Frontier - 3. FR Chapter 3

Once we had eaten our dinner, we decided to walk along the beach back to the marina. We talked about how nice the place was, and I mentioned that I thought I was going to be very happy here. When we arrived at the marina, we noticed a few kid’s pushbikes near the jetty, and as we looked towards my catamaran, we saw kids on the jetty near the catamaran. Simon and I ran towards them, and as we neared them, we slowed down to a fast walk.

“Hey guys, what’s all the excitement about,” I said to them in a friendly manner.

“What is it to you, mate? We just having a look at this rich bloke’s catamaran. Not doing any harm,” the oldest of the 5 kids said.

He looked to be around our age or slightly younger, while the other four kids ranged from about 10 to 15 years old, all of them wearing board shorts, and tee shirts, some with thongs and others barefoot.

I smiled at Simon, as we walked past the kids, and stepped onto the catamaran, where I unlocked the door into the saloon, and walked in, while Simon sat down on a lounge chair on the deck. Once inside, I went to the galley and turned on the kettle, before making my way up to the fly bridge, where I saw the stunned looks on the kid’s faces.

“Hey you! This can’t be yours. It looks too expensive,” the second oldest kid shouted to me.

“Well it is mine. I inherited it from my grandfather about a year ago. I had a family friend sail it up here for me,” I responded, as I turned on the small jacuzzi and stepped into it. I leaned backed and ignored the kids on the jetty below.

Simon appeared a few minutes later with two cups of tea, handing one to me, before he also climbed into the jacuzzi, and took a sip of his tea.

“Just ignore them, and they will go away eventually,” I whispered to Simon who smiled and nodded and closed his eyes.

When I looked over towards the jetty a few minutes later, I noticed the kids were now at their bikes, preparing to ride away. The sun was beginning to set.

“Might be an idea to keep the external doors and hatches locked at night and when we are away from her,” Simon said when he also saw the kid’s leaving.

“Yes, I think you might be right,” I replied.

After a good soak in the Jacuzzi, we headed downstairs, and after a quick check of the mooring ropes, we closed and locked the saloon doors, and settled down to watch a movie on the big screen television.

“Remind me to ask your grandfather about the security system on this tub, will you please,” I asked Simon as the movie was showing its end credits, which made Simon start chuckling at what I referred the catamaran as.

“I don’t thing grandad is going to like what you called her,” Simon eventually responded, as he stood up to take out the DVD and put it back on the bookshelf.

I did a quick weather check online, and informed Simon, that we were in for a wet day tomorrow, and suggested that we have a sleep in, in the morning, which Simon agreed to as he said goodnight and headed down stairs. Sometime during the night, I woke up to the sound of gentle rain falling, and smiling I quickly fell asleep again, not waking till the need to go to the bathroom, woke me up. Looking at the clock as I got up, it read just after 9am. I headed to my bathroom, where I dealt with my ablutions, before taking a long hot shower.

Just as I finished dressing, I heard the sound of knocking, and I stepped out of my cabin to find a police officer on the aft deck, knocking on the saloon door, so I went and unlocked it and opened the door.

“Good morning, officer. How may I help you?” I asked politely.

“Good morning. I am senior constable Jasper Giles, from Jurien Bay Police. Are you Anton Hamilton?” the officer asked me, as I motioned him to come in.

“Yes, sir, I am. What can I do for you?” I responded to him, wondering if my father had listed me as missing. I went into the galley and turned on the kettle and pulled out three cups, the teabags and sugar from the different storage areas, while the police officer sat on a bar stool at the breakfast counter.

“I met with Uncle Isaac, I mean Mr Adamson Senior, yesterday, and he has filled me in on what is happening regarding you,” the officer said.

“Hello, Jas. I didn’t know you are stationed here. Anton, this is my cousin Jasper,” Simon said as he walked up to the police officer and gave him a hand shake and then a hug. I just smiled as I watched them greet each other.

“As I was saying, I have been briefed on everything, and I have a copy of the statement that was made by your social worker, from your former school. Your father had filed a missing person report on you two days ago, when you were not home, when he arrived home.

“Don’t worry he doesn’t know where you are, and he has been informed that you are safe and well. He has also been informed that he is under investigation regarding the disappearance of his wife, and his father-in-law, your mother and grandfather. Oh and that scarf… we now have that, as it has traces of blood on it, plus hair fibres from both your mum and your dad. We will need a statement from you at some stage, regarding anything you can remember of the last time you saw your mum and grandfather,” Officer Jasper Giles said.

“Ok, I can do that. But can it be done away from here, so he doesn’t find out where we are?” I asked.

