Fordell - 15. Ford Ch 15

“Excuse me Mr Fordell, has a decision been made on the film crew accommodations?” he asked me. “Yes, the Director gets the double cabin across from me, while the other six have the three twin cabins, close to the laundry.

Make sure that they only use three cabins, as the rest are for the temporary crew,” I replied, and Marius set off to relay the information. “One other thing, I think that all senior officers should dine up here during this 13 week charter, so if you can let Samantha know, and also inform Renaldo of my decision, so he can organise for our meals to be brought up here, effective from today,” I announced.

“I will arrange that for you sir, anything else we should know, before I head back to the bridge?” James said, as I shook my head no, and James stood up and headed for the bridge. “Is there anything troubling you sir?” Gretchen asked me.

“Yes, I am beginning to regret accepting this charter, I have a feeling that it is not going to go very well at all,” I replied. “I am sure that the permanent crew will do their very best to make sure that everything goes smoothly,” Louise responded.

“Thanks ladies, I will be leaning on you all for support for this charter, and one other thing which I forgot to mention, which James is fully aware off, that is that Hunter’s key role of being on board is not just security of the ship but also my personal safety.

Therefore, if he gives an order, I would like it to be obeyed please. Oh, and one other thing, can you make sure that all of the guest cabins are locked for the trip up to our temporary base,” I said, “You got it boss,” Gretchen replied before standing and heading for the bridge, while Louise headed down to the engine room.

After about fifteen minutes in the Bridge Saloon on my own, I headed to the bridge, where just Gretchen was looking at the charts of the East coast of Queensland. “Do you have any ideas what the production companies plans are for each cruise?”’ I asked.

“Yes sir, we have just received them actually, and they want us to call in to each location on the way up,” Gretchen replied, as she continued to make the locations on the charts in removable marker ink. “How long will it be, until we get to the most southern-end of these charters?” I asked.

“Approximately 26 hours if we go continuously, but I think Captain James want to have an overnight stop, which will be about here at Ninian Bay, as he wants to avoid us from hitting any reefs as we go along,” Gretchen replied. “How are you going settling in with this new country and navigating through the Great Barrier Reef for the first time?” I asked.

“I must admit, I am a little nervous, but I am confident, that we will get through without any problems, and in regards to living and working in Australia, I think it is a great opportunity, which I am very thankful of the chance, as is my brother,” Gretchen replied.

“That is good to know, now can you run through the area, that we will be going too, for the next thirteen weeks?” I asked, and over the next half-an-hour Gretchen showed me where our base is, located in a large creek, which is more like a river, located just over 30 kilometres south of the very northern point of Australia.

When James entered the bridge, I smiled, but I noticed that he was not too happy. “Problem’s already?” I asked, “Yeah, that bloody producer is a pain in the …” James replied, as he took his seat and picked up the phone, “Bridge to engine room, are we ready to go Louise?” he said into the phone.

“Yes sir we are ready to go,” came the response, and he pressed another button, which was the intercom, “Attention all hands, prepare for immediate departure,” James said before putting the phone down. “Heading of 5 degrees captain,” Gretchen called out, “Copy that 5 degrees from north,” James replied, as I quietly slipped out of the bridge, to allow them to work.

Arriving on the main deck, I heard some talking, and realised that it was coming from the meeting room, and I opened the door, where I found the producer, his assistant, the director and his assistant sitting around the table, “Yes, can I help you, we are busy here,” the producer said to me.

“No, just wondering who was using the room that is all?” I responded, “Well we have permission to use this space, so if you could please leave,” the Director said to me, and I stepped away from the door and made sure to slam it shut as I did.

I entered the nearby galley, where Renaldo was busy. “Was that you?” he asked me in Italian, “Yes sorry about that, the producer is a real pain in the butt, and he got to me so I slammed the office door shut,” I replied also in Italian.

Renaldo gave a short laugh, and continued working on his meal preparation, as I retrieved a glass of juice from the fridge and left, heading downstairs to the crew mess area. “Mr Fordell is there anything I can do, as I feel quite useless with having nothing to do,” Michael asked me.

