Jump to content
    quokka
  • Author
  • 1,516 Words
  • 1,330 Views
  • 10 Comments
Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

Tall Ship Journey - 7. TSJ Chapter 7

“By the way, I have some awesome news for you, but I think I might wait until after this voyage before telling you the details,” Jordan whispered to me, as we sat down for our first evening debrief meeting, now that the participants had settled down in their bunks for the night. “Don’t you dare do that, or I will strangle you, while you are sleeping,” I responded, “There will be no threatening of fellow crew members while on this voyage, thank you very much, Mr Hynes,” the skipper said loudly.

“Oh shit! Thanks, a lot mate, for getting me into trouble,” I whispered to Jordan. “It is ok skipper, I was just withholding some news for my shipmate Zac here, regarding our plans for the med-year holidays,” Jordan informed the skipper and the rest of the permanent and voluntary crew. “Oh, well tell us all, I am sure we would be happy to hear this too,” the skipper asked Jordan.

“Well, it was a surprise for my mate Zac here. I recently received payment for losing my most recent yacht due to hijackers, as most of you probably know about, due to the huge media coverage, and after some discussions with my parents, I am using some of the proceeds, for us to spend two weeks sailing on two other tall ships. Namely, the STV Fair Jeanne, based in Ottawa, Ontario, and the STV Pacific Swift based in Victoria, BC, both in Canada, so we won't be available at all for any trips in the mid-year holidays," Jordan announced, which caught me totally by surprise, and I didn’t know what to say.

“Wow, that is awesome, congratulations, that would be a great trip,” Pete, one of the other team leaders said in response. “Yeah, it will be. I will also have my former yacht skipper – Carter and his younger brother – Jackson, who was my deckhand, joining us for this trip,” Jordan added. “Wow, that will be awesome, thanks, mate…” I eventually said in response to the news.

A bit later on, while sitting out on the deck enjoying the evening sea air together, Jordan turned to face me. “So, are you ok with us going to Canada, along with Carter and Jackson?” he asked me, and I thought about this for some time before answering. “Yes, I think it will be awesome, and it will be great to see the guys again, but wouldn’t it be better to invest your money in something else more permanent?” I asked.

“In a way, I am doing just that, investing in the future of my three good friends, doing something that we all enjoy doing, sailing on tall ships. That announcement I made earlier, about the two trips in Canada, is just the beginning of our Tall Ship Journey, you and I will also be spending Christmas holidays together sailing as well,” Jordan announced.

“Oh, ok, so what else have you lined up for us?” I asked suspiciously. “Well, straight after Christmas, we fly to the UK, where we will spend eight days onboard the SV Tenacious, as a volunteer crew, before we fly to Genoa, Italy. Once there we will have a week to look around before we take up jobs as deck crew onboard the luxury sailing yacht Athena,” Jordan announced to me.

“Luxury yacht? Jobs?” I asked shocked at this announcement, and Jordan just smiled and nodded his head to confirm this, before he revealed his iPad, which was already open to the information on this luxury sailing ship, and he handed it to me to read all the information. “Ninety metres long, 12 metres wide, nineteen crew, five guest cabins for ten guests, and three decks. Aluminium hull and superstructure, and fuel for 4,000 nautical miles. This is quite impressive,” I stated to my good friend.

“It is that. Check out the layout plans, it is quite impressive,” Jordan said to me, and I continued to look up the information on the iPad. “You arranged this, for us to be crew onboard this huge tall ship?” I asked after looking at all the information. “Yes, all four of us, have three-month employment contracts as deckhands with the ship. I suggest that we keep this all hush-hush about us going to work on her though. Let's get through this voyage first, and start to prepare for our mid-year trip to Canada, then we can start thinking about our after-Christmas job in the Med,” Jordan replied.

The rest of the voyage went smoothly, without any major problems, and as I predicted, the lads had an awesome time, as they prepared to disembark once we had returned to Rottnest, they thanked me for being an awesome watch leader, and also for introducing them to tall ship sailing. Returning home for the one day before a new school term, I informed Mum and Dad of Jordan’s plan for Carter, Jackson and me, to do more sailing on two tall ships in Canada, and both of my parents expressed concern about this with my final exams only being a few months away after that trip, but I managed to convince them that I would be able to handle it.

