WILLWATCH

I am a Chef, and I promise I will get back to blogging about food shortly.

But first and foremost I am a son. 
Was a son; to a dear mother who passed away 12 months ago.

As part of my getting back to where I need to be, I have a few things I need to do in life first.

An article- blog post about a small Ketch(sailing Ship) sinking in the Bass Strait in 1958 may seem strange to most, but it played a large part in our family over the years.

When I was 21 my best friend committed suicide. It re-wrote a huge chunk of my life as I tried to cope with my best friends loss and understand why, how and the all important; where was I as his friend when he hurt so badly..

This played such a big part in my life as I had lead such an angelic perfect life without loss or tragedy until that moment.

In contrast my mother had not lead an easy life up to her 18th birthday.
Hers was 360 degrees different to the life my sister and I enjoyed.
Our mother worked hard to ensure we had what we needed and where kept away from what we did not need to see or know until 'life' could not be controlled by her any longer. Our family unit was strong and the setting for our youth was perfect, safe, calm.

In 1958 though at the age of 18 my mother, a worker at the Port of Ulverstone, Tasmania experienced a  loss of her own and it remained with her for the remainder of her days.
I understand how it changed her, for I felt the same after my loss at 21.

She knew the men aboard the 96 ton Ketch, WillWatch. She waved it goodbye on the day the Willwatch sailed for King Island and she heard much of the radio chatter on the fateful morning of Wednesday 17th December 1958 as the 2 hour long drama of the her sinking played out and Captain George McCarthy spoke his final words.

My mother cried regularly and felt the loss all throughout my childhood and adult years. The Willwatch was as much our family as a third child would have been. It was an invisible sibling that we all knew too well had not survived.

Few people know the story of the WILLWATCH.

I feel it necessary to impart some facts and advise a new era of people the sad loss of some great men, who left their tragic mark upon our family throughout the fifty or so years since they disappeared.

From here on in, I will get back to food and being a chef, for my role as a son to an amazing mother has finally drawn to a close. 

I was a son , I am a chef. Life needs to move forward.

THE WILLWATCH

The Willwatch  a 96 ton auxiliary ketch with general cargo and three horses was on its way from Ulverstone ,Tasmania, to King Island when she was lost with all hands at sea on Wednesday December 17^th 1958.

The members of the missing crew were as follows;

George “Mac” McCarthy 29, master, married with three children of Spreyton, near Devonport.

Peter Hanson, 45, engineer married of Devonport

Neville Chitts, 20, deck hand, single of Currie King Island

Anthony Dick,18, deckhand, single of Devonport

John Leslie Marcerer,16 deckhand of Devonport.

The search for the Willwatch began soon after signals were picked up that’s the ketches decks were awash and that it was in danger of sinking.

It’s position was given as 27 miles off the north-east tip of Three hammock island, off the North West coast of Tasmania.

The sequence of messages from the Willwatch was;

8.15am the skipper reported that the ship had sprung a leak and the pumps were going.

8.30am; Request for a ship to stand by

8.45am;reported that the ship was under way, steering north-north east at three knots.

The vessel was then heading away from land evidently running before the wind and sea to  minimize the possibility of further damage.

9.15am; conditions are deteriorating, decks were awash and some 50 drums of deck cargo had disappeared into the Bass Strait and they had tried unsuccessfully to launch the dinghy.

9.30am Reported that the bows were down in the water

10.15am; conditions getting worse, unable to launch boat. Crew standing by in lifejackets.

About 10.30am ; Skipper George McCarthy reports  that he had ordered his four crew overboard while he remained in the wheel house.

About 1035 am; he conceded that “the sea has her”.

Another radio transmission around 10.37am heard Mac’s voice penetrate once more through the static and noise of the radio spectrum, “It looks like this is it….see you later, cheerio.”

Rescuers arrived onto the scene within the hour yet nothing was found of the vessel or crew.

Two fishing boats the Olympic from Victoria and the VSP from Stanley Tasmania carried out a wide and difficult 12 hour search and two RAAF aircraft as well as an Ansett ANA DC 3 on a scheduled flight from King Island to Tasmania.

Late Thursday afternoon the following day, wreckage had been spotted although no life raft. Just before darkness halted the search about 8pm on Thursday the fishing boats picked up a lifebelt, two bales of straw, cases of apples and a gas cylinder.

Pilots of the searching aircraft reported huge seas , high winds and poor visibility.

