Frontier - 8. FR Chapter 8

I went upstairs to the bridge to speak to Jasper.

“I was expecting you to appear fairly soon. Kirk has already told me,” Jasper said as I appeared beside him.

“What do you suggest that we do about it,” I asked Jasper.

“Well, let’s pray that we get some really rough weather, and maybe that will encourage the guests not to continue with the voyage,” Jasper said with a wicked grin, and I just laughed.

“Oh, yes please. That would be awesome. If I retract the pontoons, will that make it a bit more uncomfortable for them, but still make it safe for the yacht?” I asked Jasper.

“Excellent idea. Let’s do it. You take over and I will go and check the weather report,” Jasper replied.

So we swapped positions, and Jasper moved over to the chart table. A few moments later he was standing beside me with a huge grin.

“You will be getting your wish. There is a storm front approaching. It will reach us in about two hours,” Jasper said.

He headed downstairs to warn the crew, and to help Simon to get the guests meals served, before the storm hit. Kirk and Leon served dinner to the guests at 1830, neglecting to warn them of the storm that was approaching.

Just as they were collecting the dessert dishes, the first signs of the storm started to appear, with the wind picking up, and the seas getting rougher. As I struggled to keep the yacht upright, the crew were busy checking that everything was tightly secured, including packing away the loose outdoor furniture. Everything inside was packed away as well.

Just as the storm was getting rougher, Kirk and Leon entered the office area of the bridge, with big smiles on their faces. Once they had closed the door, Leon spoke.

“Happy to report that all six guests are seasick, and they are all in their cabins,” Leon said, and we all laughed.

“Make sure that you check on them every hour till they settle down for the night,” I suggested, and both of them nodded their heads and walked down the stairs for a break.

When it came to the end of my late-night shift, I decided to check the fly bridge before bed, and I found the two men guests smoking their pipes. I walked up to the helm. I took a quick look at the equipment, before turning to head down stairs.

“Here is the little smart arse, who thinks he knows it all,” one of the men said to me.

“Is everything ok, Boss?” I heard Leon say from the top of the stairs.

“Yes thanks, Leon. Just doing a security check of the fly bridge,” I replied as I followed him down the stairs, where I stood undercover directly below the fly bridge, but I didn’t hear any more comments from the two guests. As I walked into the saloon, I saw Leon exiting the bridge. He was finishing tidying up the living area as I entered the Bridge, where I found Jasper standing next to Simon at the helm.

“I hear you have received some nasty comments from the guests,” Jasper said to me, as I sat down on the lounge.

“Yes you could call it that, or verbal abuse,” I responded.

“Well, I will have none of that. In the morning I will be informing the six guests that they will have till 11am to pack and get off the yacht. How much have they paid so far, for the sail cruise,” Jasper said to me.

“They paid me the 25% deposit, $6,000 when they boarded, and last night they gave me another $6,000,” I replied.

“That is good, that covers our expenses for two nights, plus a bit more, and they won’t be getting any part refund. I suggest in future that we get at least a 45% deposit, so we don’t lose any costs if something like this happens again,” Jasper said to me, and I nodded my head in agreement.

“We may have to start that from after this next charter. I still don’t know how many guests there will be. We just have to wait and see,” I said.

The next morning, I had woken early and was in the bridge, before any of the guests were up, with just Leon being up preparing hot cups of tea for me and Jasper, before beginning breakfast preparations for the crew and guests. An hour after I had arrived, Kirk passed through to set up the dining table for the guests, now that the worst of the weather had passed.

“So how are you going to tackle this with the guests?” I asked Jasper with a frown.

“That’s easy. Last night I typed out a notice of termination of contract, where I stated that the unwarranted verbal abuse of a crew member was the reason for the termination,” Jasper said to me.

“I look forward to hearing what their response will be to that notice,” I responded.

Jasper placed the notice in front of me and handed me a pen. As I looked at the notice, I saw Jasper had signed the document as the Skipper, and under his name was a space for the owner’s signature. I signed the document and handed it back to Jasper with a smile. I took the helm, so Jasper could make a photocopy of the document. Leaving the copy on the chart table, he stepped out of the bridge, where he found the guests had gathered for breakfast. He walked up to Mr Worthington, and handed him the document. Moments later, even with the door to the bridge closed, I could hear the raised voice of one of the guests.

“What the hell is this? You cannot do this. We paid you good money for this trip. You can’t leave us stranded here,” I heard him say, just as Leon passed through the door, on his way down to the galley.

“I can, and I have, sir. You will find accommodation available till the plane at noon on Saturday. You have paid sufficient to cover expenses for the past two nights. You and your group have till 11am to pack and be off the yacht,” I heard Jasper say. Moments later the door opened and Jasper walked into the bridge.

“Phew, I am glad that is over,” Jasper said to me as he took over at the helm, just as Leon came up the stairs and passed through the door, with a tray of hot food for the guests.