I also wanted to tell them about my first real job of being a crewman onboard a 90-metre sailing yacht in the Med, but I managed to hold my tongue and kept it secret as Jordan requested. Back at school, Bryce, Toby and Nate gang hugged me. “Hey, watch leader, ready for another week of school?” Bryce asked me, and I laughed. “Will you guys step away so I can breathe, or else I will have to make you walk the plank,” I replied, and all three of them stepped back releasing me from their group hug, and laughed out loud.

“Sorry, that can’t happen, no water around here,” Nate replied smiling, “Smart arse,” I responded, and we were all laughing now. “Ah look, it’s the four musketeers,” one of our classmates who isn't very popular said as he approached, “More like the four pirates,” Toby said quietly, “Arr me matey,” we all said in unison before laughing again at our private joke.

“What’s so funny meatheads, and what is with the pirate talk?” Henry, the class bully said to us, “Nothing that you would understand, shark bait, it’s way beyond your understanding,” Nate said to Henry, before starting to walk away, and Bryce, Toby and I followed. Later in the day, as the four of us sat down for lunch outside under a shady tree, “I like that nickname you gave Henry, I think it suits him,” Toby commented, and Bryce and I agreed with him, and we all agreed to use it as his nickname when he isn’t around.

“Hey, arseholes, what is this about you spreading rumours around the school, that my nickname is Shark Bait?” Henry said to us angrily, as we were organising our books in our lockers at the end of the day, as he came charging towards us. “Oh, watch out guys, a shark attack is about to happen,” Toby said as he slammed his locker shut, and backed away from it, and a little further away from Henry.

I wasn’t quite quick enough to react, and I soon found myself slammed against the lockers, but I was fast enough to duck under a fast-approaching closed fist of Henry’s, which went slamming into the locker near my ear, and made a very loud bang, followed by a yelp from Henry. Bryce and Toby closed their lockers grabbed me by my jacket, and dragged me out of danger of the school bully, and around the corner, into the other corridor.

“What is going on here, and what is all this noise about?’ we heard one of the teachers demand, “Nothing sir, I tripped and smashed my hand against the locker to stop myself from falling over,” we heard Henry say. “That is highly unlikely Henry. Come with me and we will discuss it some more with the Deputy Headmaster,” the teacher responded, as we heard Henry complain that he did nothing, as he was led away towards the admin building.

“I think we had better cool it, with calling him shark bait for a while guys, at least until he cools down a bit,” Bryce suggested, and we all nodded in agreement. We did our very best to keep well away from Henry for the rest of the new term, but occasionally he would catch up to us and threaten to beat the hell out of all of us.

I was glad when we had completed our mock exams, and the school term had come to an end. For the final week of the third term, as well as dealing with the mock exams, I was also making final preparations for my overseas trip to Canada. It had taken a lot of work to convince my parents to let me go on this journey to Canada with Jordan, which I was very much looking forward to our Tall Ship Journey.

THE END... For Now!
Book Three Coming soon...
Copyright Jan 2023... All Rights are Reserved, Preston Wigglesworth
  • Like 10
  • Love 15
  • Fingers Crossed 1
Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
You are not currently following this author. Be sure to follow to keep up to date with new stories they post.

Recommended Comments

Chapter Comments

Spoiler

 

Sweet ending.

What an adventure it would be sailing a tall ship in the North Atlantic in mid-winter. Bad storms, high waves, and ice on the sails can be really dangerous. Zac and friends get into enough danger without going that extreme.

I checked a few sailing charter websites, and they're all Portugal or further south by Christmas time.

  • Like 1
  • Love 3
Link to comment

That was a great story about Zac and the opportunity he had to join a crew of a tall ship for the voyage which he really loved. During that journey he met Joel and they became very close friends who shared their love of sailing. The next year instead of being just crew members they were watch leaders who were in charge of a certain number of crew members each. The last voyage was interesting because Zac was in charge of 3 of his class mates from his school who became interested after the presentation he made on what he did during his summer break, although his presentation was supposed to include Jordan’s yacht sailing by then coming back to the area for the students to see what it looked like inside before it was hijacked. Jordan informed Zac on their latest sailing trip that he had booked them as crew members on two tall ships in Canada. Then during Zac’s summer break they were going to be crew members on a luxury yacht based in the U.K.. I hope we get to see Zac Joel and the rest of the group in the future, I would like to know what they think of the trip to Canada and the UK. 

