Mike: "Maybe you're just a little too hard to please."
Kate: "Well maybe I'm not prepared to settle for second best."
Season 4, episode 3 'The Right Stuff'
Perth, Western Australia – Easter Saturday, 19 April 2014
Lieutenant Commander Kate McGregor, Royal Australian Navy, former Commanding Officer of patrol boat HMAS Hammersley, knocked on the door of her friend Nikki Caetano's home in the beachside suburb of Safety Bay, outside Rockingham, Western Australia.
Kate had recently moved to Perth to work at HMAS Stirling in the training area. With buying a home, and sorting out everything that entailed, as well as learning her new role in the base's training facility, this was her first chance to catch up with Nikki outside work beyond the odd coffee.
Prior to Kate's move to the west, the two hadn't met for about four years, since Nikki had left Cairns. The two of them had shared a cabin on HMAS Hammersley, a patrol boat based at Cairns, Far North Queensland. They were both Lieutenants in those days. Nikki had been Hammersley's Navigator, while Kate was the Executive Officer, or second in command. Nikki had posted off Hammersley following the death of her fiancé Josh and had spent a few years working on ships based in Sydney before moving to Perth about twelve months ago for a shore posting.
Kate had been promoted and become the Commanding Officer of Hammersley two years ago. After leaving Hammersley and spending a few months in a shore posting at NAVCOM in Cairns late last year, Kate had applied for a transfer and shortly found herself moving to Perth, which was pretty much as far as you could get from Cairns and still be in the same country.
"Kate!" exclaimed Nikki as she opened the door, "Come in, come in. I'm so glad you made it. It's been ages since we had a proper get together." She gestured for Kate to come inside the house, gave her a hug, and continued speaking while pointing down the hallway to the back of the house, "Straight through and out the back. Everyone's out there."
Kate stopped in the hallway. "Everyone? What do you mean, everyone?"
Nikki pulled Kate with her through the house, "Well, with you living in Perth now, it seemed like a great opportunity to have a Hammersley reunion. I made a few calls and there's some people here waiting to see you again."
Kate was able to spare a brief glance at Nikki's home as she went through. The house was bright and airy, with colourful cushions on the sofas and bright pictures on the wall. Nikki's style of home décor was modern in comparison to Kate's more muted approach to decorating.
"Just who is out there?" Kate asked, as she paused briefly in the kitchen to drop off a couple of bottles of wine, and a platter of cheese and biscuits and other nibbles.
Nikki didn't reply, instead dragging Kate out the back door and onto the shaded wooden terrace that ran the width of the back of the house while exclaiming, "Ta da!"
Kate quickly looked at the people gathered on the terrace. "Sally." Kate moved forward and hugged Sally Blake, the widow of Petty Officer Chris Blake. Chris had been coxswain on HMAS Hammersley, until he was killed two and a half years ago. Letting go of Sally, she looked at the young girl with her. "And Chloe – my, how you've grown. You're turning seven soon, aren't you?"
"A few months yet." replied Sally, as Chloe smiled nervously at Kate and edged closer to her mother. Kate hadn't seen much of Chloe when they'd all lived in Cairns, mostly at the occasional crew barbecue or other get-togethers. Chloe had last seen Kate at the medal ceremony that followed Chris' death, when he had been posthumously awarded a Cross of Valour (Australia). Kate still remembered the look on Chloe's face when she'd been given Chris' medal. Clearly the young Chloe hadn't considered that being given a medal in a box made any sort of an adequate substitute for the loving father that Chris had been. After Chris' death, Sally and Chloe had moved to Perth to be closer to Sally's family, who lived there, so Kate had had little contact with them in the interim.
Sally and Kate talked a little longer before Kate turned to the couple standing beside them and hugged the male. "Charge, sorry Andy, and Lani. How nice to see you both again."
"X" replied Charge. "You're looking pretty good."
"Thanks" smiled Kate "How's civvy life treating you?"
"Pretty good. I'm working up north, in the Pilbara, as a fly in, fly out worker at the mines there. I work for eight days up there, then have six days back at home. I get in a bit of golf when I'm back, spend time with Lani, and occasionally get to catch up with Jamie when he's around. He's a sub-lieutenant now, serving on Stuart. Jessie's back east, working in Melbourne. Lani's also working for the mining company, in the office here in Perth, and she's able to arrange her days off to fit in with when I'm back here.
Kate, Andy and Lani chatted for a while before she heard the unmistakable voice of Peter Tomaszewski from behind her. She turned around.
