New Frontier - 1. NF Ch 1

After just a month of settling back home with my family, I came to a decision, and announced that I would like my family and the crew, to go on a circumnavigation of Australia with me on the Trimaran, which would include going around New Zealand, and would take an estimated 31 days to complete, depending on weather.

I announced this as the family and crew gathered for the weekly BBQ dinner, onboard the yacht, and after a period of silence, Gramps spoke up, “I am too old to be doing anything adventurous like that so I will stay at home and mind the place. “Me too, I will be staying as I am not good on boats, and someone has to mind all the animals,” James added.

“If it means we get time off school we are in for the trip,” Neale said and Jedd nodded his head in agreement with his brother. “What about you two, Sarah?” I asked, “Yes I am fine for Oscar and I to come along, as long as it is ok to leave the office unmanned,” Sarah responded.

“Well we will have laptops with us, so we can always update the company website while we are travelling, and you boys will be doing school via correspondence and online while we are away,” I replied. Simon glanced at Finn who smiled, “We are both in for the trip boss,” Simon said. “We are in too boss, you need a full team for a trip like that,” Kirk and Leon said together.

“Excellent, Sarah, would you mind being galley hand as well as supervising teach for the voyage?” I asked, “Sure, not a problem,” Sarah replied smiling. “Good, that means Finn has a slave… I mean a helper in the galley,” said smiling, which made a few gathered to chuckle.

“Si, are you happy to be Skipper, and I will assist, Kirk and Leon, if you can be Stewards and Deckhands, and the boys can start their sailing training as well, which will happen after school work is completed, and when we are in sheltered waters or anchored,” I announced, just as an idea came to mind, and I pulled out my phone and dialled a number.

“Hi Rachel, I was just wondering, are you due for any holidays in the near future?” I asked into the phone and suddenly the whole room went quiet, with all eyes on me, which made me smile. “Yes, I do actually, my boss has been nagging me to take some holidays as I have accrued too much over the past two years,” Rachel replied.

“That is excellent news, tell your boss that you are taking two month holidays, with dates to be announced soon,” I responded. “Well, that sounds very mysterious; does that mean we are going on a sailing holiday?” Rachel asked, “Yes it does, and the good thing about it is that you only need to get your self up here, and the rest is free,” I announced.

“Well, how can I not refuse an offer like that, keep me updated on when, bye for now,” Rachel said before ending the call. When I saw the expression on everyone’s faces, I laughed. “She is a good friend and has been helping with keeping our animals healthy, so she deserves a reward,” I explained.

We were interrupted from our discussions and general chatter, when a voice called out from the jetty, “Excuse me, I am looking for Mr Anton Hamilton, who I believe is the owner of this fine yacht,” a man called out, “Why are you wanting to speak to Mr Hamilton?” Simon called back.

“Business, I am interested in purchasing this yacht and the business that goes with it,” came a much unexpected response. “I cleared my throat, “I am Anton Hamilton, please step onboard Mr…?” I said, “It is Gregson, Thomas Gregson,” the man said, before he carefully stepped onboard.

He firstly stepped onto the closed pontoon then onto the main deck, where we were all seated around the dining table, except for the three boys who were in the jacuzzi upstairs. I stood to greet him, as did Simon, and I chook his hand firmly.

This is my skipper and best friend Simon Adamson, and most of those seated are my crew, apart from my Grandfather Marcus,” I said to Mr Gregson. “So you are interested in my grandson’s yacht and business, what do you plan to offer for it?” my grandfather said, which caught most of us by surprise.

“Well sir, I was hoping for a trade actually, the yacht and business and maybe some land, in exchange for my motor yacht that I arrived in this afternoon,” Mr Gregson replied. “You got to be shitting me. That huge yacht is yours? and you want to trade that for this?” Simon said in a surprised high tone.

Mr Gregson chuckled at this and I just smiled. “Excuse my best friends comment. I haven’t actually seen it, as I was a bit busy most of today,” I said, as Simon sat down again, and Mr Gregson took a spare seat. Now Mr Gregson, from the comment from my best mate, I am guessing that you have quite a large motor yacht?” I asked.

“That is correct, and if we can come to some sort of agreement, then it is all yours, with or without its current crew of sixteen,” Mr Gregson replied.

