This one is especially for my friend Voula as she is interested in the paranormal , spirits and the like and even though this story isn’t about ghosts it is if you can put yourself in my shoes it’s a little bit frightening and spooky .
So just where to start this story , have you ever found yourself in a situation that’s maybe out of your control , that triggers the paranoia deep inside your mind leaving you feeling of being massively uncomfortable and wondering at the time if life as you know it may even just be over ?
That is an absolutely horrible feeling and those who have experienced it themselves will completely understand .
I have had this type of situation occur on a few occasions in my life and I don’t particularly like the experience and unfortunately in the last two months this situation has occurred to me twice and both were completely different situations but both were quite disturbing and made me take a quick reality check on life and then to be grateful that they weren’t true and that because of the circumstance’s my imagination had for a while completely ran wild.
All throughout our entire lives we are presented with known facts , fiction , theories , predictions , that we make our own minds up on and that goes into the make up of our character .
So firstly this is the background story and it’s a prelude to the story of the twilight zone .
So a while ago I owned and had a big steel hull boat on dry dock at Yaringa boat yard at Hastings ,
my mate Blackie also has his yacht dry docked there .
It’s a pretty good set up and quite a busy place, with boats big and small coming in and out of the water on a daily basis.
When you have a boat on dry dock you are also allowed to live on it there whilst you repair it ,
The yard has fantastic facilities and provide their customers with nice clean toilets and showers on site.
All current tenants get an electric fob it’s like a tag on a lanyard that you need to access both in and out of the facility at any hour of the day and night , as long as your fees are up to date and not in arrears and they work opening the secure entrances from the small gates to the large one that’s covering the main driveway entrance near the main office.
Apparently they also work the main boom gate on the driveway exit although in all the time and the prior visits there I had never seen the boom gate in use .
So in the first few weeks of me getting my big boat that I visited the yard I got to meet lots of the other people that were basically living there permanently.
In amongst those I met Nash , who was living on his yacht and he also worked full time there at Yaringa .
Moving on with the story and for various reasons , mostly financial , as it’s really quite expensive to leave your boat there , so I ended up then selling my boat at auction for next to nothing to get out of the rent situation.
I then stopped going to the yard as much and sometimes every now and then I’d call in to see Blacks and over time I watched him repairing his yacht and also slowly getting his site quite untidy which was completely against the management rules .
He started to have disagreements with the management and his relationship with the general manager became strained at the time ,
his yacht repair was near completion but not yet completely finished.
Management sort of one day just decided to pressure him and kind of evict Blacks with no real notice , I was there at the time and they came with the lifting machine and slings were attached to Nakina and slowly she came off the stands up and she hung suspended into the air ,
honestly she looked magnificent and a credit to Blackies skills and the job he had done to her and then at a slow pace she headed in the motorised cradle down to the marina and into position in the launch dock.
It’s an interesting process to watch but as they lowered her into the water for her first bath in ages when she was low enough Blacks and I both boarded her.
Because she had been dry for so long the first critical thing to check is the sea cock valves for any sign of leaks showing up as the vessel can then quite easily be relifted out of the water for a repair if any leaks are found.
So we both took five minutes to check everything out and we then gave the all clear, then the boat is slowly lowered down and when it’s completely submersed then the lifting slings are dropped off and removed.
Strangely I thought that then one of the managers came up to me and pointed to Blackies car back in the yard where the boat was , and to the large amount of items laying scattered there on the ground and he asked me to go and pack it all up into his car.
I wondered why they asked me and I figured that’s how desperately that they wanted Blacks gone .
They then expected Blacks to fire her engine up and motor out of the marina , and be rid of him,
but that sort of completely backfired , because he had only just recently purchased the yacht he didn’t know the starting sequence to press on the series of buttons on the control panel so Blacks had to made a bit of an urgent phone call to the previous owner to get the starting instructions, and all the while the management were still standing on the wharf and you could just feel the pressure and negativity and bad vibes coming from them hanging in the air in that moment.
Finally when everything was sorted you couldn’t guess what happened next and because she had been sitting for ages there was on ignition just a groan noise as she had a bank of dead flat battery’s ,
the marinas managers cracked the shits with this and then with a couple of workers help we shifted her manually out of there and into a close by mooring bay by hand with ropes , and tied her up there .
So then they let Blacks hook up a battery charger , and evening was falling it was beginning to get late and I helped him pack up the site that he had occupied until it was completely clean , hoping that it would appease the management and then I basically left and I went home thinking that Blacks would launch Nakina the following morning,
But im not exactly sure what occurred after I left , but for some reason they kicked Blackie and his boat out of the marina just on dusk in fading light and in a vessel that didn’t have full electrical operation after the long period of shutdown of her electronics not everything worked including the gps navigation system and it was a recipe for disaster.
And in the morning I called Blacks to wish him luck with the trip home to San Remo and he probably didn’t answer his phone as usual but when he contacted me he gave me some disturbing news , that he had been pressured to leave Yaringa and that he had left the harbour last night , and then he turned on the first red marker and things were going really well and with the engine running well also he opened the throttle position to fully open gaining speed and then he ran a distant green light and he became a bit disorientated with all of the lights at night out on the water and land , it can be difficult to navigate and he saw the next one one was a green light that was actually a sector light that shows three different colours depending on what angle you approach it from and it was attached to a big rock outcrop named Crawfish rock and he motored towards it and as he neared the marker the light colour suddenly changed to red and then before he could react disaster struck and the Nakina smashed hard into a rock and became stuck fast on it and she she slowly began taking on water .
I guess unless you have experienced this sort of thing it would be near impossible for you you to imagine , the instant panic entering your thoughts in that situation and just trying to get your head around the situation and make good decisions under pressure and to try and calm yourself while your heart is jumping out of your chest .
I sort of have had a similar
experience once but that’s another story .
So poor old Blacks is now marooned with Nakina on a rock in the middle of nowhere in the pitch black of night ,
You have to give him credit as the waves were smashing up his boat and for him to sure her with some quick thinking and attaching two anchors that he used on each end to pin her down tight and to stop her rocking on the rock in the waves that had begun to inflict some serious damage and destroy her hull and whilst her hull was slowly smashing away every time the tide came in and out it was a dramatic contrast , like at high tide she was pinned down laying over sideways in the water and low tide she was completely out high and dry on the rock and she was stuck fastened to the rock where the rock had managed to smash its way through the concrete hull and wedged itself into the inside pinning the vessel.
So with quick and smart thinking Blacks managed to save and salvage his boat I think it was on the rock by memory for at least a week and during low tides he could pump out the water that at some stage had actually reached the level of the top of the engine and then he could work on and apply temporarily patching the hull . To allow safe salvage .
I guess if he didn’t land on the rock and get stuck I guess that the Nakia would surely have sunk to the bottom of the bay .
So later that week Blacks organised with a professional fisherman to salvage her with his powerful vessel , there were only certain windows of opportunity to do the salvage as it had to be the right tide wind and daylight to make it possible that’s one reason that she sat there for so long , finally the right day arrived and they attached tow lines and at the same time they released the pinning anchors and with heaps of power they pulled her apart from the rock and then towed her off and into a local jetty, with the Nakita once again taking on water from the new hole the rock had left in her when she was finally separated.
Blacks had already tried to organise to take the yacht back to Yaringa but the management flatly refused , leaving him few options . One of those options we discussed was to temporarily patch the hull at the pier and to then motor and sail her into Bass Straight and around to a repair yard in Port Philip bay , the big problem was to do that she would have to enter the bay through the Port Philip heads which is extremely dangerous thing to do any time let alone in a vessel that was no where near seaworthy , so we decided this was not an option and Blacks tried Yaringa again with the same response
No.
So then while his yacht was now tied up to a local jetty he got a visit there by the local Parks Department.
And just like Yaringa they wanted to evict him from the wharf as it’s a bit like a car parking restriction and you can only occupy the space for a short amount of time .
They gave him the paperwork with a few days to vacate the pier .
He maybe could have moved it back to his mooring at Woolami but it’s not an option as she urgently needed hull repairs that would be impossible to do there.
Then strangely near the eviction date Parks suggested to Blackie that he forfeit control and ownership of his yacht over to them .
They would then take her into Yaringa for dry docking as a salvage vessel.
Then later Blackie could pay the calculated costs including the yard storage fees and buy his boat back from them .
I was unsure about this plan and so was Blacks but a few legal phone calls to understand more clearly maritime and marine salvage law and the plan was agreed to ,
I think when Blacks met the fisheries officers on the pier that day it was an emotional time for him to hand over complete control and trust in the Parks officers with his prized yacht ,
but realistically it was the only way .
And he stood there and watched it being towed away from the wharf into the distance .
The really good news for Blackie is that there was a pretty strong rumour going around Yaringa boat yard that the manager had resigned and that he would be gone in a few weeks and there would be a new replacement.
Realistically now it was a bit of a blessing in disguise for Blacks as he was physically exhausted after spending the best part of a week battling the elements out marooned on a rock nursing his broken yacht , so it was a good chance for him to rest and recover.
You have to love it when a plan works out and that day that she was confiscated Nakina was back at Yaringa up on hard stands high and dry.
