and a few minutes later via the radio. “Skipper, the vessel is clear of the wharf, ready for departure. Over,” we heard Simon say from the VHF radio that sits next to the marine radio.

“Mathew, can you find the other hand held two-ways and their recharging stations, and have them installed in our cabin, Simon’s cabin, one in the galley for Finn, and one in your medic room,” I asked my boyfriend, who got to work to locate the radios and recharge stations in the storage cupboard, and set off to the different places around the ship.

He tested each of the radios at each location, which I responded to, as I guided the vessel out of the harbour and into the Indian ocean. Once we were clear of North Mole, I increased the speed to 15 knots for a few minutes before changing course to 345 degrees, and increasing the speed to 30 knots.

When Mathew returned, he smiled at me. “All done, skipper. By the way, won’t we be passing Jasper sometime this morning?” Mathew asked me.

“I was thinking the same thing just a few minutes ago. If they left Rottnest at 0800, they would be about 14 nautical miles or 26 kilometres north of us. At present we are one hour behind, so it will take us about 50 minutes to catch up to them at our cruising speed,” I replied with a big grin.

“So, are we going to sneak up behind them?” Mathew asked me.

“No, not when they have guests on board. That reminds me,” I replied as I picked up the VHF radio mic.

“Skipper to Simon, do you copy,” I said into the radio.

“Loud and clear,” Simon replied from behind us, as we had not heard him coming up the stairs, making Mathew jumped with fright a little.

“Give someone a heart attack, why don’t you!” Mathew grumbled, and I chuckled, with amusement.

“Si, what happened to the uniforms that we picked up yesterday?” I asked my best friend.

“I thought it was best to give them to Jasper and crew, since they are on a charter,” Simon replied.

“That was what I hoped you did. Well done. I bet the lads look really hot in their new uniforms,” I answered with a big smile, and Simon laughed at my comment.

“Do you want me to get the camera out and take some photos of the yacht and the crew in uniform, Anton?” Mathew asked me.

“Yes, that would be a good idea, to get some real action shots of the yacht,” I responded.

About 45 minutes later, I could see the trimaran ahead of us. “Beyond Frontier to Last Frontier, do you copy, Jasper? Over,” I called on the marine radio.

“Loud and clear, boss. Is that you that is tailing us? Over,” Jasper replied, and all three of us chuckled.

“That would be affirmative on that, skipper. Mathew has the camera ready to take some action photos as we are passing you. Over,” I replied.

“Ok, I will have Kirk, Leon, and Toby out on the decks to look like they are actually doing something. I am already on the fly deck and in uniform. Over,” Jasper replied.

“Very well. Thanks for that, skipper. Have a safe trip and we will see you in 6 days’ time. Over and out,” I answered. On the upper deck walkway Mathew stood as steady as he could, considering we were bouncing up and down a little bit due to our speed. As we neared the trimaran, I slowed down to 20 knots, and once alongside, I slowed down to 16 knots, so it was easier for Mathew to take some photos.

After about fifteen minutes, I started to slowly speed up again, moving further ahead of the trimaran. “Boss to Skipper, thanks for that, Jasper. Once we get to our new overnight stop of Kalbarri, we will review the photos and post some of the good ones. Say hello to Anita and the four boys for me. Over,” I said into the radio mic.

“Will do, boss. The boys said they enjoyed posing for the camera. We look forward to seeing the photos. Over and out,” Jasper replied. I could see that Mathew was busy uploading the photos from the camera to the lap top computer.

“I’ve got some great shots of all the crew members, close and distant, plus the same with the yacht, and I have avoided the guests in most of the shots taken,” Mathew said to me from the side desk.

“I think we might stop at Jurien on the way back. Hopefully Jasper will have no charters, and we can get some more photos with all three vessels. We will have to ask Jasper to collect the rest of the uniforms when he gets back to Fremantle,” I replied.

Just on three hours later, we arrived at our first destination, my home town of Jurien Bay. A small truck and fork lift were there waiting for us, and the unloading of their food stores went smoothly. We departed about twenty minutes ahead of time with our next destination being Port Dennison – Dongara about two hours later, in the early afternoon. It was 1820 hours when we finally arrived in Kalbarri. We moored at the small jetty at the front of town just inside the river mouth.

Like the previous two stops, there was a small truck and forklift waiting, and within an hour the stores were unloaded and on their way to the general store. With the first day over, I was finally able to relax. After I had checked that the refrigerated containers were working ok, I headed inside where I hoped that dinner would soon be ready. The guests were seated at one table enjoying their meal, while Lisa and Rebecca were helping Finn with final preparations for the crew’s dinner.

“Where are Simon and Mathew?” I asked Finn as he handed me a cup of tea. “In the lounge talking about something,” Finn replied.

