Alex & Lang - 5. A & L Ch 5

The second half of the journey down the Suez Canal was very uneventful, and as the Pilot Captain was about to board the pilot boat that had come to collect her, I handed her a small envelope containing some cash. “This is for you, to choose how you want to spend it. Thank you for making our second half of the journey an uneventful and safe transit,” I said to her.

When she opened her mouth to say some thing, Captain Anton put his hand up, “Accept this gift Captain, in hope that your colleagues will take note, that good service and behaviour reaps good rewards,” he said to the SCA Officer, who smiled and nodded, before stepping onto the Pilot boat.

Once we had cleared immigration at Port Suez, we continued on southwards, into the Suez Gulf, and on to the Red Sea, making sure that we keep well to the centre of the Gulf, because of the threat of pirates, well known in the area. As we entered the Gulf of Aden, we were on higher alert still, as we were now north of Somalia, where Pirate activities are a very regular event.

We were in a convoy of yachts, nine in total, with one other yacht that is just as fast as us, while the others are mostly sailing catamarans, so we stayed at a slow steady pace, so they would keep up with is, as their minders, which we had done a few times before during our trips to the Med from Australia and return.

Once we were well into the Arabian Sea, approximately 50 nautical miles past the island of Socotra, which is part of Yemen Territory, six of the yachts headed south east for the Maldives, while the other larger yacht and one catamaran headed north east for Karachi, Pakistan, and we continued on in an easterly direction to Mumbai, on our own.

At my request, with the seas currently fairly calm, the Captain stopped the yacht approximately 100 nautical miles east of the Island of Socotra, just for overnight, just in case we are needed by any of the other yachts, who may get attacked by pirates. We felt that we were far enough out to sea from the Somali coast, to be threatened by the pirates, but that may not be the case for the smaller yachts heading for the Maldives.

As Wyatt and I were eating breakfast, shortly after we resumed our journey, 1^st Officer Chris came rushing in, “Sir, we have trouble. Good call on staying around overnight, as one of our fellow yachties, has run into trouble with pirates,” he said to us, before leaving the upper lounge.

I told Wyatt to stay and finish his breakfast, as I stood and followed the 1^st Officer up to the Bridge. “… I say again, we are at 10.34 degrees, 19.5 north and 57.05 degrees 32.4 east, we are taking on water and are sinking, due to gunshot holes in the hull.

The pirates have taken all of our jewellery, cash, and anything valuable, including a lot of equipment off the yacht, what is your estimated time of arrival, over,” said a voice over the radio, as I walked into the bridge. “Sir that puts them due south, approximately 120 nautical miles from us,” Chris Hart said, after making the quick calculations.

“This is the Motor Yacht Toodyay, we are approximately six hours away, due north of your location, we advise that you collect all of your clothes and belongings, and get into the life rafts, and if more than one, make sure they are secured together, over,” the Captain instructed.

“Copy that Motor Yacht Toodyay, we will do that. I have managed to hide the Satellite phone, so I will keep in touch. We are four crew and eight passengers. See you when you get here over,” was the reply. The captain had already increased the speed, and glancing at the speedometer, it read 15 knots, just below the maximum speed.

“How long can we sustain this speed?” I asked the Captain, “We will drop the speed by three knots for an hour every alternate hour, so as not to overheat the engines, and with us having filled our tanks at Alexandria, we will still have plenty of juice in the tanks to get to Mumbai,” the Captain replied.

After a long and anxious six hours, we now had all crew on the decks with and without binoculars, searching the ocean for any sign of two life rafts. “Got them, about three miles to the forward port side,” Carter King the Bosun called out, as he pointed in the direction that he saw them.

With the side doors of the Bridge open, Captain Anton heard the call, and looking at Carter, he adjusted the steering to where Carter was pointing, and he gave three long blasts of the yachts horn, which made the Atkins twins jump in fright, as they were fairly close to the horns.

