Tall Ship Journey - 5. TSJ Chapter 5

We spent a good ten minutes chatting, while our parents chatted with Jordan’s parents, and Alistair helped Beatrice and Jackson to load up their luggage onto the plane and to have a good look inside. After seeing the plane take off and head north to the Sanderson cattle station, we all climbed into the vehicle for the long drive back to our home in Dongara, and on the way, Dad called his work to let them know that he was now available again.

I was still a little disappointed that my presentation wasn’t going to be as spectacular as I had planned, but I still had lots of photos and video clips of my time onboard the tall ship and the yacht, so I decided that as soon as I get back home, I was going to put together a video presentation, with some music backing. As we arrived in Geraldton, Dad wanted to spend an hour at work, and Mum decided that she wanted to do some food shopping to restock the pantry and fridge at home, so I asked to be dropped off at the local music store so that I could look at some music equipment for recording.

I had some ideas on using my voice and the piano at home to record some music to use as background music for my presentation, and although a lot of it was very expensive to purchase individually, there were a few Studio bundle deals available, that would get me all of the basics that I needed, and that was all I wanted.

Once I had made my $820 purchase, I messaged Mum to come and collect me, at the music store, as I had too much stuff to carry back to the supermarket, a few blocks away. When we collected Dad from his work, he was very interested in the changes I had planned for my presentation and asked me if there was anything else that I needed to make it possible.

I asked Dad if it was possible to get a larger computer that would be able to easily handle to computer programs needed to record a better quality of sound, and Dad was all for it, so we headed back to the store, and by the time we were on our way home to Dongara, I had an additional $3,200 worth of equipment, plus a portable table and some soundproofing material to assist with keeping the noise level down, so as not to disturb the neighbours.

As soon as we got home, Alistair helped me to move all of my new equipment into the end spare bedroom downstairs, which Dad agreed to let me use for my sound studio, once the single bed, wardrobe and tallboy dresser had been stored away in the storeroom, allowing me additional space to set up my studio.

With just the desk and now the fold-up table, I began to set up my equipment, I moved my keyboards from my room, connected everything up, and did a few tests to make sure everything was working as I hoped, which it was before been called upstairs for dinner.

After helping with cleaning up afterwards, I headed back down to my studio, where I began installing the soundproofing to the wall and finished covering two walls before I got too tired to do any more, and I was a little shocked that it was just after 11 pm when I had completed it.

With just one day left, before the start of a new school week, I had very little time to plan out a come up with a good enough video presentation with background music. I was up early, and after a quick breakfast, I was back in the studio, firstly working on the video presentation, using my new computer with an excellent graphics program, once I was happy with the four minutes of video footage of both the tall ship trip as well as the catamaran yacht trip across the Tasman, I got to work on producing some backing music for it.

It was not until late afternoon before I was finally happy with my result, it was not perfect, but with what I had it was all I could do, as I transferred a copy of the finished production to a USB flash drive. Once that was done I sent a copy via email to Jordan to get his views on what I had done, before showing it to the family and eventually to class tomorrow afternoon.

The family was sitting down having dinner about an hour later when I received a text message from Jordan. “My little songbird has done well. That is an awesome video clip buddy, is that what you are going to present to your class assignment tomorrow? If so, I hope your teacher gives you a very high grade, as I think it is perfect, especially with the music in the background, which I am guessing you also put together. Congratulations mate. Still no news on Carter, we are starting to get very worried now… Your good mate always J.” I smiled on reading this and mentioned to the family that it was Jordan texting to let me know how things were going and that there was still no news on Carter or the yacht.

After I finished helping clean up after dinner, I walked into the lounge and grabbed the remote. “Hey, I am watching this,” my brother complained. “Give me a few minutes bro, then you can go back to it, ok?” I replied, before making the required changes to the television, so that I could plug in the USB, and I pressed the remote button to play the video clip.

For the next four minutes, the family watched my small presentation, before it came to a close, with some post-production information, about who did the filming, of which some of it was Jordan and the rest I had done, plus the names of the tall ship and the yacht, and locations of the filming.

“Wow… You did all of that on the equipment that we purchased yesterday?” Dad asked me, “Yes, plus most of the filming was done on iPhones, mine and Jordan’s,” I replied. “That is very impressive, I am so proud of you,” Mum said to me, as she wrapped me in a hug and kissed my cheek, which had Alistair laughing at my expression before he looked in horror as Mum began to head towards him with her arms out, and he dashed downstairs to escape, which had my parents and me laughing.

The next morning, I was up a little early, as I played back the video clip to double-check that it was good enough for my presentation this afternoon, and after viewing it a second time, I decided that it would have to do, even though I spotted a few minor problems with the video clip.

After breakfast, and having packed up ready for another week at boarding school, Dad and I headed to Geraldton, and I arrived at school with twenty minutes to spare, just enough time to dump my luggage in my room, and head to the senior school to prepare for my first classes for the week. “Mr Hynes, I was led to believe that you would not be at school this week,” the familiar voice of the deputy headmaster said to me, as I smiled and turned to face him.

“Yes sir, that was going to be the case a few days ago, but the situation has improved, and I was able to return home to prepare for school, including adjusting my presentation for this afternoon,” I responded. “I see, so I am presuming that the yacht, is still not available to be part of your presentation?” the deputy headmaster asked me. “That is correct sir, the yacht is still missing, as is the skipper. Happily, my friend – Jordan, who is the yacht’s owner is home safe, and recovering from his ordeal,” I replied.

“Well, it is good to hear that your friend is safe, but it is a shame that his yacht is still missing, have a good day Mr Hynes,” the Deputy Headmaster said before walking off back towards the admin building. The day slowly continued, and as the lunch break finally arrived, I sat down outside, wondering if my presentation was going to be any good.

“Hey buddy, how was your sudden trip away, anything exciting happens? One of my classmates – Bryce asked me, as he sat down beside me. “No, not really, just a fast trip up to Kalbarri, that ended up being a much shorter stay than expected,” I replied. “Are you all ready for the class presentation in English Lit?” Bryce asked. “Yeah, I think so, but I had to make some major adjustments because what I had originally planned was no longer available,” I responded.

“Oh! Well, I hope it turns out ok for you. I didn’t do much, Our family spent a week on Rottnest Island, and the rest of the time we visited our relatives down south, which was boring,” Bryce informed me. “Well, that is interesting, I just hung out with some good friends, did a bit of sailing and looking around, not much really,” I said as casually as possible, giving a hint of what I was soon going to reveal.

Later that afternoon, I hesitated a little before stepping into the classroom for my English Lit class and sat down in my usual seat, which was pretty much in the centre of the classroom, with Bryce and another boy that I was reasonable friends with – Toby. For the next 50 minutes, we watched as students presented their assignments in front of the class, some had video and photographic presentations like mine, but were just basic presentations, and most of them only lasted for ten minutes, and mine we next to be done, as I was called to the front, and I placed the USB drive into the Video Player.

“Hey, well my time during the holidays, was spent mostly with a good mate of mine who is a keen sailor like myself, and although he is a few years older than me, we have a lot in common with exploring places. Jordan’s family own a cattle station in the Pilbara region, and I have spent a bit of time there, with his parents and older brother Tim.

Jordan owns a catamaran yacht, we also do another kind of sailing, as you are about to see,” I announced, before pressing the play button on the video player, and the teacher dimmed the lights. “Well, thank you for that Zac, that was a very well-done presentation, and it looks like you had a wonderful time onboard the tall ships,” the teacher said, just as the bell rang for the end of the class.