A few minutes later Kirk also appeared, and as he opened the door, I heard Leon speaking.

“If you need any assistance with getting your luggage onto the jetty, just let me or Kirk know and we will be happy to assist you,” Leon said.

“We don’t need any assistance from you poofters. We can do it ourselves,” I heard one of the guests say. Kirk froze at the door when he heard the comment.

“I will handle this, Jasper,” I said and I followed Kirk out the door.

“I am amending that termination notice, Mr Worthington, since that is the second verbal abuse. You have 30 minutes from the time we arrive at the jetty, to get off this yacht. Now eat your breakfast, while I am still being generous, and keep your mouth shut,” I said and I stormed out of the saloon, and headed to the fly bridge to cool off.

Just under an hour later, we pulled into Flying Fish Cove. With the dining table cleared away, Kirk and Leon were now on the main deck, aft and stern, ready to secure the mooring ropes to the jetty, as I watched from above. The guests had already gathered on the aft main deck, and as soon as the mooring ropes were secured, and Kirk had opened the access gate, and lowered the short platform from the pontoon, the guests began to walk off the yacht, with their luggage in tow.

“Good riddance to bad people,” I said quietly, unaware that Jasper had come up the stairs. His chuckling made me aware of his presence.

“I have to agree with you on that comment,” Jasper said with a big smile.

I chuckled with him, as we watched the former guests walk down the jetty, towards town. I saw Jasper sit down in the lounge area. He placed the laptop on the coffee table, so I sat down beside him.

“What are your thoughts?” I asked as I saw Jasper open the computer and log onto the internet, before opening our website management page.

“I had Simon add some terms and conditions onto the website after this event last night. We just need to amend the percentage of the deposit. I have been doing some more research on this island, and even though it has limited sheltered space, I like this island a little better than the Cocos Keeling Islands. I wanted to show you some information, to see if you come up with the same view,” Jasper said to me.

After I had read all the information on the website, I did agree that Christmas Island had a more multicultural atmosphere, and lifestyle, where the Cocos Islands had a majority Cocos Malay community.

“Let’s see if we can have a semi-permanent mooring here at Christmas island,” I said to Jasper, who smiled at me.

“We will need to adjust the information on the website,” Jasper added, as we saw Kirk and Leon were dashing about, getting the yacht in order.

When the crew sat down for lunch, at the formal dining table at my suggestion, Kirk informed me, that all the guest cabins were clean, and the beds all made with clean sheets. Leon added that all living areas were also all clean. It was then that I saw both crew men look at each other, with concerned looks on their faces.

“Ok, tell me what is wrong. I promise I won’t bite,” I said to them.

“We didn’t know if we should tell you or not,” Kirk started, “but one of the guests had defecated in the master cabin bathroom floor,” Leon said finishing the story.

“Guy’s, I need to know everything that goes on on this yacht, no matter how good or bad it is. Thank you for cleaning it up for us, and letting me know. It is unfortunate that we have to put up with disgusting people like that. I am going to make sure that we put some checks in place, so this sort of thing does not happen again,” I said to them.

“Let’s just hope that the next lot of guests that arrive this afternoon, are a whole lot better,” Jasper said to all of us. I nodded my head in agreement, as we continued eating lunch.

Once Lunch was over, I decided to take a walk into town, to see what was around. I wanted to visit the tourist information centre in particular, in order to leave some leaflets about our sail cruises with them.

As it was the middle of April, the weather was absolutely perfect. I saw there were plenty of tourists around, as I walked down one of the main streets towards the tourist information centre. After speaking to one of the customer service staff in the centre, and passing over the leaflets, I stepped out of the building to see a crowd gathering nearby. I wandered over to see what all the fuss was about.

When I managed to get closer, I was surprised to find, world famous British actress, Mimi Fenton busy signing autographs. When a man standing next to her spotted me on the edge of the crowd, he walked towards me. I stepped back, so I was away from the crowd.

“1^st mate of the Last Frontier” the gentleman said as he stopped in front of me, and held out his hand.

“Yes sir, I am Anton Hamilton. How can I help you?” I replied as I shook his hand.

“My name is George Fenton. I emailed you yesterday regarding doing a charter on your yacht, which we saw arrive this morning. I noticed some guests leaving soon after you were moored that didn’t look very happy,” Mr Fenton said to me.

“No sir, they were not, the reason being their sail cruise was terminated on grounds of verbal abuse and bigoted comments to our crew members. We have a gay couple that are hard-working, polite and dedicated crew members. They received were the target of one lot of abuse, and I received the other, which we do not tolerate,” I responded.

“That is good to hear, and well done to standing up to them. You will have no problems with our group regarding that,” Mr Fenton said to me with a smile.

“I am pleased. Thank you. Now can we go somewhere to talk about this charter,” I replied.

Mr Fenton caught his wife’s attention and indicated that we were walking a little further away, and she nodded her head in understanding. We walked a little way down the street and sat down on the stone wall.