"Buffer!" exclaimed Kate. "I haven't seen you for ages. How's life treating you?"
"Great thanks X." He smiled and gave Kate a hug, "I'm serving on HMAS Perth; been there for about six months now. We only just got back from assisting in the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370. I'm glad that I was able to make it here today and see you again. And I think you know this bloke too." Pete gestured to the tall blonde man who had just walked up to join them.
Kate turned to look at the man, "Dutchy! I didn't know you were here in Perth also."
Like Buffer, Dylan Mulholland hugged Kate. "Surprise! I spent six months on HMAS Sirius and just posted off her. She's sailed east for a long period of maintenance, and I didn't fancy spending six months or more in Sydney, so I've just started a shore position at HMAS Stirling, working in the office of Offshore Patrol Vessel and Frigate Support Facility - West."
"You? Volunteering for a shore posting?" Kate smiled at the thought. She couldn't image Dutchy asking to work in an office.
"Yeah, well I got a bit banged up in Afghanistan, right at the end of my posting there. I had some medical leave and then I was passed fit for sea. Unfortunately, it turns out that everything wasn't OK, and going back to sea didn't help – made some stuff worse. Turns out that bouncing around in RHIBS and doing boardings and the steepness of ship's stairs in general weren't a good idea. The docs say I just need to take things quietly for a while, and I should be OK in a year or so; it's just a temporary unfit for sea duty. I'm going to be doing regular physio and exercise and I'm hoping everything works out OK."
As the afternoon progressed, Kate ended up sitting at a table in a corner of the yard with Dutchy and Buffer. The two men had never met on HMAS Hammersley, as Buffer had posted off before Dutchy arrived as his replacement. Instead, they had met while both were living at the on-base accommodation at HMAS Stirling. In chatting about past postings, the two had realised that they had a Hammersley connection. Buffer knew Nikki from then and had introduced her to Dutchy. The trio had met up a few times when their schedules allowed. The two men were both Chief Petty Officers now, each having been promoted in the time since leaving Hammersley.
The men had been talking about their accommodation at Stirling when Kate had joined them. She listened to their conversation then asked "But isn't the accommodation fairly new? I'm sure I heard that the accommodation had been upgraded recently."
Buffer answered Kate's question "That's part of the problem actually. The new accommodation is so nice that it's full. I've heard that there's even a waiting list for people to move in. Dutchy and I are in the senior sailors' lodgings, of course, but I'm finding it crowded with everyone there. After spending time on the ship, sometimes I'd just like to have a bit of quiet time without constantly seeing people every time I leave my room."
Dutchy chimed in "And the juniors' accommodation isn't that far away. It's like Goat Central from Cairns all over again there, but with more people. The noise travels and I'm sick of listening to their constant parties."
He paused briefly to drink some of his beer before continuing, "It's a shame, because it's always been so convenient for work especially when I was at sea, but frankly I'm over communal living. I can't speak for Pete of course, but I'm starting to think that moving off base might be an idea."
"Yeah, I've been thinking about that myself," responded Pete "The problem is that with me being posted to sea at present, I don't want to be leaving a place empty for weeks or months at a time. It's different for Dutchy of course, he's got his shore posting."
Kate took a sip from her wine glass and had a brief inner debate before speaking, "Look guys, I've got an idea that might solve your problems, and also help me out a bit. I've got this house on a canal in Mandurah that I couldn't resist buying, but it's huge – five bedrooms, all with en-suites, and I'm only using one, well two if you count the one I'm using as an office. Why don't both of you move in with me? I'd charge less than the Navy would for rent and at least you know you won't come home from deployment to an empty fridge. And when you're home, I'll have some company. I'll be going to sea a little with this new job, but only for a couple of days at a time. I know that it's a bit of a drive from there to Stirling, but I'm sure that other people from the base do it every day. Oh, and there's three car spaces in the garage, so your cars or bikes would be safe. Did I mention there's a pool? Not a huge one, it's really more of a lap pool, but it's nice to hop into at the end of the day. And there's a spa bit at one end. It might help with your rehab Dutchy." Kate paused for breath.
"Well, I can't speak for Dutchy, but I'd say that I'm certainly interested Kate." Pete grinned.
"Yeah, me too" replied Dutchy "Too many more nights listening to party central and I'll have bags under my eyes that won't ever go away. And I'm not even the one partying."
Kate gave them her address and the two men made arrangements to call around the next afternoon to look at the house.