Captain George McCarthy, a Queenslander by birth, was a well known figure in the sailing community along the north west coast of Tasmania, having been the master of the Rawlinna and second mate of the Elmore. He first went to sea as a cadet in the employ of the Australian Shipping Board.

His vessel the Willwatch was owned by Mr A.Kimberley of Ulverstone, Tasmania and it had seen a colorful career since it had come off the sips in 1895 at Blackwall, NSW.

The Willwatch first went into the New Zealand timber trade, where it was considered on of the fastest in its class.

During World War II it was commandeered by the Americans for service in the islands. Later it was bought by a New South Wales fisherman.

Then it came to the Tamar Valley and was subsequently transferred to Devonport from where it entered the Flinders Island trade.

At Devonport in 1953 it was fitted with a new stern and put on the King Island run.

In 1957, a year before the sinking it was fitted with new diesel engines.

The Willwatch was 84 feet long and had a 21 foot 6 inch beam.

Will Watch. Auxiliary ketch, 96/64 tons. # 101141. Built Blackwall, Brisbane Water, NSW, 1895; reg. Melbourne 5/1947. Lbd 84 x 21.5 x 7.3 ft. Master George McCarthy. From Ulverstone for King Island with general cargo, lost in a gale off the far north-west coast Tasmania,  between the Hunter Group and King Island, Wednesday 17 December 1958.

Bibliography;

·      The Front Page of Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday 18^th December 1958

·      Additional information from page 7 Sydney Morning Herald December Monday 22^nd 1958.

·      Additional information from book titled, In the South; Tales of Sail and Yearning by Geoff Heriot (published 2012 ISBN 978-0-9873698-2-6).

·      Photo from Motorboating magazine January 1962 edition.

·      Encyclopedia of Australian Shipwrecks-online.

TIME TRAVEL

I used to love August.
In our youth, a teacher at my high school had a tradition with her brother. No matter how far apart they were they chose a singular day and celebrated it as their own.
As my sister and I parted countries decades ago on our separate paths to our personal futures we agreed to our own day, August 12th which would be ours. We called it Chocolate Day and resigned to send each other something magically chocolate from wherever in the world we were at that moment in time. We both got pleasure for years in sending unique chocolate items to each other.
Last year though, August became tarnished for me.
It is a month I have not looked forward to now for 11 months.

August the 25th 2013, was perhaps the last happy day of my life,  a day I never remembered, due to the events 24 hours later.
If I could travel back in time I would return to 25th August, 2013 and live it like no other.

My mother passed away on 26th August 2013, (she officially passed a few days later but technicalities need not be explained).
While the life support supporting her dragged fiercely to hold her in this world, death pulled harder to have her join the next.
I have seen the moments of her death and she passed, without doubt on the 26th.
Life support was not even a reality.
Few people get to see video evidence of the moment their loved ones pass away, for that, I must truly be in a very small minority of people who have.
I’m glad I did. It made her passing a little easier, even if much more painfull.

Living on the other side of the world to her, it would have been harder to understand her passing and cremation before I got home a few days after on August 28th. Having no one to touch nor to kiss, nor to hug nor just to see and say good bye too, was hard enough, but being given the opportunity to see the moments before and after her stroke in a public place, gave me a sense of being there, an angels view of her passing, so to speak.

My mothers death is one of the toughest things the world has thrown at me in my 45 years. And I have seen my share of “things”.

While it is said that no parent should outlive their children, there are days I wish I had not outlived my mother. She was a ‘pure’ soul on a planet becoming less pure by the second.
As a son who was very close to his mother, I have struggled to maintain my sanity these past 12 months. I wish a higher power had taken me instead, it would have made more sense. My mother did so much good for the world, the community and for others. She reached out beyond her own country and knitted madly for children in far away lands, so that their little hands, feet and heads would not be cold. I would love to know how far afield my mothers woolen kitted goods had travelled, for some of it surely saw reaches of the world my mother only ever dreamt of exploring.
In comparison I have done so little in my life for others. Sure I have fed numerous thousands and have been read my thousands more, but have I done good, I doubt it.

Twelve months on, I can attest that the days are more bearable; the tears flow less, but still as hard when the moment strikes and the moment still strikes often and  when least expected.
But time does soothe the stinging pain of loss, nothing though can ever remove the stinging pain all together. It remains with you wherever you go and what ever you do.
A flower, a bird chirp, the smell of a particular perfume, a bar of soap, a person resembling her frame, a song, a movie or the passing of a particular star or celebrity, all reminders of the dearest woman I am ever likely to know.

