Unexpected Journey - 10. UJ Chapter 10

After about fifteen minutes of discussions regarding the trip, the skipper turned to me. “Right Mr Matias, I guess it is to be a crew only cruise?’ the skipper asked me.

“Unless you have any ideas about willing guests that may want to join us?” I responded, and I saw the skipper smile and nod his head towards the window and to the beach. “Oh shit,” I said when I saw a line of people walking along the beach towards the jetty, with all of the carrying a light bag with them, and the senior crew just laughed.

“Come on Mr, let's go and sort this out down at the other end of the jetty,” Anna said to me, as she grabbed my hand and dragged me back off the yacht and onto the jetty., stopping just at the end, where the Jetty and the concreted slab meet, and where a small crowd had gathered.

“Good morning, I am assuming that you are wanting to apply for jobs on the yacht or to be passengers on its maiden journey north” I stated to the group of about twenty people of various ages from late teens to about the early ’40s, and I saw a number of them nodding their heads yes.

“My name is Anna, I am the yacht’s chef and wife of the skipper Hans, t the moment, we have no vacancies for the crew, but we are looking for willing guests to put our crew through training and experience, for when we do start doing charters” Anna announced.

“As you may have already worked out, my name is Matias Madsen, the yacht’s owner, and we have space for 8 guests, in two double and two twin bunk cabins, the only thing we will not have on this two day journey to Guilderton and Lancelin, is alcohol which we do not have a licence to provide or allow for it to be consumed on the yacht.

I also ask those who will be joining us for a reasonable donation to cover the costs of food and soft drinks during the journey. We will not be charging a full charter cost for this journey, which would normally be $420 per person for the two days, and I highly recommend that you are able to cope with the motions of the sea, as it can get rough out at sea,” I said.

“Right, so those who do not suffer from seasickness, and are able to go without alcohol for two days, and pay a reasonable fee to cover food and soft drinks, step forward to register your interest. What I will do as a fair way to decide, is to take your names, and put them in a hat, and draw out the names of those who will be joining us.

If you have a partner or a relative you wish to travel with, put both names on the one piece of paper, so that you both can go, not just one, and there is to be just one submission from each group, any breach of this will result in them becoming invalid altogether” Anna announced, as she retrieved her notebook and tore out a few pages, and made them into smaller slips of paper for the twenty or more people gathered.

When I saw the skipper and the other three crew members gathered on the deck watching what was happening, I motioned for them to come down, and moments later Anna’s phone rang. When Anna answered the call, she spoke in Swedish, since we had a group of people within hearing range, and she smiled as she hung up and I saw the four crew walking down the jetty towards us, with Ingrid carrying a cooking pot.

When they arrived, the group of people dropped their piece of paper into the pot, and Ingrid gave it a good shake, before holding it up high and Sven reached in to retrieve the first slip of paper.

“Don’t announce it just yet, just pull out 4 for now, and we will see what we have?” I said to Sven before he could say anything, and he handed the piece of paper to me, before drawing out the next one.

When I opened up the fourth piece of paper, I recognised one name that was on the second one and frowning, I gave those two pieces of paper to Anna, who also didn’t look too happy.

“I warned you all that you can only submit your name just once, yet we have someone who has tried to cheat, so Liam & Tania Prentis and Susan Prentis, you are hereby disqualified from coming on this trip” Anna announced, and she screwed up the pieces of paper and placed them in her pocket, while I indicated to Sven to draw out two more.

“Congratulations to Martin and Jaqueline Adams for Cabin 1, Kyle Owens and Isaac Yates for Cabin 3, Amanda Sawyers and Patricia Harvey for Cabin 4 and Lance Hunter and Toby Regents for Cabin 2,” I announced, and I saw the two men who had linked hands jump with joy, and I smiled to them and winked. “For the rest of you, thank you for your interest, and we hope that you will come to one of our charters in the future.

For those joining us, we will require some Identification, before we go over a few rules, followed by a tour of the yacht, so you can settle in” Anna announced.

I heard one couple groan in annoyance about requiring ID, which made me wonder if the three who had tried to cheat, had added some false names to the hat.

“Excuse me, for those who were not successful, can you please just wait a moment, as I have a feeling there may be another vacancy available” I called out to those who had begun to leave. As soon as I said this, two women who were successful turned and left the group, so I presumed that I was correct with my assumptions and that Cabin 4 was now available.

Looking at Sven, he said something to Ingrid, who held up the pot once more, and Sven pulled out another piece of paper and handed it to me. “Ok, Amos Carrington, it appears that you have a twin cabin to yourself unless there is another single person willing to share” I announced.

“Yes, I will share a twin cabin” a young man called out, and he stepped forward, and patted the other guy on the back. “Did you submit your name?” I asked, “Yes sir, but as a single person, my name is Andrew Reynolds, and yes I know Amos, as we go you college together,” the young man stated.

“Very well then, I will allow that,” I replied, and Sven soon found the piece of paper with Andrew's name on it in the pot, to make it a valid submission. Once ID’s were checked, the 8 successful people followed us down the jetty towards the yacht, where Hans stopped them, and I remained with him, while the rest of the crew headed indoors.

