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Chapter 4: Winky Goes Fishing
Pippin greets Gypsy and says, “Winky’s just returned from the wharves, and your nice timing brings you home to hear his tale.”
“I wondered where you were this morning when I went out, and your bed was empty. The waterfront, eh! What’s up?” asks Gypsy.
“It might turn out to be nothing out of the ordinary, but it was unusual, even puzzling,” replies Winky. “I intended to fish this morning, so I arrived at King’s Ferry Wharf around 3.30 am. That’s far too early to fish of course. But I enjoy the clear still air over the water at that time; and just ‘being there’ gives me a lift. After I’d been on the wharf some time I heard a boat come abeam the lighthouse on Cable Point.”
“What sort of vessel?” asks Gypsy.
“I couldn’t see the boat, because the morning was a deep charcoal colour like my coat. And what’s more, dense cloud covered the new moon. It was the pre-dawn time when sometimes, occasionally even in a thriving city, there falls over every living thing - a complete silence. An inexplicable calm fills the air. That’s what it was like today. There were no shunting noises from the rail marshalling yards. Unbelievably there wasn’t even the sound of a motor vehicle. No shouts or laughter, nor feet moving on pavement. It was a moment when everything paused - it’s was as if something was missing. A hiatus between the breathing in, and the breathing out again. The last night-owl people had wended their way home home, and early birds were just awakening the city pulse of a new day.”
“Aye, aye Winky, you’re a clever lad, you have a fertile imagination and tell a good story. Hiatus indeed, did you look that one up in the dictionary as soon as you got home! But that’s not the end is it!” asked Gypsy.
“No, indeed it is not. Because across the water between Cable Point and the waterfront, for just an instant in the silence, I heard the pleasant sound of a powerful marine diesel. But it carried across the water another sound buried within it, deep inside as it were. I thought nothing of this at that moment. But then the exhaust noise changed, as the main engine’s power was cut. Now the underlying sound replaced the thrum of the big engine, with a new low beat. It sounded like a fishing boat remembered from kitten-hood visits to the wharves. It made a steady, deep thudding tonk tonk tonka… tonk, tonka tonk. I’ve been on fishing boats with engines that sounded like this. It’s what fisherman men call a heavy ‘donkey diesel,’ and as the big cylinders roll slowly up and down, the steady power makes a tonka, tonk sound that I really like.”
“Aye, aye Winky, you’re a strange lad too, getting excited by sounds and memories. You’ll be a challenge to Sooty if you keep this up, but do go on please,” said Pippin in an echo of Gypsy’s earlier comment.
With a knowing shake of his head Winky continued, “I returned to the daydream I’d been in, until the boat came nudging alongside, just thirty metres from where I was resting with my back against a bollard. Remember the Goon Show and ‘pull up a bollard’ well it was like that, and I had. In the quiet I heard the steering gear work, and noted the ahead-astern changes the skipper made. The boat nosed expertly in between two other fishing boats. In a very short time someone on deck quickly warped stay-lines fore and aft. If a word was spoken I did not hear it.
“A shadowy figure swung onto the wharf and pushed a gangway on board. In the gloom, my cat’s eyes saw four people walk ashore. They all carried kit-bags about the size of a weekend holiday bag. They disappeared silently in the darkness.
“I reflected on the half hour or so since the distant sound of the high-powered engine had entered my mind. It struck me as odd. In fact the more I thought about it the more peculiar it seemed.
“I’ve been around boats, fishing, and the sea most of my life, including as you know, five years as ship’s cat on a fisheries research vessel. What luxury I enjoyed on that gig, and as Billy Connelly would say, ‘luxury, bloody luxury – I’ll give you bloody luxury.’ So without further ado, I asked myself, what on earth is a fishing boat doing with two engines? Why stop one and enter port with a down-beat sounding, old fashioned motor? Then it occurred to me that the navigation lights had been muffled – why and what for?
“I decided to follow the darkly clad figures, now leaving the wharves via the small door in the giant steel gates separating the wharf area from the wide thoroughfare. They crossed the highway and continued west at a fast, steady clip up Oriutu Street to Seventh Avenue. Then along the avenue to Tinergan Road, which runs northwest, climbing to the foothills and the green belt. As they passed under streetlights I saw see three men and a woman. I stayed close enough to hear any conversation, but far enough behind to avoid them suspecting they were being followed. Even by a cat! They were silent as they walked.
“They stopped on the footpath outside the Royal Thistle Tavern, and the woman opened an envelope. She scanned the page under the streetlight. Then disappearing up Chun’s Lane beside the tavern, the group entered the yard behind it.
“Now dawn was breaking, and in the increasing light I walked back to the camper, pre-occupied with what I had seen and heard. Strange or what!”
“Yes,” Gypsy says, closing her eyes and pausing… “It’s possible there are some interesting things here, Winky. There’s not much to go on… just a feeling, so… let’s get on with our day and see what comes along.”
Winky springs easily onto his bed, lies on his side and carefully slowly washes his belly. Then he naps.
Meanwhile Pippin puts everything in order around the camper, and then calls, “Mr. Winks, it’s the second to last day for this fair, and it’s going to be a big one. We’ve bookings, and people coming back from Saturday. They all hope Gypsy will have time to talk with them. Will you help load the hand trolley and get me away, please? I’ll manage the front of house for an hour or two while you clear the backlog of accounts and correspondence.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” says Winky. “I’ll join you later in the morning and bring our lunch.”