“Now a little about me. I presume you know who Mimi is, and that you know very little about me. That’s because I keep out of the media spotlight as much as possible. Mimi and I have four children, Sara – 13, twins Jaden and Hugh – 11, and Nicola – 9, who are with us on this holiday, which we are trying to have without any media hassling us all the time. That’s why when I saw your sail charters, I thought it would be perfect to escape the media. We also have with us our nanny, Louisa, and Mimi’s personal assistant, James, who is gay,” Mr Fenton said to me. I quickly thought about how to allocate cabins.

“That sounds fine. We have enough room for all of you. I will leave it up to you to decide which of your two staff has the twin cabin and which has the queen cabin. Now how long will you be wanting to be with us?” I said happily.

“Well Mimi really needs a break. We hoped that a remote Island Like Christmas Island was going to give that to us, but we have only been on the island for 2 days, and already we have tourists mobbing her for autographs and selfie,s” Mr Fenton said in an annoyed manner.

“Well sir, we need to go to the Cocos Islands to pick up some family members, but apart from that, the yacht is all yours,” I replied.

“So, what is the number of crew that you have on board?” Mr Fenton asked.

“Well there is Jasper, who is the skipper. I am 1^st mate. Simon, who is the same age as me and is Jasper’s cousin, is the chief cook, and a very good one I must add. Then we have Kirk and Leon, who we inherited when we bought the yacht recently. They are from Vancouver, Canada. Then on Tuesday next week, my mother, Suzanne, and my half-brothers,Neale and Jedd, will be joining us,” I replied with a big smile.

“You said, ‘When we bought the yacht’?” Mr Fenton stated.

“Yes, my Grandfather and I jointly own this yacht, which we bought only just recently from a Canadian couple who had to rush back home for family reasons. At sea Jasper is in charge of the yacht, and as part owner I manage the operations of the yacht,” I replied.

“Well that clears up that. You are a very lucky young man to have such a wonderful yacht. From what I have seen of the photos on your website, it looks like a very roomy and comfortable floating hotel,” Mr Fenton said and I chuckled at this comment.

“May I suggest that you come on board soon after dark, say 2000 hours, so as to avoid any attention, and so no one learns that you are on board,” I suggested.

“Good idea. We will have an early dinner at the hotel and retire to our suites early, to give the impression, that we will be remaining indoors for the rest of the night,” Mr Fenton said.

“We will have crew at the start of the jetty at 8pm, to help carry your luggage down the jetty to our yacht. Now a few other things. It will be half price for the cabins occupied by your children, plus we require a 25% deposit on boarding, and another 25% by dinner tomorrow. The rest is payable on departure. Smoking is permitted only on the aft of the fly deck, and no guests are permitted in crew areas,” I stated.

Mr Fenton stood up and held out his hand. As he returned to the crowd to rescue his wife, I headed to the telephone box and dialled the Sat phone number, which Jasper answered.

“Jasper, it’s me. I have just spoken to our new guests. It is a family of six and two staff. Have the guys split the double beds into singles in both cabins. The length of the cruise is unknown at the moment. We will have to take it as it comes. The mother is a VIP, so we will have to give a good impression. Have Simon meet me at the supermarket, so we can get some extra supplies that we may need,” I said as soon as he answered.

“Ok, will do. See you when you get back,” Jasper said and he ended the call.

About ten minutes later, Simon arrived at the supermarket, where I had been waiting for a few minutes.

“So, who is this VIP lady?” was Simon’s first words to me, and I looked around to make sure no one was close enough to hear us.

“British actress Mimi Fenton. She’s on holidays with her husband George, 4 children, nanny and personal assistant. We will have to warn the lads, in case there may be some chemistry,” I said with a smile.

“Oh great. Soon we will be known as the floating gay capital of the Indian Ocean,” Simon said with some humour and a big smile on his face, and we both laughed.

Just as we were exiting the supermarket with three trolley loads of shopping, Kirk and Leon appeared. They took control of two of the trolley’s and dashed off down the street towards the jetty, and I followed Simon with the last trolley.

Leaving the lads to put away all the shopping, I took the trolleys back to the supermarket, and once I had done this, I spotted Mr Fenton trying to catch my attention from a distance. So, I headed further up the road to where he was standing, and he asked me to follow him. A few minutes later, we arrived at the hotel where they were staying, and I was led directly to their suite.

“Mimi, I have Anton Hamilton with me. He is part owner and 1^st mate of the yacht we will be going on,” Mr Fenton said as soon as he walked in.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ma’am,” I said politely as I shook her hand gently, before sitting down as Mr Fenton indicated.

“I thought that this would be a good opportunity for you to meet the family before the start of the journey, and allow us to ask some questions about the yacht,” Mr Fenton said, just as the suite door opened and 4 children came screaming in, followed by their nanny. They came to a halt in front of their father, as soon as they saw the stranger in the room.