“Sure. That won’t be a problem, since your postal address is Eneabba, which falls in the jurisdiction of Geraldton Police. I can take you there on my day off, so you can make your statement there,” Officer Giles said with a smile.

“Jas, we had some kids hanging around the marina, when we got back from our walk into town late yesterday. Could you maybe warn them off? I don’t want to get in their bad books, because of school, so I thought maybe you could talk to them nicely,” Simon said to his cousin.

“Yes sure. I can do that, and I have a good idea who they are - three teenagers and two kids if I guess right,” Jasper replied, and both Simon and I nodded our heads.

After a bit of a chat, Jasper left and we had a light breakfast, before cleaning up and heading up to the Jacuzzi, while it wasn’t raining. We sat in there and chatted till we started to wrinkle up, and decided that we had been in there for long enough. After a shower, we grabbed the snorkelling gear and spare towels, before we locked up. Then we lowered the dinghy from the stern main deck, and brought it around to the swim deck, climbed on board, and headed out to check on the few small islands. Favourite Island was 3 ½ kilometres almost due west of the marina.

Landing on the small beach, we put the anchor out, and we did some snorkelling around the island, finding a big variety of fish, and even some friendly seals which decided to swim and play around us, catching both us by surprise. Back in the dinghy, we headed south just inside the reef, for nearly 4 kilometres, till we came to Tern Island, which was quite small, almost like a large rock in the sea. It had no beach on it so we continued on south for just over 500 metres to Boulanger Island, which is the largest island in the area, and near Whitlock island.

Once again, we beached the dinghy and set the anchor, before we headed off snorkelling again. By the time we had explored the two islands and Escape Island, just 1 ½ kilometres to the south, Simon and I were exhausted and hungry, so we climbed back into the dinghy, and headed back to the catamaran. After a late lunch, Simon and I remained indoors, as the rain had finally arrived and settled in for the rest of the day. The daybeds on the fly deck were under cover, so we relaxed and read books, listened to music and played a few games of canasta from there.

During the afternoon, I suggested to Simon that he move into the cabin his grandad was in, so he could be more comfortable, as the crew twin cabin was quite small and limited for space. Simon thanked me for the offer, and said that he would move cabins after dinner.

The next morning, we woke up to the sound of thunder and rain. Some of the thunder was getting quite close, which had me concerned about being hit by lightning, since the catamaran has the tallest mast in the marina.

I decided to stay indoors, so I quickly dressed, put on some shoes, and headed out to the galley, where Simon was already preparing breakfast.

“Thanks for the cabin change. Having a double bed was so awesome to sleep in,” Simon said to me with a big grin.

“You’re most welcome, my friend,” I replied, as I sat down at the breakfast bar. Simon placed some toast and a glass of orange juice in front of me.

“I think we need to do some spring cleaning, since it is going to be another wet day today,” I commented as I applied a small layer of vegemite onto my toast, took a bite and smiled. Simon was chuckling when he saw this, and I blushed a little.

“At home, I was not allowed very many luxuries, and I have always like vegemite, but my dad wouldn’t let me get it with the shopping as he thought it to be a luxury item,” I explained and Simon smiled in understanding, as we ate our breakfast.

We lost track of time as we did the laundry, cleaned all the cabins, used or not used, cleaned all of the indoor living areas, and all the outdoor furniture, that was under cover. We stopped when we heard Simon’s grandad stepping onto the aft deck.

“Hello, boys. Looks like you have been very busy today,” he said with a smile.

“We thought it was a good chance to do the cleaning, while it is wet and miserable,” I said to the skipper.

“Well, it’s the cleanest that I have seen it in years. I believe you have met my nephew – Jasper,” the skipper said to me.

“Yes, we met yesterday, and he explained everything to me. He has also helped us regarding some local kids, that were a little annoying. Oh, by the way, I was wondering if there are any security sensors on board, for overnight and when we are not on board,” I asked the skipper in a concerned matter.

“Yes, there is, and I’m sorry that I forgot to let you know about it. If you look into the console drawer on the fly deck, there is a remote control, to turn it on and off. There are tiny sensors, located on the aft main deck, on the fly bridge and on the forward main deck.

“You can set it so it goes off through the PA speakers, or you can have it set on silent alarm, which sends a message to your mobile phone,” the skipper said to me.

“But I have never owned a mobile phone,” I said to the skipper.

“Well you will find your brand new one in the drawer, next to the remote,” the skipper replied with a big smile. I dashed up the stairs to the fly bridge, and opened the console drawer, where I found a new Apple I-Phone and the remote control.