“Can you cook?” I asked him, “Just basic stuff at home why do you ask?” Michael replied, “Good, report to Renaldo for kitchen duties, I am sure he can give you something to do,” I replied smiling, “Me and my big mouth,” Michael said, as he headed upstairs.

I entered the galley a few minutes later to return the empty glass, and Michael was busy chopping vegetables, “One other thing Michael, you look to be very fit, do you work out in a gym?” I asked, “Yes sir, I attend gym at least three times a week, and I do some Pilates and Yoga every day,” Michael said stopping to answer my question.

“Good, your other duties include being the Gym and Fitness instructor, I am sure that will keep you very busy when the guest start coming onto the yacht,” I announced, “Yes sir, and thankyou I will enjoy doing that for our guests,” Michael replied smiling, as he continued working on the vegetables.

As I stepped into the main deck saloon, I looked around, and seeing the shelves that used to have decorative items in them but are now bare, I thought that it would make a great place to put some books to read. I also noticed in the small seating area in the gallery, where there is a small square table and two tall chairs, where two bookshelves could be installed on the two sidewalls.

I headed downstairs to look for one of the engineers, to get their views on my newest idea, and found both of them exiting the generator room. “Hello ladies, I have an idea, I would like to put to you both… and I spent the next ten minutes describing what I wanted.

Louise walked over to the nearest internal phone and pressed the button for the bridge. “Captain, this is the Chief speaking, I have Mr Fordell with me, and he would like to install book shelves in the seating area of the gallery, with straps to keep the books in place, as well as straps on the shelving units in the main saloon. Can we have a stopover in Port Douglas please,” Louise said into the phone.

“Ok, thanks, I will pass it on,” Louise said before replacing the phone. “We will be there at about 2 pm, so we will make that an overnight stop, which should give us plenty of time to do some shopping around,” Louise said to me, and we headed to the main deck to have a closer look at what I had in mind.

After taking down some measurement for the two bookshelves, Louise asked about what books I would be getting. “I will have to go online and do some searching, and have them shipped up to us by aircraft,” I replied, and after a few minutes more of discussions, I headed up to my suite to get my I-pad to do some searching.

In my online search, I discovered that there are two bookstores in Port Douglas that may be able to supply me with all the fiction books that I may need. Therefore, I gave them a call. I asked them if they have a wide selection of fiction books available for purchase.

Pleased that I would not have to order any books from Cairns or elsewhere, I next looked to see if their were any furniture stores that have book shelves for sale, that may possible fit into the area, as well as hardware stores that may provide the materials to build them.

Unfortunately, there are no furniture stores and just one hardware store located in the nearby town of Mossman, just fifteen minutes from Port Douglas, so that would have to be the only choice we have. When we arrived, I made my way down to the main deck, with hunter in tow, and we came across a very heated argument happening between the film producer and one of my crewmembers, Ashton.

“… I am sorry sir, but this request to stop here overnight had come directly from the owner of this yacht, so we will be stopping here until 0900 hours tomorrow,” I heard Ashton say calmly to the producer.

“Now look here sonny, I don’t spend thousands of dollars for just to be just sitting around doing nothing…” the producer said loudly and this is when I stepped in.

“Can I be of any assistance to you?” I asked politely, “Yeah piss off mate, this is between me and this lad here,” the producer said as I stepped forward to stand between the producer and Ashton, who was starting to look a little worried, and Hunter stood beside me.

“Oh so we have a wall to protect the weak do we?’ the producer said as he gave me a few jabs in the chest with his finger, and Hunter immediately grabbed the producers hand and swung it around to his back and gave a light lift upwards to put pressure on his shoulder.

“Hey let go of me, that is assault,” the producer shouted, “Yes it is, you just assaulted me, which was a very big mistake,” I said to the producer, as I stepped up to within a foot of him, and I gave Hunter a nod to indicate for him to let go.

