Indian Ocean Invasion - 27. IOI Chapter 27

Moments after arriving on the main deck, my mobile began to ring, “Commander, this is Mick, two members of the local Lions Club are on their way, along with a table, chairs and a cash box, they will be replaced at 3.30pm, by a second shift, I presumed that we would close at about 5pm” Mick said to me.

“Yes, that sound good, I have the information about the ship with me, and I have just stepped onboard, so come when you are ready” I replied.

After the call, I went inside and locked up the cabins that I wanted kept closed and left open the cabin doors to allow guests to look inside. When I returned to the main deck and looked over the side, the two men had set up the table and chairs on the jetty, and the security guard had gone, no doubt to get some lunch, which was fine.

I went down the stairs and chatted to the two men for a few minutes, until Mick, Ben and Jack arrived. “Mark won’t be coming, he has a small family emergency to deal with” Mick announced.

“That is fine, we should be able to cope with just the four of us, shall we go upstairs and get ready” I replied, and they followed me up the stairs, and down to the captain’s cabin, where I handed out the information sheets.

“That’s a heck of a lot of information” Jack said after scanning the two pages of information, “Yes there is, but you don’t need to mention all of it, just the basics, I will leave you three to study those, and feel free to wander along the tour route, so you can get familiar with everywhere.

I left open the cabins that the visitors can see, and the door beyond the cargo hold, had also been locked, see you soon” I said and headed back outside, as I glanced at my watch, which read 1.45pm. I went up onto the forecastle, so I could address the now huge crowd, waiting in line for a tour.

“Can I have your attention please… in fifteen minutes we will be open for tours, it will not be one continuous stream of people going through the ship, due to the space restrictions, and the route of the tour.

There will be groups of eight people in each tour, that will be leaving every fifteen minutes, and the last tour will be at 4.45pm, due to the people doing the tours being local volunteers, there will be no other tours until next Saturday, and by then I am hoping we will have a roster of volunteer guides organised” I announced, before returning to the main deck.

After making that announcement, I got to thinking about how great it would be if there are some actors playing some parts on the ship during the tours, and I didn’t notice the men returning from inside.

“Are you ok Commander?” one of the men asked me, “Oh… yes, I am fine, I was just thinking of an idea about making future tours more enjoyable, like people acting out parts as crew” I said.

“That would be awesome, I will be in on that” Ben stated, “Let’s just wait and see how today goes first, is everyone ready?” I responded, and everyone nodded their heads before Ben dashed up to the helms deck and rang the ships bell twice, then paused and rang it two more times.

“Two bells, it must be time” I commented, and the men laughed, as I went to the scaffolding stairs, “First group please, and every fifteen minutes between groups” I said to the men from the Lions Club below, and soon we had eight very excited people on the main deck, and Jack stepped forward to take the first group, and lead them up onto the Helms Deck.

Ben took the second group when they arrived, and he took a deep breath before he started the tour. Just as the first tour group appeared from the forward dining room and lounge, and headed up to the forecastle, Mick was watching as the first people of his group started climbing the stairs.

As I was watching the newest group of arrivals step onto the main deck, I was on my phone doing a web search for amateur theatre groups, hoping to find one in this region, and I came across Theatre 8, which is based in Geraldton, and I looked at their Facebook page, and saw a contact phone number, which I added to my contacts on my phone, deciding to wait till later to make the call.

We had a total of 11 tour groups go through the ship that afternoon, with 88 people generating a total of $108 in donations, to the Lions Club, who were thankful for the opportunity to raise some funds, and they expressed an interest in doing it again on a regular basis, which I was pleased to hear.

Once the ship had been locked up, and the scaffolding which has wheels, was moved to the start of the jetty, and locked into position, I walked back to the apartment, feeling very tired from all of today’s activities.

The first call I made, was to the twins, to let them know that the ship was now tied up at the service jetty in the Murchison River, with the Department of Transport, giving the company special permission to have the ship berthed there for a period of one month.

I was a little disappointed that we were not able to have it there a bit longer, as ship being berthed on the water was a much better location for it, but there was not much I could do with that, and I would have to go ahead with the original plan of moving the ship onto land, on the block of land just around the corner.

The whole of the next day, I just rested, with a short walk along the river bank after lunch, as the last few days had been full on, and I needed a break from everything, before I commenced work on Christmas Island, in five weeks’ time. When I returned from the walk, I retrieved my mobile and dialled a number that I now knew.

“Hughes residence, Mitch speaking” the voice said when my call was answered, “Hello nephew, how are things going for you?” I responded, “Uncle Lewis, it is great to hear from you, where are you now?” Mitchell replied.

“I am back on the mainland in Kalbarri, on the West Coast” I replied, “Oh ok, so when can I come and visit you again?” Mitchell asked, “Well we will have to talk to your father about that, is he about, I need to speak to him” I said, “Yes, sure, I will go and get him” Mitchell said as I heard the phone being placed on a desk or counter.

“Dad, Uncle Lewis is on the phone” I heard Mitchell shout, “No need to shout son, I am right here” I heard my half-brother say in the background, which made me chuckle a bit.

“Hello, Lewis, how are you and where are you?” Jeremy said to me, “I am good, and I am in Kalbarri on the west coast, working on a project with the Wagner Corporation” I replied.

“Ok, so how is it going and what is the project?” Jeremy asked, “You may have heard in the news about a tall ship that was being towed behind a cargo ship, that broke loose during a storm and ended up being beached, well the Wagner brothers bought to tall ship, and we are working on having it setup permanently in Kalbarri, as a tourist attraction and accommodation” I replied.

