Tough Times - 1. Tough Chapter 1

Life has been very hard for me these past few months, with the Covid Virus quickly spreading around the world, which had resulted in the shutting down of lots of businesses due to quarantine restrictions, and which resulted in me loosing me job and soon after my rental home of the past four years.

Now I live in a basic caravan in a small caravan park on the outskirts of the city, spending my weekdays looking for and applying for jobs, and surviving on the basic income provided by Social Security. What had been a real god send, was the additions supplement that the Federal Government provided for a period of nine months, and I put that extra money to good use.

Having purchased a top of the range laptop computer, I-Pad and printer just three months before I lost my job, I was still able to keep in touch with my many online friends, and it was one of those friends from Canada, who suggested that I invest in Bitcoin Trading, and now I was doing very well from it.

Starting with just a $250 Australian investment, I began to make fortnightly deposits of $150 and in the nine months that I had been receiving the additional supplement I was able to invest a total of $2,950, which doesn’t seem like much, but with Bitcoin, that amount grew at an amazing rate.

I now have eight times the amount of money invested in Bitcoin, with over $25,000 and growing, and I was now starting to look forward to having a better caravan than the cheap basic one that I had bought for just $1,200, and which I had made some improvements to make it livable and reasonably comfortable.

Although I was single, gay and have no close family, with my parents killed in a train crash while on holidays when I was seventeen, and my two older siblings, Melissa and Trenton, not wanting to know me because of my sexuality, I had managed to complete my high school education, with distinctions in five main subjects – Physics. Chemistry, Applied Mathematics, Calculus, and English, plus A+ grades in Literature, Computer Technology, Business Management and Economics.

I had missed out being the Dux of the School, by a narrow margin, because I had chosen Music and Japanese, instead of a more useful subject like Accounting or Legal Studies, which was a private school, that I was able to continue at due to an education trust. Although I had done very well at school, I had been living at youth accommodation hostel for the past 7 months since the passing of my parents, after I was forced to pack up all of my belongings and leave my childhood home, when my siblings put it on the market to sell.

Only my two closest friends at school, Brady and Kyle, who are first cousins, knew that I lived in the hostel and that I had lost my parents in the train crash, but only a few months after it happened, and after a lot of nagging on their part, to find out what was really happening in my life. So, when I told them, I swore them to secrecy on what I had just told them, as I did not want any help or attention to my situation, or any over the top sympathy and I didn’t want any publicity.

On graduation day, I had no family members to celebrate the event with me, so after congratulatory handshakes and hugs from my classmates, I just headed back to the hostel and quietly packed away all of my old school books, which I wanted to keep for future reference. “Devlin, how are you going mate, are you able to celebrate your achievement. Brady and Kyle.” I groaned when I saw the message, before typing out a reply and sending it. “No, I just packed away all of my books and just finishing eating dinner. I am fine.”

I didn’t even bother to tell the hostel manager that I had done very well at school, and over the next few weeks during Christmas and New Year’s, I was busy trying to work out what to do with my life, now that school was over. When I turned 18, a few months later, I was given a swag, some money and personal references, before leaving the hostel for the final time.

The hostel management had arranged temporary accommodation for me, which was a single room in a men’s hostel, but I only stayed there for just a month, until I was given financed accommodation at the nearby University accommodation campus. Although I was not able to afford to attend university, I was able to study at the TAFE College next door to the university, where I studied and completed a Diploma in Carpentry & Cabinet Making with a three-year apprenticeship, I also worked part time as an assistant gardener.

I had completed my apprenticeship two months before the Covid Pandemic hit, so I was glad in a way that I had the TAFE training and apprenticeship under my belt. When the pandemic started to affect the housing construction industry, it was people like me who are young and not fully experienced who were let go first, which happened just before my 21^st birthday. During my studies and apprenticeship, I was able to save enough money to buy an old second-hand Ute, which I could store all of my tools in, and travel to and from all of my work jobs each working day.

I had no plans to celebrated my 21^st birthday, as it was just a normal Friday, but I did eventually decide to go and have a steak dinner as a small treat. A bit over an hour later as I paid my bill and was about to walk out of the steak house, my phone buzzed with a message.

“Hey Dev, long time no hear. I hope you are doing well, give me a call so we can go out to celebrate your 21^st Birthday properly. Kyle.” When I stepped out of the restaurant, there was Brady and Kyle leaning against my old Ute with big smiles on their faces.

“Hey guys, how did you know I was here?” I asked, sounding surprised, as I had not seen them since just after my 18^th birthday. “Let me introduce my cousin, Detective Brady Anderson, of Major Crimes Squad,” Kyle said, “Let me introduce my cousin, Attorney Kyle Anderson,” Brady added, and I just laughed.

“You guys are riot, so which one of you stretched the rules to locate me?” I responded. “Well. none of us actually, you remember submitting a police report about losing some of your tools at a work site about a month ago? Well, that report came across my desk, so I made a note of your details and added them to my phone contacts, since we knew that your birthday was fast approaching, we decided to make a surprise appearance, but you went out for dinner before we catch up with you,” Brady said to me.

“So, our good friend, what are your plans for the weekend?” Kyle asked, “Well, apart from doing my laundry, paying a few bills… not much really,” I replied wondering what the two lads had planned for me. “Hand over your keys, I will drive that rust bucket back to your place, you can ride with my cousin here, and then we will get the ball rolling on your birthday weekend celebration,” Brady said to me.

I handed over the keys and started to follow Kyle, when he stopped in front of a very nice BMW 4 series convertible car. “Wow, that is some car you have here, do you own it or the bank?” I commented to Kyle. “Half and half, I am still paying it off, but it won’t be long before it is all mine,” Kyle said as he unlocked the car and slid into the driver’s seat.

It was not long before we arrived at the caravan park, and I was instructed to pack a weekend bag for beach and water activities, which I did, and we were soon on way heading west towards the coast. On the way, I asked my friends what exactly would we be doing over the weekend, and both of them refused to tell me anything as it was a surprise.

As we entered Fremantle and headed for the Royal Perth Yacht Club - Fremantle Annex, I had a feeling that we would be spending the weekend on a yacht. “Did you charter a yacht just for this weekend?” I asked, “No, my friend, our family owns a yacht, and yes we are going sailing, but not until the morning,” Brady replied.

After parking the car in the secure carpark, and grabbing our luggage, I followed Brady and Kyle down the jetty where there where a number of single hulled yachts on the left and a couple twin hull yachts on the right, and we walked to the end where we came up to a brand-new Lagoon Seventy 8 power yacht.

“You got to be kidding, you own this?” I said as Kyle and Brady stopped near the aft of the yacht, “Nah, not this one but one like it,” Brady said as he walked past me back the way we came and stopped at the much larger Sunreef catamaran sailing yacht next door, where the transom read “Anders Way”.

“Thanks to a generous gift from our grandparents, our two families own this yacht. It is a dream to sail and for you our friend, it is your home for the next two days,” Kyle announced to me, as he led the way onboard.

I was given a full tour of the beautiful yacht, which at 46-metres long and 16-metres wide, has a Master and a VIP guest cabins, located on the main deck, plus three double and one twin guest cabins, in the starboard hull. The port hull has two officers crew cabins and laundry aft, galley and crew mess midships, and the yacht office, and three twin crew cabins forward.

On the fly deck there was plenty of seating as well as sunbeds, while the main deck has the main saloon, inside formal dining room, bar area and day heads, while the aft deck has a casual dining and lounge area, which is all very nicely furnished, with a jacuzzi on the forward deck. “Guys this is way more than I deserve,” I commented as we sat down in the saloon, and I was close to tears at how well I was been treated after everything that has happened to me.

After a few drinks, and toasts for me turning twenty-one, I retired to my allocated cabin, which is the forward double guest cabin on the starboard lower deck, and I enjoyed a nice hot shower, before sinking into the very comfortable bed and soon fell asleep. When I woke in the morning, I felt the yacht moving, and realised that we were sailing, so I quickly dressed and headed up to the main deck.

There I found Kyle sitting with two additional people, who I recognised as the lad’s brothers. “Hey there, do you remember my younger brother Jacob and my other cousin Trent, they often join us when we go out sailing, and act as our main crew,” Kyle said to me when he saw me arrive.

“Yes, I do and my how you guys have grown in the last few years since I last saw you,” I replied and I took a seat next to Kyle, why the two younger boys stood up and headed down below, returning a few minutes later with platters of fresh fruit, muffins, and a tray containing a pot of tea and a pot of coffee.

“Is Brady the skipper when you are sailing?” I asked as I helped myself to some breakfast. “We both are, we take it in turns between the two of us, as we are the only two family members qualified to skipper the yacht, and thanks to our grandmother, we can all cook very well, but the younger crew take on that role when it is just us boys sailing,” Kyle replied.

“So, do you guys charter the yacht for paying guests?” I asked, “We do, but only when we are all available, which at the moment is two weekends a month, and we only make three cabins available for guests, that been the aft starboard guest cabin plus the master and VIP cabins on the main deck. Jacob and Trent each have a twin crew cabin, while Brent and I each have a double crew cabin.

We also have two other cousins as crew when we have all three guest cabins booked, while the two guest cabins midship and forward and the twin cabin on the starboard side are reserved for family,” Kyle replied, before standing up and heading up to the fly bridge.

Brady appeared a few moments later. “Good morning, Dev, did you sleep well?” Brady said to me, as he sat down where Kyle was a few minutes ago, and he started to eat breakfast. “I did thank you, the bed is extremely comfortable,” I replied. “Good to hear, we like to have happy guests onboard our yacht. We will be arriving at Strickland Bay, Rottnest Island in about twenty minutes, so eat up as we have a big day of activities lined up for you,” Brady said to me.

When we arrived at our anchor point, it was just after 8 am, and the sun was out with just a slight breeze coming from the south west, and the temperature was perfect for exploring the island and going snorkelling. By the time we were ready to sit down to eat lunch, we had gone for a bike ride, done some snorkelling and swimming, and just watched some dolphins and sealions at play in the shallows of the bay.

After lunch, we just relaxed on the fly bridge, resting on the sunbeds or having a soak in the spa pool, and enjoying non-alcoholic drinks served by the boys. At dinner time we enjoyed a BBQ dinner on the aft deck, as we watched the sun set in the west, disappearing into the horizon of the Indian Ocean, and providing a wonderful display of many colours.

Feeling tired from all of the day’s activities, I retired to my cabin early, and after a hot shower, the gentle rocking of the yacht soon had me falling into a deep sleep, feeling the happiest that I have been for a very long time. When I woke up, I felt the very gentle rocking of the yacht, and remembered that I was at Rottnest Island and that I was enjoying a wonderful weekend with my best friends.

Once dressed I headed up to the main saloon, where my friends were all seated in the lounge area. “Good morning, Devlin, what would you like to do after breakfast today?” Brady asked cheerfully, as I took a seat, which was only set for one. “We have already eaten, so just relax and enjoy your breakfast, there is no rush. We will set sail at about 2 pm, to head back to the mainland, so until then you have five hours to do whatever you want too,” Kyle added, as I was served my breakfast by my friends brothers.

“Who are the extra crew when there is lots of guest onboard?” I asked, “When we have paying guest onboard, we have our cousins Marissa, who takes on Chef duties, and her sister Malena who takes on the role of Chief Steward join us, but since this is a private special event, we decided that just the four of us could handle it,” Brady replied.

“I would love to learn all about sailing a yacht like this, could you guys teach me please,” I asked in hope, “Sure, we can do that, once you have finished breakfast, we will up anchor and head down the coast a little way and be back in Fremantle by late afternoon, how does that sound,” Kyle replied.

“It sounds wonderful, thanks guys, this has been the best birthday I have had in quite some time,” I said as I fought back tears. For the rest of the day, we sailed up and down the coast, and I loved every moment of it, and I felt sad as we motored into the yacht club and secured the yacht in its assigned yacht pen. “Guys, I want to thank you for this awesome birthday present, I am so happy that you would do something like this for me,” I said to the four lads, as they appeared on the main deck with a backpack each, and I had my weekend bag with me.