“Can you give me some more information on it please?” I asked, “Certainly, it is named ‘Legend’, and she is 253 feet or 77 metres long, 13.6 metres wide and has a total of five decks and was built in Amsterdam. She can comfortably accommodate a total of 28 crew and 22 guests.

She has a cruising speed of 11 knots, and a range of 7,640 nautical miles. She has a total of five decks, with a gym, cinema, health club, jacuzzi, a helipad, plus she has two Jet Ski’s, a Sea Pool, a water slide, two double and two single kayaks, and a beach club platform,” Mr Gregson announced.

“Well, that sounds very luxurious, but the big question is, will it pay its own way and not be a drain on my limited finances?” I asked, “Yes sir, at the moment it is $149,000 US for the whole yacht for one week’s stay onboard the yacht, and you would need to have four of the six VIP cabins, with maximum crew, to break even,” Mr Gregson informed me.

“Wow! That is over $21,250 dollars US per day, which I estimate to be about $27,645 Australian. That’s a lot of money,” Simon commented. “It is, but if we had a minimum crew then we would be able to bring the cost down a lot, how many crew did you say that this yacht of yours has?” I asked.

“It has a maximum of thirty four including officers, but currently I am running with just 16 crew,” Mr Gregson replied. “Well then we can bring that down to half at least to cut the running costs,” I replied.

The Yacht has a number of different size guest cabins available, with two large suites, four standard suites, one mini suite, and three twin cabins, all on the Boat and Main decks, the crew cabins are all located forward on the Boat, Main and Lower Decks, with two Officer cabins on the Bridge Deck,” Mr Gregson informed us.

“Well I suggest that we retire for the night and await till morning for us to inspect this yacht of yours, and for your to view this yacht, and the plot of land, just out of town that has plenty of acreage, a big house, orchards, vineyards, vegetable garden, plenty of trees and a modular two bedroom house,” I suggested.

Mr Gregson agreed and bid us good night, before leaving and heading to his yacht. After Mr Gregson had disappeared into the night, and most of the crew had left to help cleanup in the galley, Simon cleared his throat, “What is it mate, is it that it sounds too good to be true?” I asked.

“Yes, that is about it, I think that the costs that he gave us were grossly under the true amount it costs to run a yacht that size, and it isn’t even a modern yacht,” Simons aid to me, as he retrieved his I-Pad and soon returned to the table.

Here it is, built in Amsterdam in 1974, and had a refit in 2019. It has 2407 gross tonnage, with the weekly charter fee of $542,000 US, which is… $77,428 US per day, a lot more than estimated, mind you he did say he has 12 less than the maximum crew, so maybe that is where he gets his estimates from,” Simon said to me.

The following morning after breakfast, Simon and I walked over to the Gregson yacht, and was given a detailed tour of each level, before we gave Mr Gregson and his Captain a tour of our Trimaran yacht, followed by a tour of my property just out of town, which is mostly empty, since Jasper, Anita and family moved further north for work.

Mr Gregson was very pleased with the property and the trimaran yacht, but when he was informed by me that I would not be doing a trade with his yacht, and would only sell it for cash, when Mr Gregson looked very disappointed, and he withdrew his offer, and returned to his yacht.

“I think you have made a very good decision in regards to the trade, I think that it would have ruined you within six months,” Simon said to me as we watched the Gregson yacht sail out of the harbour, and I nodded in agreement on that matter.

With that unexpected offer from Mr Gregson has made, I decided to put the trip around Australia, to see if anything else happens, in regards to offers to purchase the yacht, and in the mean time, I wanted to look into other possible ventures that may allow me and my family and crew to remain together, and with the sale of both of the other yachts, I was not in need to rush at this, with plenty of money in the banks and in an investment portfolio.

I announced to the family and crew of my change of plans for the trip, with most not surprised by my decision, and I also mentioned that I would be selling the property out of town, as it was not in much use, and I could use the money to invest in another venture.

To keep everyone busy, we advertised that we are open for bookings on the Trimaran, and the crew were soon kept busy with regular cruises, with Sarah and young Oscar, who is now 14, often going out to assist as Galley Hand, if there is a full number of guests with all five cabins occupied, and Sarah and Oscar having the indoor crew cabins near the galley.