I drifted towards the two men in Cabin 2, who clearly looked like they were partners, “Is this like your honeymoon, as you looked very happy to be selected” I whispered to them, and both men blushed deeply, which made me laugh, a little too loud.

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh, but I don’t think Crimson is your best colour” I said to them as I walked away smiling broadly.

“Now that Mr Madsen has had his little joke for the day, just a few rules, firstly and this is the most important, in the interest of everyone’s safety, all guests are to obey any orders given by the crew, in the case of an emergency,” Hans said as he turned towards me.

“The second most important rule is that any kind of discrimination, or any verbal or physical abuse, will not be tolerated on this yacht, and will result in immediate expulsion to the nearest mainland, no matter where it is. So anyone who has any inclinations of making racial or homophobic comments can forget about boarding this yacht, as it will not be tolerated,” I said.

Once this had been explained to the guests, they were permitted onboard, and I showed them around the yacht and directed them to their allotted cabins, to allow them to settle in, as I began to head up the stairs, as I heard the voice of one of the guests, clearly before the cabin door closed, and I stopped and backtracked.

“Did you get a load of those rules, what a joke…” I heard one of the male passengers in the end portside twin cabin say, as I walked up to the cabin, and leaned in close to the wall, to see if I could hear more.

“Do you think those poofs in cabin 2, will be making many disgusting actions in public, I hope not, as it makes me sick” I heard a voice say in a loud whisper.

That was enough to hear to know that I did not want them on my yacht, and I straightened up and knocked on the cabin door.

“Yes, what do you want?” one of the young men asked when he opened the door, “Don’t even bother to unpack, as you are not going on this trip, you have five minutes to get off this yacht,” I stated before I stormed off upstairs, to inform Captain Hans of what I had heard and my decision.

“How dare you, we won the right to be on this trip, so we are not leaving,” one of the men said to me, soon after I had informed the Captain of my decision.

“Mr Yates, I presume… I agree with what Mr Madsen has decided, and as Skipper of this yacht, you are to gather your luggage and leave this yacht, and you have just three minutes to do so” Captain Hans said to the guest, as I headed downstairs, to see what the other guest was doing.

“Did you tell them where…” the guest started to say before he realised it was me that had just opened the cabin door, as he unpacked his luggage.

“I suggest that you pack up your gear Mr Owens because you are not going anywhere on this yacht, and if you refuse, then your luggage and yourselves will be removed from the yacht by force, either on the jetty or overboard, I don’t care which way you leave,” I said.

“Ok, I will pack and leave, but this is not the last that you will hear of this,” Mr Owens stated sounding very not happy about the situation.

Once the two men had left the yacht after they finally realised that they were not going on this cruise, we waited for the arrival of the three trainees, before we set sail about half an hour behind schedule, and once clear of the reef, we headed north for our first destination of Guilderton.

Arriving nearly 3 hours later, due to having to tack a lot, with North Westerly winds, we set anchor, just south of the Moore River, and about 30 metres offshore. Once secured, Marcus and the trainees got to work, to lower and secure the dinghy, so we could transport the guests to the beach, where they would have two hours to relax and explore the small coastal town.

While the six passengers were out an about, the crew got to work to clean the yacht and preparing for the next stage of the two-day cruise up the coast and back.

Once the passengers were back onboard, Ingrid and Anna served lunch, while we continued north, for another two hours, to the town of Lancelin, where we would be moored at the town jetty for the night. Allowing the guests to explore Lancelin, and the nearby sand dunes, the crew relaxed for an hour, before getting to work to prepare for dinner,

The following day, after the guests had completed some more exploring of the region, including a trip over to Lancelin Island, we began the return journey, with a stop at the small coastal town of Ledge Point, and the northern suburb of Two Rocks, before arriving back at the Ocean Reef Jetty shortly before 2 pm, where a small group of reporters were waiting for us.

“Sir, I believe you were one of the lucky ones to enjoy a two-day sail on this yacht, could you tell us how it all went?” one of the reporters asked the gay couple.

“Well, we had a small issue before leaving, but thanks to the owner's policy on discrimination, the two responsible were soon off the yacht, and we were able to enjoy a magnificent two days sailing up the coast, we plan to book them again in a year, to celebrate our wedding anniversary,” Toby Regents responded.

“What about you ma’am, did you and your husband enjoy the cruise, and what is your views on what happened before you left yesterday?” the reporter asked Jacqueline Adams. “We enjoyed the cruise very much, and we too plan to return in the near future, hopefully on the four-day cruise to Jurien Bay.

My husband and I did not witness what happened with the two men that were asked to leave before we set sail, but we do agree with their policy on no discrimination what so ever, and all guests were warned of this policy before we even stepped onboard,” Jacqueline replied.

I smiled when I heard this, and knew that the two men who were kicked off, now had no chance of causing any public issues with the yacht or its crew, after that public comment to the media.

Once the guests had left, I headed off to the shed, where Mum was waiting for me, and we headed inside to the residence to relax, and enjoy the nice late afternoon warm weather, and my first night of staying in my new home.