Blackie had an uphill battle with the manager just to be allowed in the yard to have a look at her and assess the damage on the hull,
eventually they let him take a look and he took photos of the damage and sent them to me , and we discussed talking to the management about letting me in to repair it there for him , because if it wasn’t repaired it would basically just be stuck there forever running up storage fee bills .
We both discussed suitable repair methods and materials, but then something really good happened and the manager did leave , it wasn’t just a roomer so this slightly opened the door for Blacks to return and he met the new manager and they hit it off so he was sweet to return as long as he stuck to the rule of a tidy work area .
So everything was back to normal but this time they put the Nakina next to my old boat still in the top end part of the yard ,
so Blackie made a start on repairing the holes in the hull but it had to thoroughly dry out first and because concrete is porous and the water tight barrier had been broken and compromised the complete area was wet though. So in his wisdom Blackie started drying out the engine that had been completely submerged to repair and fix it , and he also then started a repair on the cabin and like any repairs you start it just grew from there into a major rebuild.
He then in the following weeks performed the repairs to the hull up to the point the being ready for anti foul coating .
The boats that don’t have the fees paid are eventually scrapped and Blackes grabbed a pair of excellent fibreglass side panels with windows ,
to modify and put in place in the helm area of the boat .
They made a trip down to my place and onto my workbench for some serious glass reinforcement work a month ago .
By this time unfortunately Blacks had managed to collect a bit of stuff around his yacht again so much so that he had put up into place tarps to hide this mess from sight.
Yaringa had decided to move all of the boats out of the area to provide a car park for an upcoming open day , and slowly one by one they were being shifted to the back of the boatyard .
The next time I visited it was with my dad and my old boat was gone , so we went for a walk and it was now down the back yard . You don’t really move those sort of things very far because of the size and weight as my old boat was thirty tonnes to give you an idea.
My old boat had a set of wooden stairs and now they remained next to Nakina making it even a bit more untidy .
That day when Dad and I visited , Blackies dog was on site and he just happens to be the only dog allowed there so thats pretty cool , as earlier on he had an unfortunate incident that nearly cost his life but that’s another story .
So the phone reception in the yard is absolute crap and it’s hard to get through to send or receive a call , so when I’m going there I usually pre ring and warn Blacks so he can let me in but last time I was there with dad he said from now on just reach though the gate at the toilets and press the open button and you are in .
Now that’s the end of the introduction.
So this is where the spooky story starts
I had to go down to hand some paperwork in at my accountants last week that’s in the area and while I was there I called in to visit my friend Tamara for a while before heading back towards home and thought I’d call in on Blacks on the way past, it was the first time I had without phoning him first .
So I think it was maybe around seven o’clock when I got to the entrance and pulled into the carpark next to the main office. The office and it seemed nearly everything else was completely deserted , I tried to call Blacks and of course it just rang out before going to his Message bank so I tried again for the same result .
I then remembered what he had said and walked over to the toilet to yard entrance gate . I knew that the button was on the Lh side , so I reached in the gaps in the bars with my right hand all the way to my shoulder , I could feel the side of the box that held the button but I just couldn’t reach it , so I pulled my arm out and tried again . I still couldn’t reach and I looked at the gate , normally I’d just scale it and jump over but I have just had a hernia operation so that was totally out of the question , then I thought to try my left arm instead and I jammed it into the opening hard and to my relief I felt the button , so I pressed it and the lock on the gate opened.
It would have looked so funny me trying to open the gate with my arm stuck hard in it but I managed to get in and untangle myself.
I headed over to where Nakina was and to my surprise she wasn’t there.
All that was left there in her place was the rough rocky ground where she had stood only a few short weeks ago .
The only familiar thing that was really still in the area was Nashes yacht and his Ute parked below it .
Other than that the yard was completely quiet and totally deserted of life .
So immediately I thought that obviously they had now shifted her down to the back yard as was previously planned so I’d go and find her down there , I thought it would be easy to spot with all of Blackies stuff on the ground and maybe his car parked next to it.
So I wandered down to the rear storage area and I decided to walk through the yard in pattern like in a horseshoe shape , as to not miss anything.
By the time I had done a complete circuit I had failed to find the Nakina and I scratched my head as obviously to me it had been shifted so it could only have been repositioned or actually relaunched .
So my imagination was starting to affect my thoughts a bit at that time and my intuition and gut instinct was making me uncomfortable, and I quickly checked the front area again in case I was earlier mistaken .
I wasn’t , so I decided to look in the rear yard again but this time I decided to look into the sky above the yachts at their masts and check the vessel under each mast as I walked through more closely looking at each yacht along the way.
To my further distress There was no sign of the Nakina , she just wasn’t there.
I quickly assessed the possibility and the likelihood of the relaunching , but with the hull not yet anti fouled and repairs still in progress, I had to rule out that scenario .