I passed through the mess and opened the door into the lounge, to find my boyfriend and best friend chatting and laughing. I sat down next to Mathew and saw that they were looking at the photos that had been taken earlier in the day. “Well, it looks like the boys were having fun posing for the camera,” I said with a smile as we looked through the rest of the photos.

Once we had selected the best photos, we added them to the website, and once this was done, we headed out to the mess dining area to have dinner. We had almost finished our dinner, when one of the guests re-entered the dining mess. “Skipper, sorry to bother your dinner, but there are some people on the jetty wanting to speak to the skipper, and I think they are the media,” I was informed.

“Thank-you, sir. I will go and deal with them,” I responded, as I stood up and left, motioning for Simon and Mathew to stay. Moments later I stepped out onto the aft deck to find two men standing on the jetty, with one of them holding a camera and taking photos. Staying out of sight of the camera, I thought for a moment about what to say. “I am the skipper, and if you want me to talk to you, that camera will be packed away,” I said clearly.

“Sir, we learnt that you are currently delivering food supplies to coastal towns, due to the truck strike. Do you know that trucking companies are very angry with you, and others that are breaking the strike?” the reporter said to me. I took another peak to see that the photographer was waiting to take a photo of me, so I just headed back inside, locking the door, and headed back to the mess, where everyone was gathered.

“This is an executive directive. No one, and that includes you two gentlemen, is to speak to any media of any kind. I have locked the main aft door, and I will be calling the police in a moment. Any breaking of this directive will have repercussions. That is all,” I said and I headed upstairs to the bridge.

Mathew appeared a few minutes later as I was dialling the number for the local police. “Hello, this is Anton Hamilton from Hamilton Ocean Charters. We are transporting food supplies up the coast, due to the trucking strike. We have some media camped outside the town jetty, and they seem to not be going away. I was wondering if you could do something about it,” I said to the police officer.

“Yes, sir. We will be down shortly. We are aware of their presence,” the officer said before ending the call. I smiled as I put my phone away.

“So, they are coming to send them away?” Mathew asked me.

“Yes, hopefully for good. If not, we will leave before dawn tomorrow to avoid them,” I replied.

We left half an hour before the scheduled time, and set off for Denham, our first port of call for the day, and I decided to go further out to sea, just in case the media was tracking our movements. Half an hour before arriving, I telephoned the local store to let them know that we were nearly there, and when we arrived at the town jetty, a small truck and fork lift was waiting for us.

I was pleased to see that there was no sign of the media, as I supervised the unloading of the supplies, which Lisa, Rebecca and Mathew did efficiently, along with the store owner.

Finishing in just an hour, we set off right away, and within five minutes my mobile rang. It was Finn calling. “Skipper, if you want to eat tonight, you better come back to the jetty, where I have some shopping,” Finn said to me in an annoyed tone.

“Oh bugger. Sorry about that, buddy. Going about now. See you in a few minutes,” I replied, and I turned the vessel around to go back to the jetty.

“What is happening?” Simon said to me as he appeared on the bridge.

“I kind of left someone behind. Just as well he rang straight away and not like twenty minutes later,” I said sheepishly, and Simon laughed.

“Oh, you are in his bad books. I presume we are talking about Finn?” Simon replied, and I nodded my head. Five minutes later, we were back at the jetty, and Simon went down to help Finn to get all the shopping on board, then cart it to the galley for storage, while I resumed our journey north to Carnarvon, which was just over two hours away and our second overnight stop.

I was not happy when we arrived at the main town jetty in the marina of Carnarvon to see the same reporters there waiting for us. So, after a quick phone number search, I found the number for the local police station. I received an answering machine, so I left a message before calling all senior crew to the bridge. “Ok, guys. We have the media waiting for us once again, and I can’t get in contact with the local police. Simon can I leave it for you to supervise the unloading of the store supplies. I need to stay out of sight of the photographer.

“Make sure everyone is reminded of my order to say nothing to the reporters, and once we have unloaded, I think we should go out to Bernier Island and anchor there for the rest of our stay,” I announced. Simon and Finn headed downstairs, while Mathew stayed with me, as we approached the jetty. Once Lisa and Rebecca had secured the vessel at the jetty, they got to work to start unloading the supplies, and I discretely watched everything from the safety of inside the main bridge. I observed the two guests stepping off the vessel, and walking towards town.

I was about to walk away from the window, when I spotted the two men stopping, so I grabbed the binoculars and looked closer. I could see that the two guests were talking to the reporters, which I wasn’t too happy about. I picked up the mic. “Simon to the bridge please,” I announced before I paced the bridge area.

“You called, skipper, what can …. Oh, that is not a good look. What is wrong?” Simon said when he saw me pacing.

“Use the binoculars and look down the street towards town. Tell me what you see,” I said to Simon as I continued to pace the bridge.