NB New Direction - 16. NB ND Chapter 16

“You make sure you keep out of harms’ way, I don’t want to lose you” Kyle said with tears in his eyes, “Don’t worry mate, I will keep my head down” I replied with a little smile, and I headed to the small walking track that leads down to the beach, where the patrol boat was approaching. When I reached the beach, I looked up and saw Kyle sitting on the bike near the lighthouse, and he gave me a wave, which I returned before walking into the water, and climbing up the ladder into the patrol boat.

“I am not familiar with fire arms of any kind, so if you show me the basics with steering the patrol boat, then you two can concentrate on what is happening on the sub, as you can see, the ship is moving in closer, I have asked them to come in to about 50 metres from the beach.

I want us to cover the ship and the beach, with sweeping patrols, the helicopter will do the same, with two shooters in the back” I said to the Lt Commander, “Very well sir, let’s get you to the helm, and I will show you what you need to know” the Lt Commander replied. “Dinghies in the water Huon” Kyle announced over the radio, “thanks mate, keep us posted, Captain Andrews, are you ready?” I replied.

“Yes sir, we are about to take off” came the reply, and I indicated to the Lt Commander to take off, and I watched as we moved away from the beach and around the approaching ship, stopping just 200 metres from the beach. “Dinghies are moving at a fast speed” Kyle reported, and the Lt Commander, pushed forward the throttle, and we rapid began sweeping backwards and forwards in front of the ship, which was now idle about 70 metres off the beach.

Suddenly there was a short burst of gunfire, coming from one of the dinghies, “Hold your fire, do not fire back until I give the order” I said into the UHF radio, “Huon, I have Seb on the phone, I told him about the gun fire, and that you gave the order not to fire back” Kyle said on the radio, just as there was another burst of gunfire, this time, striking the side of the patrol boat, just above the water line.

“Seb heard that, and asked if everyone is ok?” Kyle added, “We are fine, but we have been hit with gunfire, C & Q officer reports bullet holes above the waterline. Chopper stay on the ship do not fire back, do you understand, over” I said into the radio. “Understood sir” came a reply. “Seb asks, how bad is the damage?” Kyle said on the radio. “Not too bad as far as I am aware, the C & Q officer is going below to check now” I replied.

We continued to sweep in front of the ship, and as the four dinghies, were now only a few hundred metres away and closing, another burst of gunfire came from two of the dinghies, one lot was high and hit some of the equipment at the top of the patrol boat, the other lot of gunfire passed by the patrol boat and went towards the ship.

“We have been hit, I repeat we have been hit” came a call from Captain Kingsley, “report any damage as soon as possible please captain, over” I said. “Sebastian says to use whatever force you need to repel the invaders” Kyle said into the radio. “Captain, can you and James find a safe high point on the ship and deflate the dinghies, without hitting any sailors?” I asked on the radio, “Will do sir” came a reply, and a few minutes later we all heard two high powered shots, and two dinghies came to a fast stop, as they began to deflate rapidly.

The remaining two dinghies turned and headed back towards the Submarine. “Woohoo” came a shout from the top of the island andlooking up I could see Kyles arms raised and he was dancing around, “I suggest you keep down low mate, it isn’t over yet” I said to Kyle in the radio, and Kyle sat back down on the bike. Another single shot from the shot, saw yet another dinghy disabled, and the last dinghy reached the submarine, removed all weapons, and all but two crew, before turning back to retrieve their ship mates, who are in the water.

“Hold your fire everyone, let them retrieve their crewmates” I said into the radio, and we watched as all the sub crew were collected, abandoning the dinghies, which eventually sank to the bottom of the ocean. A few minutes after the sub crew were back on the sub, the VHF radio came to life. “Whittaker to Deepdale Island, you had no right shoot at and deflate our dinghies, putting my crew at risk” the Sub captain stated.

“You sir, had no right to attempt coming onto the island with weapons, which you failed to declare and what your men used to shoot at my patrol boat and ship, putting my people at harm, as you now see, we are indeed capable of defending ourselves, so I suggest you return to your base as you have been ordered” I snapped back.