  • Like 1
  • Love 3
Link to comment

I'm assuming as school ends for Zac and friends/fellow crew members they will be heading towards Canada to sail the Great Lakes and then the Pacific, I'm wondering what weather season they will be heading into???

Then there is the conundrum as to using the insurance payment to fund that trip and the others...would the insurance company pay off on the stolen yacht knowing it is still out there...somewhere,  or is the payment for the one the hijackers destroyed??? 

Will or is Jordan thinking of buying the luxury yacht they will be sailing in the Med??? Considering the previous tall ship sailing as training for the boys starting their own charter business?

 

  • Wow 2
  • Fingers Crossed 2
Link to comment
11 hours ago, frosenblum said:
  Reveal hidden contents

 

Sweet ending.

What an adventure it would be sailing a tall ship in the North Atlantic in mid-winter. Bad storms, high waves, and ice on the sails can be really dangerous. Zac and friends get into enough danger without going that extreme.

I checked a few sailing charter websites, and they're all Portugal or further south by Christmas time.

I thought i set it so the sail in Canada during the Northern Summer? I did, i did…

Edited by quokka
  • Like 3
  • Love 1
Link to comment
7 hours ago, quokka said:

I thought i set it so the sail in Canada during the Northern Summer? I did, i did…

I'm pretty sure you did set Canada in late summer. It's Christmas sailing from the UK that in mid-winter. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment

Everyone's back safe and sound and none the worse for wear. Well that may not be 100% true. Jordan has seen his dream of owning a charter sailing yacht business (with best mate Zac and brothers Carter and Jackson) dashed. Carter will likely have some PTSD issues from being kidnapped.

Perhaps spending three months together as crew on 90m luxury SY (Sail Yachts) in the Med, before some (Northern Hemisphere) summer onboard much smaller 33m Brigantine STV's (Sail Training Vessels) in the Pacific Ocean off British Columbia and in/near Canada's Capital City of Ottawa, will whet their appetite to resume their own charters down under. 

Before that happens, perhaps Preston can dive deep and bring up another TSJ short story that brings closure to the fate of the piRATS who stole The Stingray?  It would be nice to see them get their comeuppance.

                      

FYI, STV Fair Jeanne (built in 1979-1982) is a copy of her sister ship STV Black Jack - a 1906 brigantine still sailing, and located during summer in Ottawa where I currently live,  (it's -18°C and we just got 25cm of snow 🤬with more coming), and spends most Canadian summers sailing from her summer berth in Ottawa's Rideau Canal to the St. Lawrence Seaway & 1000 Islands region one hour south of Ottawa. The 'Seaway' separates Canada from the U.S. and leads East past Montréal to the Atlantic Ocean and west to Lake Ontario and the other 4 Great Lakes.

vessel-fair-jeanne-2-800x530.jpg

STV Fair Jeanne near Brockville 1000 Islands.

https://sailtraininginternational.org/vessel/fair-jeanne/

Thank you @quokka

Edited by Anton_Cloche
  • Love 3
Link to comment

1.3%20Luxury%20yacht%20MARIE%20JOSEPH.jp

The Stingray, Jordan's Eco-Sail Sunseeker, stolen and at sea. Reward for successful recovery and arrest of 3 Pirates.

  • Love 1
  • Fingers Crossed 2
Link to comment

Thank You So Much For The Tall Sailing Ship Adventures, I look forward to reading about the Canadian Adventure,UK Adventure & The Mediterranean Sailing Adventure/ caper ( Perhaps the Three European Yacht Pirates come after them again ) .

      Happy Sailing My Friend,

           John Celestre ship GIF

  • Love 2
Link to comment
View Guidelines

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Newsletter

    Sign Up and get an occasional Newsletter.  Fill out your profile with favorite genres and say yes to genre news to get the monthly update for your favorite genres.

    Sign Up
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Our Privacy Policy can be found here: Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue..