Chapter 11

When we went to leave, Jim, who had been very quiet, then asked us all if he could stay with us over the break. He said he could use the smallest cabin and that he had some experience with boats. The girls were happy to let him, so he hugged everyone and thanked me.

I checked in with the marine chandler that looked after the moorings, and he was surprised at my appearance. I told him that it was only for the tour that I was flying around and found out that he and his daughters were booked in for the third show.

He said that his guys would have Betsy Too ready in about three days, seeing that there was not much that needed doing. I asked if he could make up all the bunks and got my crowd to give him their sizes so that he could organize waterproofs for them as well as fitted life jackets.

I then got our driver to take us down to Queenscliff where we all had an early evening meal at the local hotel and caught the ferry to the other side of the Heads at Sorrento, arriving at the hotel late in the evening.

The next day was also clear so Molly and I went up to Essendon to make sure that Betsy would be well looked after. She was beginning to love the plane almost as much as I did.

The transport plane with the Canberra stage was there and we were told that the crew and roadies had all gone home already. The plane with the Melbourne stage would be loaded after the show and stay on the ground until needed again.

That’s when we found out more details of the tour because the ground crew chief told us that the stages would not be used again until much later in the tour. As pilots, we had only been given the stops we would be making and the days we would be on the ground in each one.

Back at the hotel I found the management guy and asked what the situation will be with the next stops, seeing that we will not be using our own stage. He told me that Adelaide would be an inside venue that was air-conditioned, as well as Perth. Both would have normal breaks where everyone congregated in the foyer and there would only be about twenty guests at each one so that only a couple of us would be needed to be hostesses. That was nice to know.

What was even better to know was that the shows would be a lot different for a while after that. In a lot of Asian countries women were seen and not heard so the shows in Djakarta, Manila and Bangkok would be Lesley and the band just doing the first half to follow a local group who would open.

They were marketed in several countries as Les Lee and the Lessons, and the lesbian content was severely frowned upon. They even only issued discs with just the love songs on, so the fans did not even know about the lesbian content unless they went overseas.

We would not touch the Middle East at all for the same reason, especially some countries where we could all be thrown in jail for deviant behaviour. This tour was turning out to be vastly different from any I had done before.

I spoke to Lesley at dinner that night and asked her whether I could leave CeeCee behind, seeing that we may be going to places where I could be jailed or even stoned to death if I was busted.

She was reluctant but agreed that I did not need to remain in a dress after the shows here, seeing that we could have the other girls do the hostess bit if needed. Of course, we will be going to countries where we did not speak the language so there would be local hostesses.

That decided I made an appointment with the hotel salon after the last show, for a complete removal of the falsies and wig, followed by removal of the nails. I would have to live with studs in my ears, incredibly smooth skin, and shaped eyebrows.

Molly told me that as I had become used to wearing a wig, I should opt for a good male style. It wasn’t something I would have thought about before, other than for a party, but if it was done right, I could live with it.

The five shows all went as planned. We did our hostess thing and met some more notable stars and several forgettable politicians. Carson was at every show and every party at Lesley’s’ side and I started to feel that I was a lot better off out of her orbit.

I still could not see the attraction, but it could be just adventurous lust. Molly and I shared a bed every night and it had become very nice to wake up and watch her breathe.

After the fifth show it was a party that went to the early hours and we were all a bit tipsy when we went to bed, none of us being out before lunch. I had my appointment after lunch so fronted up with my next outfit on a hanger.

I had been busy in the mornings in the shops with Molly, looking for clothes that were not too rough on my smooth skin and had ended up with some androgynous outfits that needed me to have a good head of hair to make work. Molly was beside me to oversee the operation and I walked out of there looking, and feeling, almost her age.

Terry and his wife had flown in for the last two shows and, once I was back in male mode we sat in a quiet corner and talked. He asked me what I was doing for Christmas, and I told him that I would be hosting the crew on Betsy Too.

He then asked me whether I wanted to see out the tour and I told him that I thought that any competent captain could do it. Then he floored me by saying that both Molly and I would be replaced at the next break.

This would start after the last show in Bogota. We would meet the new crew there and would fly back to the home base. He said that he had discussed our situation with the band management, and they had agreed that the crew was being over-worked acting as hostesses any way and that they would organize local, even when the tour got back into English speaking countries.

After Bogota there was to be some rest time for the band, but the plane would then take everyone to Japan to work across to Europe and then on to the US during the northern hemisphere summer. He said that he needed to give me his seat then because he had been diagnosed with an illness that would make it difficult for him beyond that time.

His wife had a tear in her eye so I thought that it may be more serious than he had revealed. Molly asked what was in store for her and he told her that she would take over as the check officer, keeping the flying crews up to scratch and taking flights with up-and-coming pilots, especially the female ones.

He said that he wanted to take the whole crew out for dinner but not at this hotel. Molly suggested that he follow us down to Geelong and have a meal at Queenscliff. She said that it had been lovely when we were there.