“Huon, the submarine is moving again, further away from the island, and it looks like it is about to go under” Kyle announced over the UHF radio, “Thanks mate. Administrator to Southern Explorer, can you please follow the movements of the Submarine with sonar?” I asked.

“We will do our best sir” came a reply, and I signalled the Lt Commander to return to the beach. “Sir we have water in the hull, I am not sure how many, but we have at least one hole, and it is filling fast” Shawn said to me, “Whereabouts do you think the hole is Shawn?” I asked, “Forward somewhere sir” came a reply, “Chris, we need to beach the patrol boat, till we can get some repairs made” I said to the Lt Commander, “I agree with you there so, hold on tight, while we get a little run up to the beach” he replied, as we increased speed slightly.

After a bumpy and sudden stop, we ended up with half of the patrol boat on the beach, and we climbed down to inspect for any damage. We counted a total of 17 bullet holes, three of them being well below the water line, the Lt Commander climbed back onboard to check the damage inside, and came back a few minutes later, saying the internal damage was minimal.

“Huon to Kyle, are you still on the phone with Sebastian” I said into the UHF radio, “No need to shout, I can hear you loud and clear, over” came a reply from Sebastian, and it made me chuckle, “Cousin, we have some damage on the patrol boat, a total of 17 bullet holes, three of the below the water line, which has forced us to beach the boat for repairs, over” I said over the radio, “Ok, is there any damage to the ship, over” Sebastian asked, “Captain Andrews here sir, we have a shattered window, in the saloon lounge on A Deck, and about two dozen bullet holes on the hanger hatch, on the deck below that, and one steward has minor injuries from the shattered glass, over”.

“Damn submariner idiots, ok thanks Captain, is the steward ok, over?” Sebastian said, “Yes sir, he will recover, he will be off work for a few days, but he is fine, and wants to get back to work as soon as possible, over” the captain replied, “Ok, thanks everyone, I will chat to you later Huon, Wagner over and out” Sebastian said. “Kyle, you can come back to the village now, see you in Admin, over” I said to my best friend, and I began to walk up the trail towards the village.

Judy and Jai were in the admin building by the time Kyle and I arrived, “I thought my home country was dangerous” Jai said to us seriously, ‘Nah, it is just one-gun happy Submarine commander, just be thankful that he didn’t scale it up, with torpedo’s and missiles” I replied, which made everyone else in the room look shocked, as they realised how more serious it could have been.

“Now that the drama has finished, how are we going with getting the safety barrier fence completed?” I asked, “Well it was going well, until all the shooting started, then we all headed for safety” Judy responded, “Well that was a good move, are all the new buildings connected to power, water and plumbing?” I asked, “Yes, all of that is completed, we are now a fully operational village” Judy replied.

“I’ve been thinking, we don’t have a place for a medical centre, so I think we should use one of the vacant twin cabins, you could use one of the beds, as an examination table, and the other one can be used as a desk, if we just extend the legs a little. The ship should have some stainless-steel sheeting, to make the examination table hard and flat, for easy sterilisation, and I am sure we can make up some shelving for any books you may have or need, that we can order, as well as any extra medical equipment” I said.

“That would be good thanks Mr Huon, maybe the ship has some spare equipment and supplies that we need” Jai said, I smiled and looked over towards five unopened boxes, “I think you will find most of the supplies that you need in those five boxes in the corner” I said pointing to the boxes, and Jai went to have a look. “Yes, this will be good” Jai said smiling, as hi picked up two of the boxes, I stepped forward and picked up two more, and Judy picked up the last box. Cabin eight is the place for your new medical centre” I announced, as we walked out the door, and headed that way.

Leaving Jai and Judy to start setting up the medical centre, I returned to the administration building, where Kyle was in the communications room, looking at the computer screen. “Err I just received this from Sebastian, he thought you might like to see the new report he recorded” Kyle said, as he clicked on the video clip. “News has come to hand of an incident out to sea earlier today, we cross over to our reporter at Fremantle harbour.

Thank you, as was reported a few days ago, a new island was discovered two years ago, and the company responsible for the discovery, have claimed the island as a private wildlife sanctuary as part of the Australian Territory. We have learnt this afternoon, that the Royal Australian Navy, sent a submarine to investigate this island, only to discover a well-established community on the island.