A few days after my mother died I returned home to try and get on with the rest of my life, I was, I believe visited by her in my dreams.
The first night home as a slept, I dreamt I was walking through a mall.
I saw my mother looking lost, when I called her name she hugged me and was so happy to see me when I went over too her. I could not believe it was her, having just returned from her passing, I was confused and in the confusion forgot to ask questions of her I wish I had the cognitive awareness to have spoken. Instead my disbelief of seeing her, froze my senses and tongue.
I told her I loved her so much, she told me too that she loved me too. As we hugged she felt frail and asked to sit for a moment, and there before me she passed away one more time. This time with a smile and whisper that she would miss me.

And then she was gone, again.
It was a nice way to say goodbye, even if only in my dreams.
I felt I was truly with her in her last moments and somehow that I had comforted her, and she me.
I awoke streaming tears down my face, as I do again now just tapping the words before me.

If only I could go back to the 25th August 2013 and call her that afternoon before she left home and scream down the phone lines that I loved her so much and that I do not want to live in a world where she is not.
The world would not be perfect, but it would go some ways to calm a stinging pain of loss that rips my heart open on occasions like this.
For some people time travel would mean money, better fortune, grander adventures and more connections, for me it would just mean one more chance to hear her voice, her laugh and the words I miss the most, “I love you son”

I can come to terms I think with the fact that death comes to us all, but I just wish we had a clue as to when. We could better plan for it, say our good byes and be at rest with the facts. The unknowing, the uncertainty, the sudden tragic stinging pain and heartache of loss is the punch that ruins us, and turns our lives on its head.

I will never be the same man I was before 26th August 2013 and I will never be a loving son to a wonderful mother ever again. Time just does not heal all wounds.

My mother was not buried, I have no pilgrimage to make each year to plant flowers or to tell her I love her.  In a singular week in 2013 I went from telling her that I loved her, to having her wiped clean from the planet as she died and was cremated before I had the chance to return home.
If she had been lain to rest, I would have had the following carved into her head stone or memorial plaque.

Mark Twain wrote the eulogy for his daughter and I first heard them in an episode of an eighties TV show, Quantum Leap, at that time I cried for the loss of a young friend who had suicided, today the following verse is for someone far closer.

Warm summer sun, 

     shine brightly here, 

Warm Southern wind, 

     blow gently here, 

Green grass above, 

     lie light, lie light, 

Good night, dear heart; 

     good night, good night.

To my mother; Margaret Ann Maree. 

17th May 1940 - 28th August 2013

(My mothers life was in part defined by the loss of the WILLWATCH, a 96 ton ketch seen here in an old photo. It sank in heavy seas on 17th December 1958 when my mother was 18 years old and worked in the local marine office. The loss of all five men from a vessel she had seen leave port and the 2 hours of radio commentary given by Skipper George "Mac" McCarthy as his boat floundered and then sank with the loss of all aboard, haunted her for the rest of her days. ) I will write about the WILLWATCH in an upcoming blog, among a return to food, after a years absence.

Requiem ; 2013

I left school early, started to cook at age 13 and never did Latin , I am also not a religious man, just a believer in a higher power, (even if that be a Sith Lord for us Jedi warriors), but I have learnt some things in my years and have to say that some words and phrases in Latin just mean so much, “Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetuat luceat eis. Requiescant in pace” sounds so eloquent when spoken correctly.     

It means “Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace.”

I began 2013 as I do most new years, looking back at who we had lost in the previous year.

Occasionally throughout any year you are surprised at a name, a celebrity who passes, a famed writer, a journalist or just a movie star you adored decades before. You just sometimes never expect them to go like the rest of us. But each year I check which of the famed we have lost as the ages are now creeping very high for a number of them. Despite their years of denial and thanks to plastic surgery, Hollywood sports some of the youngest looking 70 and 80 year olds on earth.

As 2012 ebbed into history I also surmised in several columns what would become of a year ending in a number thought by many to be tainted. Unlucky, scary, superstitious or just cursed thirteen never did have a good ring to it.

In the end 2013 will be a year easily remembered by me as the year I lost my mother.

Celebrity she was not. Young looking at 73 she was not. A sweetheart to the end she most definitely was and the only person on the planet who could lift my spirits on a down day with a single laugh.

There’s a saying about, “life throwing you a curve ball”, well 2013 was definitely that, I never saw this coming at all and I swung hard and missed.