Soon after the Sat phone rang, “Toodyay, we see you thank goodness, thankyou for coming to our rescue,” we heard the voice say when Chris answered the call, “This is 1^st Officer Chris speaking, we are glad to see that you are alive, is everyone ok?” Chris responded.

“Yes, a little dehydrated from the sunshine, but we are all alive,” was the reply, “Good, we will see you shortly,” Chris said before ending the call, and picking up the PA mic, “Paramedic and Lang report to the Bridge,” Chris said, and a few minutes later Fraser Parker and Lang arrived.

“Yes sir, you called,” Fraser said after knocking on the door and entering, “Yes, you will have some patients arriving shortly, they have reported dehydration, so get Lance to help you, and once they have received treatment, get them settled into the guest cabins,” Chris asked, and Fraser nodded his head in understanding and they left, while I remained on the bridge.

As we neared the life rafts, I suggested to Carter, that after the people and their belongings are on deck, that the life rafts be brought onboard, deflated and stored away, and with the deckhand Joseph helping, they secured the life rafts to the aft of the yacht, and started unloading the people and their belongings.

“Marshall and Adelia, I am glad that you and your crew and guests are all alive,” I said to the owners of the sunken yacht that was attacked. “Hello Alexander, thankyou so much for coming to our rescue, and so fast too, we were expecting it to be a lot longer wait,” Marshall Prentis replied.

“That would be my bosses doing, he insisted that we stop overnight, just in case something like this happened, so we were 190 nautical miles closer than we would have been if we hadn’t stopped,” the Captain said from the aft balcony on the next level up.

“Thankyou for that, you have saved our lives,” one of the passengers said to me, and I just smiled. “Marshall, we have crew cabins on the lower deck available for your two crew members, while you and Adelia, and your eight guests, have been allocated guest cabins on the main deck. Your crew members are not to do any work while onboard the Toodyay, they too are my guests and asked to just rest, relax and recover from the ordeal,” I informed our newly arrived guests.

Shortly after the life rafts had been spotted, I called a meeting of general crew members, and instructed them to give our new guests the very best of customer service; and this is extended to the two senior and two junior crew members of the sunken yacht also.

Once the life rafts had been deflated and stored away, Carter informed the bridge, and we were on our way once again, now heading east, well away from the pirate zone. “Captain Anton, once we have travelled a good distance east, would we have enough fuel to get us to the Maldives, if we turned south to follow the other yachts?” I asked, after watching the senior crew at work for about half an hour.

“You know sir, I was thinking the very same thing, I was just not sure if I should ask you or not,” Captain Anton replied smiling. “Make it so Captain,” I replied, also smiling. “First Officer, bring us around to a course of 135 degrees,” Captain Anton instructed 1^st Officer Chris. “Yes sir, 135 degrees for the Maldives,” Chris said, as he adjusted the course.

Nearly two days later, with no sign of the small group of five yachts on the yacht’s radar, we were starting to get worried. “I managed to get the Sat Phone Number for one of the yachts in this group; maybe I should try giving them a call?” Chris suggested.

“Yes, please do that right away,” I responded, after the Captain had expressed concerns for the group of yachts. “Hello, this is the 1^st Officer of the Motor Yacht Toodyay,” Chris said when the call was answered, and he place it on loud speaker, so the Captain and I could listen in.

“Christopher, we are so pleased to hear from you, this is Derek speaking, are you in Mumbai already?” was the reply, “Hi Derek, and no, under the brilliant direction of our owner, we spent overnight on the day that we all separated, sitting in the middle of the Arabian Sea, which was just as well, as the MV Patagonian ran into some trouble with pirates, so we rushed to their rescue.

They are all safe, but their yacht is at the bottom, we decided that with that happening, we had better follow your group, to make sure you get to the Maldives safely,” Chris said. “I am sorry to hear that Marshall and crew lost their yacht. When we realised that they were no longer with the group, and we couldn’t raise them on the radio, we all turned east, to get as far away as possible from the African coast,” Derek informed us.