He agreed and I rounded up the crew to get them and their luggage into the bus we had organised. We told the driver to make sure the hire car remained behind us, and I told him that there would be a meal in it for him, as well as an overnight stay if he took us all down to Queenscliff.

When we got down to the marina Terry got out of his car and gazed at Betsy Too in wonder. “Well,” he said, “you really are a dark horse, Chris. That is one beautiful launch.”

We all put our bags away and left Jim to look after himself and Terry locked his hire car, getting in the bus with us. The younger girls were overawed by having the big boss sitting with them.

Julia asked who was running the business while he was with us and he laughed.

“Bronwyn, of course, she knows more about what we are doing than I do,”

I had booked for a table for ten and we all had a drink first. By the time we finished the meal Terry, and his wife were laughing at what had happened since we left the US.

It had come out that Lesley had been using me as her own human doll and I ended up laughing along but never letting on about what went on in the sick bay. They were booked in the hotel that looks over the bay and the next day they came with us as I got Jim helping to cast off and we went for a cruise.

We went up towards Melbourne and then I cut across to the other side of the bay and dropped anchor just off the coast and all the crew went and changed into bikinis while I let down the stern swimming platform.

We sat there for a couple of hours while Jim and the girls had fun, Terry, and I, up on the flying bridge with beers in our hands. He gave me a lot of privileged information that I would need when I took his seat.

Julia and Terrys’ wife sat down in the lounge, and it was very pleasant. We cooked a barbeque lunch and when we pulled anchor we went down to the moorings at Sorrento and went into the hotel for a drink and a meal.

Terry and his wife stayed in Geelong for more days than they had planned, and I think it did both some good. Before they left, they looked through Jim’s photos and Terry asked for some to be emailed to him so that he could get blow-ups made for the office.

Jim asked if he could be let go as he was getting homesick, and we arranged for him to go back with Terry as he was flying via Hawaii.

The last thing Terry said to me when he left was “Chris, make sure you keep CeeCee as part of you. Before this tour you had always been a bit of a loner but now you are open and friendly and inclusive. I’m even more certain that I made the right choice. Just you make sure that you make an honest woman of Molly, she is just right for you and for the company.”

That holiday was magical. All thoughts of a solo trip around the country went right out of my head. Even if I was soon to be the boss, the whole crew and I became firm friends. I even got worried when the four youngest went into Geelong to party and didn’t get back on board until the early hours.

We took Betsy Too up to Melbourne to watch the New Year Fireworks from the water and then I, as the only guy, had to kiss them all at midnight.

Molly stayed back to the end, and we kissed some more when we were alone. The next morning, we upped anchor and went back to the marina to pack our things to go back to work.

Before I left Geelong, I rang Sacramento and the River View Marina at Willow Creek. I was lucky that they had a space coming up that would fit my seventy-six-foot launch. We negotiated a mooring figure, and I gave them my credit card details to cement the deal.

I had a long chat with my friends here in the Marina and arranged for Betsy Too to be pulled out of the water and sat in a frame to be shipped by freighter to San Francisco. It looked like I was starting to put down roots.

Back in the hotel we went up to our rooms and I needed to contact our wardrobe people to exchange my lovely women’s’ wear for men’s’ wear, telling them that Chris was back in the house. I had left my suitcase with my own clothes in the wardrobe in Betsy Too.

We had lunch and then all went out to Essendon to check on Betsy. Happy with what we saw we went back to the hotel to wait for everyone else to join us. There was a note for me at reception saying that we would be running with fewer dressers and make-up girls and another from Lesley to say that the band would meet us at the hotel in Adelaide.

That made it easy, and I called the guys in Essendon to have Betsy ready for tomorrow morning about ten. Melbourne to Adelaide is just over an hour but we would lose a half an hour with the time zone so would get in at about half past ten local time.

It was with a sense of déjà vu that we took a few busses to meet up with Betsy to start it all over again, We were wheels up out of Essendon at just on ten and parked away from the terminal in Adelaide by eleven. The first show was in two days and the band was already in the hotel when we arrived.

All except Lesley, that is. She did not turn up until the morning of the first show, looking as if she had aged ten years. It took the girls in the salon two hours to get her looking normal and then she still had bags under her eyes.

If I had been asked, I would have said that she had either spent the last two weeks on her back or else had been exposed to the thrill of drugs.

That evening we just needed our youngest cabin girls to be made up and dressed as the hostesses and they were only needed at the arrivals and were then able to come back to the hotel to join the other four of us. We all agreed that we were getting a bit tired of the songs by this time and were glad to be just doing the flying.

The second show went well, and we left Adelaide for Perth, losing another two and half hours in a three and a half hour flight were parked a little after an hour after we left.

We had lunch and the band went off for interviews. It was all ‘business as usual’ and the two shows there followed the format from the Adelaide shows. The crew and I took time out to have a look around the city. Julia and Annette took turns to act as hostesses. The day after the show we said goodbye to Australia.

Marianne Gregory © 2022