When I was a child I hated sports for they made me feel silly at time just like that. You swung hard and missed and there were always those in the group that would laugh, smirk and giggle at your failure.

I somehow feel the same now.

While I know no one is laughing at me or smiling this time, I feel stupid for not having seen events escalating to the point of the final drama. So many others saw it. Why didn’t I?

I was closer to my mother than most. I’d wake and feel compelling love for her and have to call to see if she were all right. I had done exactly that just a few days before her death. Why then did I miss this catastrophic planetary misalignment that captured the soul of this angel and robbed me of my mother.

Where was I ?

What was I thinking ?

What was I doing ?

I’ll never know.

Life does not have a Hollywood ending and Hallmark can’t write cards for the state that I’m in or for the months I’ve endured since August 26^th.

One comfort of 2013 will be the looking back at others who passed this year and were welcomed at the gates of Heaven along with my mother to keep her company. She would have been happy that Mark “Chopper” Reid was there, for she loved his books and crime stories. She always had a thing for the underdogs. Joining her too were Paul Walker, Peter o’Toole, Nelson Mandela, Tom Clancy, Bill Peach, David Frost, James Gandolfini, Richard Griffiths, Roger Ebert, Bonnie Franklin, Margaret Thatcher, and President Hugo Chavez to name but a scant few lives lost to us this year.

And so we find ourselves at the ebbing tide of yet another period of 12 months, 52 weeks,  365 days that changed history for some us, lead to joy for others, confirmed success and financial freedom for others and for some just 365 more days to tally of yet un-extraordinary lives.

What of 2014 ?

Well what of any year?

In the 45 years I have been here I’ve heard much of time travel, space exploration and the ‘future”.

So far I’m a little underwhelmed at the speed of change of it all. All I can see as far as advancements is that Hollywood has become very clever at kidding us into believing that everything will be all-right in the end.

“Live each day as if there is no tomorrow, enjoy the family and friends around you today and be thankful for every day you awaken upon this earth.”

That last sentence was a cliché string of nonsense by the way.

I can no longer live like there is no tomorrow.

There are no ‘good”  tomorrows for me since Mum died.

Just painful awakenings that remind me that she is no longer here.

Enjoying of family and friends around you sounds so easy; life, distance, commitments and money make it so much harder.

And as to being thankful on a daily basis, well put it this way, I’d thank anyone who could return the center of my life back to me for at this moment I’m a few degrees off my axis.

There’s a ‘black hole’ where my heart once sat and it’s slowly imploding the rest of me into a void of oblivience.

What will 2014 bring for me? To be honest I don’t much care.

I now just see life for what it pretty much is, ‘sans’ the rose colored glasses of my youth. Life is a day in, day out battle for survival, cash, riches and fame. But for the rest of us, it’s just another day to go to work for those who have the power, cash and riches, so that we can serve them until the year in which we are destined to expire.

And so one more year ends and another begins ! Whoop de doo…..

Margaret Ann Maree 17.5.1940 - 28.10.2013

Moving In Day.... Free at Last !!!

Well, we finished this part ahead of schedule in the end...barely 10 months after we started with nothing but a hole in the ground.
Although we have no reason to stat work just yet as the front of house is an incredible half year away, the kitchen is complete and we are moving in.
IT is one of the nicest feelings in the world, to have designed a kitchen and having seen it on paper and in discussion for much of a year, to finally walk the layout, touch the refrigeration and see your reflection in the glass and stainless steel.
The kitchen is simply amazing and one day i'll be able to tell you more, like where we are in
fact, but for now enjoy the photos of our finished kitchen, ready for move in day tomorrow !!!

 

Welcome to New Countries

To the new followers from IRAQ, NORWAY, SOUTH KOREA and BANGLADESH viewing this past week for the first time, "a special welcome to the blog".
Always happy and proud to have new viewers especially from countries so far afield. Today was a day of chocolate and lime so enjoy the fruit of our labour and Ill be posting more food shots very shortly. Our kitchen is just days away from being completed and Ill also be posting pictures of the finished department shortly. We may be months away from opening but today our opening team was strengthened by the arrival of our long awaited Head Baker, the Head of our Cake Decorating team and next week our Head Chef Savory... We have a long grueling time ahead with food trials but some lucky people will in fact be able to start receiving the work we produce very soon. We will keep our whereabouts very quiet still until we are ready with the complete package but why wait, I have the team, we make food daily and so we shall start distributing very soon. Anyway, today was delicious, as are most days.