“What, you mean those to little jabs to your chest that is tiny compared to what I can do to you legally?” the producer said leaning closer to me, as he rubbed his now sore shoulder. I smiled and looked towards Hunter who was now standing next to the producer, ready to grab him again.

“Go ahead; I dare you to even try. However, before you do, I might like to bring to your attention to paragraph seven of section four of the contract for this charter agreement. “Where it states, that all production staff involved in the filming of this series onboard this yacht, shall not in anyway, intimidate, threaten or cause any physical assault or injury to any of the permanent crew and staff of this yacht. Also the crew and staff of the yacht have the right to protect any crew or staff from such harm,” I stated.

“It also states that the Owner or Captain of this Yacht has the right to temporarily or permanently evict any person who is a visitor or guest on this yacht at any time, and that that person or persons are responsible for their own costs of returning to their place of residence or work,” Hunter added.

“You can’t do that?” the producer said loudly, “I am sorry sir, but what Mr Fordell and Hunter just said is correct, I can indeed do that, as can the owner,” James said from the doorway. “Then I demand to speak to the owner,” the producer said, and it was hunter that gave a short laugh.

I smiled and looked directly at the Producer, “You are speaking to him,” I said calmly, “You! Yeah that is a laugh, how can a piss weak 2^nd officer like you afford to own and run a yacht this big?” the producer said as he turned away slightly, and suddenly without warning I heard a slap, before I saw that Hunter had caught hold of Producer’s fist which was just inches away from my face.

I heard a number of gasps, and looking around, I saw the Director and his assistant standing at the door to the meeting room and at the doorway to the galley stood Renaldo and Elizabeth, and outside on the deck stood Marius.

I took a few deep breaths, before taking two steps back, Hunter let go of the man’s fist and took a step towards me, and kept a watch on the producer. “That sir is attempted assault, witnessed not only by the captain and a good number of my crew, but also some of your won staff.

Now you have just one option, you will immediately pack your belongings, and get off this yacht, you are now banned from getting anywhere near to step onboard from the moment you leave, and Hunter will be watching you close as you do so. It is your choice, you can leave and take your few staff who will not be involved in the filming of this show, or you can cancel the whole event and all of you can leave.

That I will leave up to you to decide, it does not bother me at all if you cancel, but you will no longer remain on this yacht,” I said firmly to the producer. “You can’t do that, we have a contract,” he said to me, “Yes we do, that is why I am giving you the choice, it is up to you, but you will not be on this yacht for a moment more than it takes you to pack and leave,” I responded.

“You have not heard the last of this, I will make sure that you never provide any charter services ever again in Australia,” the Producer threatened. “I would like to see you try sir, as this whole event has been recorded on security cameras the whole time, including your attempt to punch me in the face,” I stated.

“What?” he roared as he looked around to see if he could see the cameras, which are very cleverly disguised and hard to spot. “Hunter would you kindly show this gentleman to his quarters and supervise him to pack his belongings and leave this yacht,” I said to Hunter.

“Yes sir, it would be my honour,” Hunter replied smiling. I turned to face Margaret the Director, just as the door closed behind the producer and Hunter, who held up her hand to reveal her mobile phone. “George, I presume you heard all of that?” Margaret said, “Yes Maggie I did, now introduce me to your hosts,” the man on the phone said, as the phone was on loudspeaker.

“Certainly, “Mr George Kelogeros, Executive Producer of this project, may I present the owner of this fine and beautiful yacht, Mr Fordell,” Margaret said making the introductions. “Nice to meet you sir, now Margaret, can you ask Mr Fordell to join you in the meeting room, so we can have a quiet chat,” George said, and moments later we were in the meeting room with the door closed, and Margaret and I took a seat.

“Now before we start dealing with this mess, may I ask you a question?” George asked, “Yes, certainly,” I replied, “If it pleases your Lordship, I would like to continue with this project, as I think with your very unique yacht and the unique location would be very popular with the viewers,” George said.