“Yes, I do recall reading something about that, it sounds interesting. So, what can I do for you?” Jeremy asked, “Well, it seems that my expertise is required again, and I have been ordered to take up the position of Administrator of Christmas Island, to help clean up the mess left by the invaders, and I am wanting to spend two weeks there before I commence work in five weeks’ time, as an average tourist, but I can’t do that under my own name.

I will be able to pay for all of the costs, all I need to do is to travel there and stay under a different name” I explained, and Jeremy gave a short laugh, “Very sneaky of you bro, and yes I will be happy to do that for you, so you want to fly from Perth to Christmas Island, on the Saturday or the Tuesday in three weeks’ time?” Jeremy responded.

“Make it the Tuesday, and make it the best accommodation possible, don’t worry about the price, I can reimburse you quite easily, and thank you for doing this for me” I replied.

“No problems bro, I will send you a text message to let you know the details, oh and while you are there, can you check out the Eco Lodge for us, to see if it is ok, and check on the treehouse too, if you get a chance” Jeremy said.

“Ok, will do, thanks for doing this, talk to you later, bye” I said, and we ended the call. After speaking to Jeremy, I decided that I needed to start working on ideas for the tall ship on the block of land, an after some thought, I decided to alter my original plans.

Instead of having a retaining wall and a sloping native garden, I decided to have a raised garden with two 1 ½ metre high retaining wall, with a native garden of blue and green colours to simulate the sea, with small patches of grey.

I spent the rest of the afternoon, and most of the evening on my laptop, doing research on native plants for the area, and I also did a search for landscape designers and builders, who may be able to do this job for me.

The next day, I contacted a landscaping company in Geraldton, and after explaining what I wanted, and giving the area size and measurements, I was assured that I would receive a quote within two days.

With the ship being 9 metres wide and 47 metres long, it would only have a few metres at each end, but a good 15 metres on the sides.

After some more thought, I decided that the better option is to have the ship on an angle, with the front of the ship facing river, where a small part of the Bowsprit overhanging the public footpath on the cornerstreet, but I decided to delay the preparations for the ship till I have spoken to the Wagner twins.

I was planning to spend the next morning, relaxing, but I was surprised by the arrival of the landscape designer, who had come unannounced, to check out the property, and to suggest planting for the garden.

When I explained the concept that I was wanting for the garden, we stopped off to look at the ship, so she had a good idea of what it looks like and how tall it is, before retreating to my apartment, where we could sit down and look through some books that the designer had brought with her.

By the time the landscape designer had left, it was almost lunch time, so I headed to a nearby café. As I was eating lunch, I received a text message from the Twins.

“On our way up, see you in an hour, J & L”. After I had eaten, I headed back to the apartment for a quick change of clothes, before driving out to the airport, to meet the Wagner twins.

“Good afternoon, and welcome back to Kalbarri” I said cheerfully, as the twins stepped out of the much larger jet, and I soon realised why, when the flight crew began unloading heaps and heaps of luggage. “Are you planning for a longer stay?” I asked as I watched all the luggage being unloaded and put onto several luggage trolley’s.

“You could say that, since you are going to be away for an unspecified time, we have bought a large house in town, and today is our move in day, and that includes you” Louis said to me, just as another person stepped out of the plane, and shaded his eyes from the hot sun.

“Well I be, hello young Wyatt, fancy seeing you way out this way” I said surprised to seeing Sebastian’s house staff here.

“We managed to convince Sebastian, that we needed someone trustworthy to look after us, and Wyatt volunteered” Joachim said, “Sir, this is so hot here, can I change my mind and go back to England” Wyatt asked, which had us all laughing.

“Your stay in the UK has got you too soft, it is nice to have a familiar face around again, welcome back to Western Australia” I said to Wyatt, as I shook his hand.

“Thank-you sir, I think” Wyatt said to me, which had the twins laughing again, “Come on, let’s get loaded up, and I can take you to our new home, by the way where is it?” I asked.

“On Grey Street, two doors down from the corner of Coles Street, and just 1 ½ blocks from where the ship will be” Joachim replied. “We saw that the place was for sale at our last visit, and we managed to get a viewing on that same day andmade an offer right away” Louis said.

“It has a guest bedroom, with small lounge and bathroom, downstairs, and 3 large bedrooms with two bathrooms upstairs, Upstairs is also where all the living area is, and downstairs has a laundry, a study, another lounge room, and a large games room, plus a double garage” Joachim explained.

“It is situated on an average size block, so the house takes up most of the space, with a small back yard area as the only private outdoor space, that is why we bought the property beside us, where we will build a front boundary wall for that block, with local natural stone, and have a large landscaped garden built, with a heated pool and maybe a tennis court” Louis added.

“Sounds very grand, but nothing that I wouldn’t expect from the Wagner family” I commented with a cheeky smile, as we loaded up the last of the luggage into my vehicle, and climbed in.

“You know where the house is do you” Joachim asked me, “Yes, it is just one block down from the IGA supermarket” I replied, “that is right, house number 112” Louis added. With the airport being nearly 10 km’s out of town, it was about fifteen minutes later before turned onto Grey street, as we passed the site for where the ship will be located.

After passing the supermarket, I slowed right down, and began to turn into what should be 112, but I stopped when I saw that it was a vacant block of land, and the twins laughed.

“It’s actually the house next door at 114, sorry” Louis said, and I frowned before reversing back onto the street, which resulted in a car horn blaring behind us, so I drove back onto the vacant block and parked the vehicle. “It’s your fault, now you have to carry all the luggage the extra distance, and don’t think I will let you order Wyatt to do all of it” I grumbled at the twins.