"Hey, Cooky," The Australian voice filtered down through the hatch. "Are you ok down there? Can I try it yet?"
In the dark, hot and cramped conditions of the yacht's engine bay, I finished reassembling the engine, tightening the last remaining bolt on the prop shaft before replying.
"Yep, go on," I shouted back up the hatch, wiping yet more sweat from my brow. "Try it."
I stood back from the engine while Reece turned the ignition. The engine turned over a few times before the whole room shook and the engine burst into life with a cacophony of noise and a little bit of smoke. The smell of hot metal soon filled the air as the engine warmed up.
"That's it," I cried out excitedly. Then louder, "It's working, Reece. Its working!"
No reply.
"Reece?" I called out again, unsure of whether or not he could hear me over the din.
Another moment of silence. The air grew thick with the acrid smell of hot metal. The heat of the engines made it almost unbearable in the room. I had to get out.
"REEECE!" I cried, my voice laced with a little panic. Although in my head, I knew it was just hot metal, the smell of it triggered the primal part of my brain that made me think that I was trapped in a burning building.
After a brief moment, my ears were rewarded with Reece's voice sifting down to me above the din.
"What?"
"Its working!" I yelled. "Turn the bloody engine off!"
I wasn't sure whether or not he had heard me, but after a long moment of nothing, the engine eventually spluttered and died. I breathed a sigh of relief and wiped my brow again. I had been heard.
Before long I saw Reece's head pop down from the open hatch. "Sorry bout that, mate. You need to speak up when the engine's on, ya know"
I frowned. What the hell did he think I had been doing? I'd nearly had a full on panic attack and he was sitting there pretending nothing had happened!
Reece, being Reece totally ignored the frown on my face and carried on. "Anyway, that's the last one we've got to do today, and it's nearly 6," He announced, checking his watch. "So let's clean up and get ourselves down the pub, ay?"
Despite myself, I grinned. It had been a hard couple of weeks of work down under, and I wanted nothing more than to have a few beers and let off some steam. "Yeah, lets do it" I replied with a little more enthusiasm than I intended.
I had been in Australia for nearly 3 weeks, all of them spent in the Port city of Freemantle. What was I doing there? Well, the answer was simple. I was working. You see, I currently work as a Marine Mechanic for a Marine Engineering company based in the UK. I had worked there since I had turned 18. The company had a few contracts with various shipping companies around the world and every year, usually during the UK's winter months, teams would be assigned fleets and sent out to service them wherever they were. It was a job that had taken me around the world and I had seen many things (and had also experienced many different delights, if you understand what I mean).
This year, I had struck lucky (according to the other guys) and had been sent to Australia. I had never been really fussed about Australia before. But as soon as I arrived, I knew this place was different.
First of all, there was the heat. The temperature never seemed to drop below 30, which was lovely for me. I loved the warmth, and would rather be hot and bothered, than cold and wet. Also the sun was always out and always hot -- I had been warned to get some spf50 despite my black skin. It had proved to be excellent advice as I had nearly burned on my first day here. Since then, I had always worn some sort of SPF. My skin had definitely darkened in the 3 weeks since I had been here.
Then there was the attitude -- everyone was so laid back here. I felt that it was something to do with the heat -- in every hot country I had been to the people had been significantly more relaxed than back in the UK. However, I had never experienced people so laid back about things. Even when they were arguing, they were relaxed about it.
Freemantle itself was a nice little port town as well. It was very artesan, with lots of little markets and bazaars. This was in addition to the beaches that were so common in Australia. However, these beaches, unlike those on the east coast, sloped quickly into the Indian Ocean, making them ideal for surfing, but no so much for swimming.
My favourite pub was a place called Charlies, just next to the port of Freemantle. It was a lovely little seaside café kind of place. A little bit artisan, which was normal for Freemantle, but the main reason I liked it was that one of the bar girls was from Cardiff, my home town back in the UK.
After finishing our shift, we had immediately gone to the yachting club bar for a few beers, after which we had gone to the Freemantle Bulldogs Aussie Rules football club, where we had spent a few more hours shooting the breeze and arguing about the differences between southern hemisphere rugby and northern hemisphere rugby.
Now I was at Charlies. Reece had gone home, after his girlfriend had picked him up and taking him home. She had offered me a lift back to my digs, but I wasn't ready to go just yet, and so had passed on the opportunity, opting instead to walk for twenty minutes to Charlies.
As I entered, I was disappointed to see that the Cardiff bar maid wasn't around. Still, she might have been round the back.
The barmaid was a plumpish lady of around 50 with a matronly stare. "G'day," she greeted me using the usual Australian greeting.
"Hiya," I replied. "Where's Lucy?" I asked, referring to the Cardiif Barmaid.
"Aaah, you're after her, are ya?" the older lady asked. "Sorry to disappoint, but she's got the night off today."
"Oh," I said, disappointedly.
"But," the lady continued "There's nothing that she's got that I can't give ya -- if you know what I mean." At this she gave me a sly wink. "You're a handsome man -- I'll flirt with you if you want. Maybe give ya a little extra."