“Derek, this is Alexander Devonport speaking, give us your coordinates, so that we can join you all for the trip down to the Maldives,” I said loud enough for him to hear me, as I was seated in the observation area, on the bridge. “Hi Mr Devonport, thankyou for rescuing our friends, we would be delighted if you can join us for the rest of the trip,” Derek said and after giving us the coordinates, we ended the call.

Seven hours later, we spotted the group of yachts now heading in a southerly direction, and just before dusk, we had caught up to them. With both Marshall and Adelia being licensed skippers, as well as Captain Anton, 1^st Officer Chris and Chief Engineer Christine, we decided to distribute some of our senior crew over to the other boats, so their skippers could get a good nights rest, and overnight, we stayed at a nice steady pace of just six knots, so every yacht was close to the Toodyay.

In the morning, we all stopped, and the five yachts were moored around the Toodyay, as we gathered for a large group breakfast on my yacht, with the crews of the other yachts, helping with the stewarding onboard, as we only had three stewards, and there was about 40 people onboard.

After breakfast, the now well rested senior crew of all the yachts discussed the journey ahead, and came up with some suggestions on easier communications, deciding to stay off the radios, in case the pirates were listening in. All the yachts had Sat phones, so we all exchanged numbers, to keep in touch for the four and a bit day journey ahead of us. Once the meeting was over, and with just two other yachts having guests, I invited them to spend the day onboard the Toodyay, which they happily accepted.

With the two crew of the rescued boat, Jon Claude and Juliette wanting to work, I gave them permission to do so, and they got to work to assist our stewards to keep the guests fed and entertained, and with Adelia being a chef, she happily assisted in the galley, to take some of the work load off our Chef – Kent.

That evening, with the winds being light, and the forecast was for it to be like that for at least 24 hours; it was agreed, with my permission given, to once again moor the yachts around the Toodyay, this time for the whole night, so as to allow the senior crew of all the yachts to get some more sleep.

The following day the winds were almost non existent, and so the Toodyay became a towing vessel, with five yachts having lowered their masts, and were attached to a long line from the Toodyay to the last yacht in the line, and once again the guests of the other yachts spent the day onboard the Toodyay, enjoying what it has available, including a lot more space.

I made the upper deck saloon available for the guests to use, making sure that the forward area was off limits to them, and when I wanted some peace and quiet, I just retreated to the officer’s lounge on the bridge deck or to my office.

When we arrived at the Maldives, we stopped at a remote beach for a group BBQ lunch and a game of beach cricket, and afterwards we said farewell to everyone, and all the yachts headed off to different parts of the Maldives to start their real holiday.

For my crew, I had booked them into the Ritz Carlton Resort on Fari Island, located about 50 kilometres north of the capital, while I checked our guests into the Paradise Island Resort, located about 15 kilometres north of the capital, ensuring them that this was a gift from me and my family, and to relax and enjoy the week of luxury.

Meanwhile just three kilometres from the capital on Villingili Island, the yacht is safely tucked away in a small harbour, where Wyatt, Lang and I are enjoying the peace and quiet of an almost empty yacht. While Captain Anton was organising the refuelling of the yacht, Wyatt and Lang snuck off to do some shopping for some fresh local food and bread.

When the Captain left to start his holiday, we locked up the yacht, and just relaxed, doing absolutely nothing, but enjoy the sunshine on the sundeck, swim in the splash pool on the main deck, or just lounge around in one of the saloons or outside decks.

We had BBQ lunch and dinner on the sundeck each day, and a late breakfast in the crew mess on the lower deck, and on the odd occasion we decided to do something active, we would lower one of the tenders into the water and go for a cruise around the crystal-clear waters.

After six days of doing nothing, we pitched in together to tidy up the yacht a bit, before the return of the crew, who would be delivered back to the yacht by ferry, and when Captain Anton stepped onboard and saw the three of us looking a bit scruffy and unshaven, he laughed and shook his head, “While the cat is away, the three mice were at play, is that correct sir,” he said to me, before heading up the stairs to the bridge deck.