Once I had turned on my new mobile phone, I spent about ten minutes, working out most of the features on the phone. When I looked at the contacts list, I found the skippers name, and Simon’s as well, plus Jasper’s also. Looking at the apps on the phone, I saw an app called Eye Alert, which I presumed was the yacht’s alarm system. I clicked on the app, and was surprised to see a layout of the main deck, which showed the location of the sensors.

I clicked on “silent – alarm to mobile”, before I hit the “on” button on the remote, and almost right away the phone rang and vibrated. The yacht layout indicated movement on the fly bridge and on the aft main deck. I turned off the alarm, and headed downstairs, where the skipper and Simon were sitting in the saloon.

“You just turned the alarm on, didn’t you?” Simon said to me with a big grin. I opened my mouth to respond, when he held up his phone, which had the same alarm app as mine, and all I could do was laugh.

“You can also turn the alarm on or off, from your phones, and you can turn on the four small cameras on the yacht, so you can see who it is who is on the yacht,” the skipper said to me.

“Yesterday, Simon and I took the dinghy out to the islands, and we did a lot of snorkelling. It is great out there, and I was thinking that maybe you could come on weekends, and we could do coastal tours for paying visitors,” I said to the skipper.

“Yes that would be possible, and it will help with your training,” the skipper replied.

“Awesome! That would be great. I need to start planning what sort of meals I need to prepare when we have guests,” Simon added and the skipper and I chuckled at this.

“Ok, let’s take her out, and get you used to sailing around the region,” the skipper said to me.

I headed up to the fly bridge, while the skipper got Simon to help him with the mooring ropes, and to prepare the main sail. Once I had successfully manoeuvred out of the marina, and headed towards the reef, the main sail was brought up, and as the skipper came up to the fly bridge, Simon headed to the galley to prepare a late lunch for us.

The skipper instructed me to go on a heading of 285 degrees, towards the north end of Favourite Island. He suggested that I skim along the inside of the reef. Twenty minutes later we arrived at the island, and Simon dropped the mainsail, as we approached. I turned the yacht south to try and slow us down, and Simon dropped the anchors just 5 metres from the beach. After we had eaten our lunch, we waded onto the island, and had a look around the small island. From the top we could see a good amount of reef, that would be ideal for snorkelling.

“I think if we do these tours, that we could leave late Friday afternoon, and anchor here before dark, and set up a BBQ dinner here on the beach. The next morning, after breakfast, the guests can do some snorkelling and swim, before we set off again, heading 4 kilometres south, to the two larger islands, were we can anchor there again, and spend the whole morning there. After lunch, we could sail south to the islands off Cervantes, which will be a 2 ½ hour journey.

“The guests can swim and snorkel around the two small islands there for a few hours, and it is just a 1 ½ hour sail to Lancelin, where we can anchor for Saturday night. Late morning Sunday, we can sail north back to Jurien Bay, which is about a 4 hour journey, arriving back at around mid-afternoon,” Mr Adamson said to us.

“Do you want us to do a trial run of what you suggested?” I asked the skipper.

“Yes, I think we will, but not today. We will leave it till this weekend,” the skipper replied, as he turned and headed back towards the yacht, with Simon and I following. Back on the yacht, we sailed out to sea, so as to give me some open ocean experience, and we arrived back at the marina just before dusk.

As we sat down for dinner, after we had moored at the jetty, the skipper had placed a book in front of me. I saw written in big print, Yacht Master Coastal Logbook. I looked at it for a few moments, before opening the first page. There on the inside cover was my full name and date of birth neatly hand written, followed by the skipper’s full name below that. Turning the page, I saw that an entry had already been added to the log book, for the trip that we had just made, and I looked up and smiled at the skipper.

“You need a minimum of 30 days and 800 nautical miles of experience, including 12 hours of night yachting, plus marine radio competency, a senior first aid certificate, and you have to learn boat handling, general seamanship, navigation, safety awareness, knowledge of regulations, meteorology and signalling. Then you can sit for the practical and written examinations, after you have turned 18 years old,” the skipper said to me.

“Wow, that is a lot to learn, and that is on top of all the school work too,” Simon said to me.

“That’s fine. I can handle that. I will just cut down on sport activities,” I replied with a smile.

“As long as you don’t over-do it. We can stretch it over a longer period of time. It’s not like you have to go for your exams straight after your birthday. Let’s see how the first few weeks of studies go, and we can decide how long it is going to take,” the skipper said to me.

“I will see you in a couple of day’s-time. Goodnight, boys,” the skipper said to us, as he stepped off the catamaran, waving as he walked down the jetty.

When we had finished cleaning up the galley, Simon sat in the saloon, and started reading a book, while I went upstairs to the fly bridge, to check everything was ok, before I returned to the saloon, where I closed and locked the door.