My mind and my thoughts of what had happened was a bit distressing and I was feeling quite uncomfortable. So I decided to just leave and get out of there .
I went to the toilets gate and pressed the button to leave , jumped in my car and drove out of the carpark with all these conspiracy thoughts in my mind , my heart sank a little when I got to the exit and the boom gate for the first time I had ever seen it was lowered down over the road blocking my escape.
I got out of the ute and walked over to the boom gate , I grabbed it at the end and lifted it up to see if I could manually open it . It raised about a foot before locking solid so I let it back down and looked at the motor end and noticed that at the base there was a small inspection panel missing over the control box , so I put my fingers into the box on the circuit board and l pressed a few buttons hoping that it would open the gate and let me escape , unfortunately it didn’t.
I stepped back and the first thought I had was it’s a bit flimsy so if I have to I could just bend it around sideways if I had to but I wouldn’t really want to damage someone’s property so that would be a last resort.
I then thought that I had a brainwave and I instantly I started to feel better and I decided that I would back the car up to the office and simply turn the ute around and drive out and exit the place from the entrance.
So that’s what I did but my plan came completely unstuck because my heart sunk again because the entrance also had a lowered boom gate .
With my anxiety level at its peak
I checked it out like the other one , but I couldn’t open it either, so I returned in the vehicle to the carpark .
I then rang my son Ben to tell him that I was trapped in Yaringa and that it was so weird because Blackies yacht was gone. He said ring the management and see if they can let you out . So I rang the phone number that was displayed on the office window , which just went directly to a message saying to call back in office hours .
I guess by this time I wasn’t actually very happy or comfortable.
So I had to do the gate thing with my arm again to get access back into the yard , I walked up to Nashes yacht and yelled out loudly to him with no response.
I then knocked loudly on his yachts hull and soon his head appeared out the cabin door , I explained about being stuck at the boom gates , he asked if I had a fob and I replied no , he then threw me his that was on his car keys and said when You bring them back just put them on the top rung of the ladder and leave them there .
I thought now is my chance so I summed up the courage to ask him where Blackies yacht was ?
He responded it’s down the back .
My heart sank and I instantly in my mind l thought Lier .
But I didn’t say anything.
But I graciously accepted the use of his fob to get out of there.
So l exited through the toilet gate again and l walked up to the boom gate and l sorta prayed that it would open up skywards and let me go.
My prayers were answered and it opened so I drove the ute through it and parked . I returned to the gate and I didn’t have to stick my arm in it again as I had Nashes fob to open it .
I returned to his yacht and slowly climbed the ladder and left his keys there,
I could now smell my freedom, so I made my way to the ute , still stressed and a bit confused as nothing at all made any sense .
I drove only a little bit and stopped and I decided to contact Ebony , Blackies daughter to see if she had heard from or seen her dad . I didn’t have her phone number but she is a facebook friend so I used messenger . I also thought I’d have to be smart as I don’t want to alarm her. So this is the message that I sent her .
. Hi Ebb
Just wondering if you have heard from dad as I’m at Yaringa boat yard and his yacht and his stuff is all gone and he hasn’t answered my calls ,
So I’m wondering what he is up to
If you want to call me my number is 0429
Cheers
Curly
So then I also sent Blacks a message .
Hey man , give me a call when you can as I just went to visit you at Yaringa and I saw that your boat and stuff had been moved so I walked right around the back area twice looking for Nakina and I couldn’t find it, it’s a bit weird but I then later spoke to Nash for a second and asked him if they had launched it and he replied it’s down the back
So call me asap just so I know what’s happening
Cheers xxx
Then I headed home with my thoughts a bit scattered about what had just happened.
Later that night Blackie contacted me and laughed at the situation because unbeknown to me Yaringa have another boat yard at a site about 300 meters down the road and I’m guessing now that because Blacks is way too visually messy for the main yard they decided to hide him down there , and you also need a fob to gain entry ,
We organised to have dinner the next night and I cooked up a roast pork and we had a good laugh about everything , I messaged Ebony to say not to worry I found him , and then I told him about this story and I read it to him and asked if it was ok to post it.
He absolutely loved the story and agreed for me to post it .
Then over a glass of red I told him of my intention to write a story soon on how we first met and how we became such special friends , and we decided that he would also write a story about it with his version of events and I will post them together.
I think it will be a really intriguing and interesting story that’s for sure .
And on a footnote since Blackie brought the Nakina has asked me a number of times to join him on board and live his dream and sail the world with him , I don’t think that I’m that keen and I doubt we would get past the real pirates in Indonesia 
So I just say that
Wilson’s Prom is probably a great place to start .
Cheers
Curlyg