Apparently, a dispute arose, when the Navy attempted to approach the island, with armed officers. Their arrival was not welcomed and they were told to leave, this escalated when the navy shot at the patrol boat and supply ship that were in the harbour, resulting in minor damage to both vessels, and minor injuries to a crewman on the supply ship.

It is believed that the commanding officer of the RAN Submarine, had been ordered twice to return to base at Garden island, once before the shooting began, and again as the shooting ended, when three of the Navies inflatable dinghies received damage, and the crews had to abandoned them.

We have been informed, that a video recording of the whole incident, has been sent to the Defence Minister in Canberra. We have contacted the company that discovered and owns the island, for a comment, as well as the Department of Defence for a comment, with no response so far.

Back to you at the studio. Thank-you for that update on the new mystery island, which earlier this week was declared a territory of Australia and has been named Deepdale Island, which is believed to be approximately 800 nautical miles west of Western Australia. It is unknown how many people have settled onto the island, but there are rumours, that there are a number of buildings, which includes solar and wind turbine power” the recording stated as it ended.

I picked up the sat phone and dialled Sebastian’s number, “Hey cousin, what do you think of the news report?” Sebastian said, “Very interesting, I wonder if it is going to cause us any more problems” I replied, “I have spoken to Captain Kingsley, he says he has the equipment and supplies to repair the bullet holes in the patrol boat and on the ship, so there shouldn’t be too many issues.

I have decided to leave the helicopter on the island, after the Southern Explorer heads back to Fremantle, as a backup to the Patrol boat, plus the flight officer, also you will have one extra steward as well, so that will be two team members staying” Sebastian announced to me. “That is fine, with the extra accommodation delivered we have the space for the two extra team members, and still have room for six visitors.

I was wondering, if it would be worth having a jetty built on the beach, to be able to safely moor the patrol vessel, with it being about 70 metres out from the beach, plus 10 metres along the beach, so there will also be space for the Southern Explorer to moor if need be” I suggested to my cousin, “Yes, a brilliant idea, I will get right into planning that for you” Sebastian replied.

After the phone call, I decided that with all the drama happening, that all work should stop, so everyone could rest and relax, for the remainder of the day, which all the staff were thankful for. The following morning, work continued in two areas, firstly to continue building the safety barrier fence, along the top of the cliff, two metres from the edge, and that the 4-metre diameter spiral staircase be installed, for easy access to the beach.

With the helicopter hovering above them, keeping the staircase upright, and against the cliff wall, team members hammer drilled holes into the cliff wall, and secured the stairs, while the concrete is made and poured into the hole, of the footing of the stairs.

When all the support arms had been bolted into the wall, the helicopter slowly released the tension of the cables, that were holding the stairs in place, and the cables were disconnected, so the helicopter could move away, leaving the stairs standing on their own.

We decided that it was best to stay off the stairs for at least two days to allow the concrete to set and cure. With everything now unloaded from the ship, the helicopter landed on the helipad, and after a short chat, we said farewell to the Southern Explorer, as it set off once again for Fremantle, with it expected to return in about two weeks with more supplies for the island.

After some discussions between Sebastian and myself, we decided to increase the number of solar power cells to the cabin roofs, to ensure a constant supply of power, and this meant increasing the number of power storage batteries, also it was suggested to increase the number of sewage and rubbish storage tanks, to cope with the increased number of staff, which is now up to 11.

The chief engineer of the Southern Explorer had repaired all the bullet holes on the patrol boat, with fibreglass and epoxy resign, to make it extra strong, and ensure that there are no leaks, even when in heavy seas. The next job was to make some concrete slabs, for the two gazebos’, one at each end of the beach, and the two sheds, to be located near the base of the cliff, halfway along the beach.

One of the sheds will house the fuel drums for the patrol boat, and now also the aviation fuel for the chopper, while the other shed will house the four kayaks, and any other future watercrafts. Once the concreting was finished, work began to build the two gazebos, and the two sheds, which were secured to the freshly laid concrete floors, and it was all completed before the end of the day, while I decided to have the two motorbikes parked between the admin building and the galley & dining room.