All was going very well with everything, Gramps was enjoying having his whole family together again, with me remaining on land to manage the operations of the business, and spending time with the animals in the back yard.

The cruises were all mostly in the region, mostly from Geraldton to the Abrolhos Islands and onto Kalbarri, with the occasional cruise from Geraldton to Two Rocks via Port Dennison, Jurien Bay and Lancelin, and October to April when the weather was nice and warm or mild, was our busiest times.

With the property out of town now sold, we all gathered at company headquarters for the Christmas feast, and with me purchasing 8 additional blocks of land, across the road, I was able to extend the wildlife reserve for the animals, and after getting permission from the Shire Council, I was also able to install a underground access way under the road, between the two properties, to allow the animals to roam between both blocks.

During the year since returning home from my stint in Asia, I have made time to spend with my brothers, often taking them on holidays to different parts of Australia, and the boys really enjoys their holidays in Tasmania, where we spent a good three weeks exploring nearly every sight to see on the island.

When the boys returned to school at the end of January, with Neale in year 12 and Jedd in year 10, as is Oscar Nichols, I had a lot more spare time, and one morning, I was looking online, at nothing in particular, when a news article came up, that caught my attention, which I found quite surprising.

I save the article for future reference, and continued to read more mews of what is happening in Australia and around the world, and half an hour later, another article caught my attention. “Environmental groups call for cleanup of overcrowded Abrolhos Islands” was the headline.

“Not much is known about what happens on the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Geraldton in Western Australia, apart from it being a base for Western Rock Lobster fishermen. There are a total of 112 Rock Lobster fishing boats, licensed to operate from the Abrolhos Islands,

Add to that, each boat’s crew, and the family members of the boat owner and the population of the islands is approximately 500 for a period of four months of the year, over an area of twenty two Islands.

The Environmental groups are calling on the Department of Environment and the Department of Fisheries, to make the owners of the fishermen shacks, which is the Geraldton Fishing Co-operative, to take action to reduce the stain caused by the large number of people and fishing boats based in the Abrolhos Islands.”

With this news story and the article that I had saved earlier, I started to get a great idea in mind, and I needed to make a few enquiries and present a proposal. Picking up my mobile I dialled a number, “This is Anton Hamilton, I would like to make an appointment to see the minister at the earliest possible time,” I said when the call was answered.

“Yes sir, I know about you, the Minister has a fairly full diary, but I can see if I can fit you in… How would this Thursday at 12 noon, he has a free lunch break then?” the office administrator responded. “Yes, that will be fine, I have some other business in Perth so I will be down the day before,” I said to the office administrator. After that call, I made one other, and smiled when the call was answered.

“Hello Anton, how may I assist you?” Rachel said to me over the phone, “Hi Rachel, I am coming to Perth for some business, and I thought I might bring Emma and family down with me for a check up by their favourite Aunty,” I replied, and I heard Rachel laugh.

“Charmer as always, Anton. Yes that will be fine, when can I expect you?” Rachel replied, I will be coming down on Wednesday, and I have a business appointment the following day at noon, so I will be down for two nights,” I replied.

“Good, I will see you on Wednesday,” Rachel said before ending the call. That evening, I mentioned to the family that I was doing a two day trip down to Perth, and I asked Simon and Gramps to mind the two boys until I return on Friday morning.

Two mornings later, with the carry cage holding Emma and her family, I set off for South Perth, where my first stop is the Perth Zoo, and I arrived there in just over two and a half hours later. “Anton Hamilton to see Dr Rachel Martin, she is expecting me,” I said to the gate guard, with no sign of the lady that I have dealt with before.

“I’m sorry sir, you will have to pay like every other visitor to this facility,” the gate guard said to me as he blocked my passage through the side gate. I turned around and took half a dozen steps away, and retrieved my mobile and dialled the number for Rachel.

“Can you tell this gate gorilla to let me in please,” I said to Rachel who laughed, “Gate Gorilla, I like that, hang on I will be right there,” Rachel said before ending the call, and about five minutes later I saw her approaching.

“When someone tells you that I am expecting them, I suggest that you do as your told, unless you want to work elsewhere, like garbage pickup duty,” Rachel said to the guard, as she stood up close to the guard, while motioning me to come through, and without looking at the guard, I followed her back to her office.