Chocolate and lime Truffle

Lemon, lime and orange almond cakes

pot au chocolat 2014

Lime basil and olive oil meringue Verrines

Quick Update October 10th 2013

I promised everyone no more updates but even I'm proud of what we have done,

FROM THIS

 

 

TO THIS

 and

in a relatively speedy 14 weeks. My last kitchen build was a speedier 12 days but was also a third the size, but we had walls and doors at least. here we started with nothing, broke ground on that, laid pipes and have completed a new build kitchen. This project alone is a combined area of 2500 square meters and as my business partner has stated, "if your going big, make it perfect...time spent now getting it right is time well spent when the customers fall in love with it from day one"
This week the ceiling goes in, the final electrical fittings and then the kitchen equipment after that. We should have the kitchen operational with the next 30-40 days...Inshallah... Sadly the café wont be in existence for about another 4-6 months...lets see  !!!

 

 

FOOD Is What You Come For and a Big Thank You

Many months ago I wrote about the ensuing progress of a the newest project in a 32 year cooking career. It was off and running and I was excited. I still am excited, but construction crews and designers have caused a few delays along the way and it is safe to say that while the kitchen nears completion, it is true to suggest we have not even poured our foundation yet for the bigger entity which will house us, you and the hundreds of visitors that we welcome when we are open. So time is one our side and not much more than cooking will occur in a testing phase until mid 2014.

Most of you come to this site for food though not updates on construction so I thought for a change I'd give you glimpses of my recent trip to Dubai. Food is what you come here for and food is what I went there for, so let me share.... While it was a business trip to buy plates, glasses, and cutlery, the overriding desire was to test the market and see what else DUBAI has to offer. I have been there before, many times actually since my first trip there in 1987 when we were shown off the plane at 4am in the morning surrounded by machine gun carrying guards and we were the only plane on the tarmac...how things have changed since then.

Dubai today is the new playground for the "nouveau riche". basically if you can afford it, you can do anything and everything in Dubai. And many people do.

From a foodies perspective it is an amazing place because every brand on the planet is trying to open there. Angelina Café, Eric Kayser Boulangerie, Laduree, Fauchon, Magnolia bakery, Hummingbird bakery, they are all their with their glitzy stores and well taught staff who feed the magnificence like well oiled salespeople do.

Enjoy the following pics from DUBAI and let me thank you all for coming here and viewing the BLOG. Its been going for some time and we are now closing in rapidly on 20,000 views and I'm happy for that. I don't aim to change the world, I'm not good enough for that, but I want you to see the world of pastry through my eyes for a quick glimpse at what a proud young Tasmanian has been able to see, achieve and who he has been able to meet and what he has been able to eat over 32 magnificent years in the industry. I am continually amazed at who and from where view the blog. France, Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, USA, UAE, UK, Indonesia, India are somewhat of a given considering the staff and people I have worked with over the years, but to see my site is viewed from hundreds of people from Azerbaijan, Ukraine, China, South Africa, Canada, Russia and Nepal, truly amazes me and makes me glad that I started this so long ago. I promise from now on less on the construction updates and more on the amazing food of the middle east, even if it is the food we make ourselves.
Thank you to everyone who visits the pages and Ill promise to inspire you in the world of all things sweet more often in the future.

EVEN the simplest sweets look sensational in DUBAI, a place they understand food and the luxuriousness of it. A bit like a new Paris for the 'nouveaux Riche' of the new generation who spend there life eating

CAFE BATEEL is predominatly about dates and they have added the luxurious side of International desserts so well to their range and concept..I came away thankful for having found this Patisserie

BAKER AND SPICE is my new favorite of all cafes. Lush gorgeous healthy salads which inspire from their vision, bright colourful plates of decadence, along with fresh breads and fresh juices...what's not to love and this amazing café sits on the edge of BURJ DUBAI LAKE from where you can watch the water show...Stunning views and fantastic food.

LA SERRE, a new café which was informed to me along with LE FORNILLE DE PIERRE. Two amazing new and vibrant establishments transforming the culture of DUBAIs eateries.

Le FOURNILL DE PIERRE is like PAUL but on steroids. Its lush, its indoors and its extravagance. They boast over 300 varieties of bread. I tried 2 and was in love with their sourdough rye with walnuts. OMG

LADUREE - French magnificence and perfection at its best. I borrowed money from the bank to buy just 8 Macaron- at 160 AED or $US 40 for 8 bites of sugar.How can they get away with it, well flavors such as marshmallow and gingerbread had me looking for more money...