Lord Edwin - 6. Lord Chapter 6

Once we were anchored properly, all crew who had by now packed all of their belongings, boarded the dinghies, and headed to the beach, with Hunter, James and myself being the last to leave, once the yacht was completely shut down and locked up, and we left all three dinghies in the care of the local surf club, while taxis transported us to our accommodation.

It took nearly a week for the police and army ordinance disposal team to finish their investigation, which gave the crew some time to relax and have a good look around the Mackay region. The video footage from the security cameras did show that two scuba divers attach two devices to the hull of the yacht, and just ten seconds later the internal alarm was triggered, that there was a foreign object attached to the hull, which is when the bridge triggered the evacuate alarm for all onboard, but the footage was not able to identify who the two divers were.

After some lengthy discussions with Hunter and James, I was convinced that it was in the best interest of all that we no longer stay in the Keswick Island region and that we would rely on the Queensland National Parks Rangers to keep an eye on everything, with our continued financial support, which included employing our security service, to make sure that the opposition developers, do not try to sabotage the building operations, that we had been assigned to complete, as part of the agreement that Robert had made.

In the meantime, we did discuss what we should do once we leave Mackay, and that was a lengthy process, as I wanted all of the crew's input and views as well, before I decided on where we would be heading next. Firstly, I arranged for an increase in security to protect the project happening on Keswick Island, and asked for daily reports of any incidence that may occur.

The extra security included a doubling of security personnel patrolling the area, as well as increasing the number of security cameras, been installed, both on the buildings, and also in the trees, in case the main ones are disabled. As much as I hoped that there would be no more incidences, that was not the case, and I was forced to contact the authorities, after the second one, just two days after we had left the island.

Federal Police sent two officers to the island, to monitor the situation, and I was now getting very worried, about how far these unknown troublemakers would go, to stop work on our development. When I updated Cousin Robert on the situation, he was not at all happy. I decided to keep the crew off the yacht, for now, just to keep everyone safe, and I sent them all on a two-week paid holiday to Cairns as a precaution.

With just James, Hunter and myself remaining, we also moved camp just as a precaution, and I leased a beach bungalow on the northeast side of Horse Shoe Bay on Magnetic Island, using James as the booking name, to keep it as quiet as possible that I was on the island.

At $450 per night, for three weeks, the three-bedroom, three-bathroom bungalow was spacious, and only has three close neighbours, and with its swimming pool, decking and stunning view of the beach, which is just 350 metres away, it was a perfect getaway.

After our second day in Townsville, I made a phone call to Mum in Strahan to see how things are going down that way. “Sounds like you are getting restless! Do you think it is time to come home, or maybe have a change of scenery,” Mum said to me, and I sighed when I heard her say this. “That is my thinking Mum, but I am concerned about you, and I am wondering if you would like to join me on the yacht, as I am thinking of taking a long way around back to Scotland, via Canada and Greenland,” I said to Mum.

“Well, that is a very interesting way of travelling halfway around the world. How long do you think it will take to get to Edinburgh going that way?” Mum asked me. “I am getting James to work on all of that as we speak, we have been discussing it over the past few days,” I replied. “Let me think about it, and I will let you know in a day or two,” Mum answered me.

Later that day, as we sat down for dinner, overlooking the beach at Magnetic Island, James announced that taking the Canadian route was faster and shorter than all other routes, and with it currently being summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it should be an easy trip. James said that he had worked out that we have a total of seven stops during the Townsville, Australia to Dundee, Scotland journey, which will be a distance of just over 10,500 nautical miles and will take us about 32 days to complete.

I was a little surprised that the route that we are taking is shorter, even though the more popular route is via the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, but I could see why James chose this route, as it means that we can stay out of the public eye a lot easier, with the more remote journey, through the Pacific, around the top of Canada, and past Greenland.

The following day, we announced to the crew that we were planning to sail to Scotland and that we would be taking the unusual route along the top of Canada, which surprised everyone, but after thinking about it, everyone stated that they are looking forward to this trip.

James informed everyone that we would be making six refuel and supply stops along the way, firstly to Buka Town on Bougainville Island, followed by Midway Island, Port Clarence - Alaska, Sachs Harbour, Canada, Nuuk, in Greenland, and Thurso - Caithness, Scotland, before arriving at Dundee, just north of Edinburgh.

Later in the day, when I informed Mum of the details of the trip, she began to get excited about joining us on the trip and informed me that she would start getting organised and be up in Townsville within a week to join the yacht. I telephone Brad to let him know what the plans are, and that Mum would be travelling with us for the long-month journey to Scotland, and he was quite surprised by this news.

Before going on this trip, I needed to check on the progress of the development project at Keswick Island, as I had been receiving reports of sabotage to equipment and also to the buildings within the village, which I was not too happy about.

The Federal Police were also getting these same reports and investigating them, but they were not able to identify who is responsible even though it is fairly obvious that it is the opposing Development company that are responsible, and that is when things get a little tricky, because of the diplomatic problems it would cause.

James, Hunter and I decided, that we would sail to St Bee's Island, and the crew would be flown back to the mainland for safety, while we spend a week looking into these issues, so we recalled all of the crew and we headed back to the mainland via the local ferry, and flew from Townsville down to Mackay, on a chartered flight.

Once back onboard my yacht, the crew were busy preparing for our trip over to Keswick and St Bees Islands, and after a short trip, we arrived there without any issues. And once the yacht was anchored and secured, we transported the crew over to Keswick Island, where a chartered plane arrived to take them back to Mackay, where I had arranged a week’s accommodation for them all.

Just as a safety precaution, under Hunter’s recommendation, we moved into the homestead, instead of staying onboard the yacht, just in case a similar incident happened like last time. Over the next few days, we inspected our development project, which was now almost completed.

The airport runway was now extended and operational, and it includes lighting for night landings in case of any emergencies, the village accommodation has now been extended to include a twelve-bedroom hostel to accommodate 24 people, plus there is staff accommodation for six staff, and the new Marina, has 24 yacht bays ready for any visiting yachts. The marina, also has a restaurant, a café, a tour office and a yacht supplies store, plus an additional four cabins to accommodate staff.

I had already appointed a Village Manager, to run the day-to-day operations of the village, which includes the housing of twelve full-time staff, responsible for running the airport and jetty operations and the Marina, as well as providing recreational facilities for visiting guests, with Snorkelling, Kayaking and Bushwalking trips available for guests.

A new website had been built to promote the island, that includes promoting the private cabins and houses on the island, and once everything is completed, then the website would be launched, even if we would not be present when this happens. After two days on the island, and with the project to be completed within a few days, we were looking at preparing to return to the mainland, with just one last night spent meeting the senior staff for dinner.

Dinner was planned to be held at the restaurant, which was not yet officially open, and with Hunter, James and I joined by the Village Manager, the Airport Director, Marina Director, we sat down to enjoy a nice evening, which was interrupted about halfway through, by a loud bang, the ground shook a little. Right away we all rushed out of the restaurant to investigate the source of the noise, which I was now very concerned, has something to do with my yacht.

“Mr Crawford, it is your yacht… it has exploded and is on fire,” one of the village staff members announced as he was approaching in a rush. “Thank you, do you have a dinghy that we can borrow please,” I replied, and we were led down to the jetty where two dinghies are tied up.

A few minutes later, we rounded the corner of St Bees Island, to find my yacht full alight, and floundering on one side. Hunter stopped the dinghy, so we didn’t get too close, as we all realised now that there was no hope of saving the yacht. We watched as she slowly sank into the waters of the bay just north of the island, and once it had disappeared, Hunter took us back to the homestead around on the other side of St Bees Island.

The first call I made once we had arrived, was to the Federal Police, who had left the area a week earlier when there had been no trouble happening for the past week. I informed them that my multi-million-dollar yacht had exploded, caught fire and sunk off the north coast of St Bees Island, while my staff and I were having dinner at the Keswick Marina restaurant.

I was informed that they would be coming out to the islands, in the morning to investigate, and for now to rest and we would be interviewed at some stage in the morning. When we were having breakfast, mid-morning the next day, after a very restless night, there was a knock on the door, and Hunter stood to answer it.