Disputed Sea - 9. Disp Ch 9

I was amazed at how big the suite that we are assigned, with the views from the lounge area… Wow! After settling into our suite, Joshua and I entered the Storm Lounge on that same level, which is one deck down from the Bridge Deck, and although it is called D Deck, it is actually the second-highest deck on this super yacht or ship, I was not sure what it was really, just that it is huge.

“How are you both settling into your quarters?” Xander asked as we approached the seating area that looks out towards the front of the ship with a spectacular view. “Well, it is definitely huge, and luxurious is an understatement,” Joshua commented as I nodded my head in agreement, and this is when I realised that we were now moving.

“Yes, we have already departed, and our destination is South Africa, where we will stop for a brief restocking of supplies, but we will have one short stop on the way, before getting there,” Langley said to us, “Wow, and here I was, just a cattle station boy growing up in the Pilbara and now I am on this huge ship with my fav man and our great new friends, cruising the oceans heading to Africa of all places,” I commented, which had Xander and Langley chuckling and Joshua smiling broadly.

“Well, it is my first time on this ship, which I have read so much about over the past few years, but unlike you, I have already cruised through the oceans around the world, even if most of it was underwater… so I guess, we are on a new adventure together,” Joshua said to me. “What about our work at Ocean City, are we just going to abandon it?” I asked Joshua. “No, I have put in place a replacement management team to look after things at the city, and everything has been running fine since we left there, so there is no need to worry at all,” Joshua informed me.

“What is the shortstop that we will be making?” I asked our hosts, “Reunion Island,” Langley replied. “Why there?” Joshua asked, “It is one place that we have not been to before, and why not now, while we have no other set destination to go, and no one will ever expect us to end up at a location like that,” Xander responded, “That is very true, so how long will it take us to get there?” Joshua asked, “The Captain just informed us that it will take approximately eleven days, depending on the weather,” Langley answered.

Over the next few days, as we sailed westwards towards Reunion Island, we had nice calm weather, and we were enjoying our time with our new friends, on their amazing ship, which I learnt was once used as a supply ship for research stations located on very remote islands in the southern hemisphere, with the ship doing complete circumnavigations before returning to its base port of Albany, on the south coast Western Australia.

On day five, we woke up with us being in the middle of a storm, and we stayed in the Storm Lounge on our deck for most of the time, due to the difficulties of walking around, and we instructed Jack to not spend too much time on his feet, to reduce the risk of injury, which he was happy to do, as we noticed that he and Xavier were getting along very well as new friends, and it looked like they may becoming much more than that, which I was pleased about, as was Xander and Langley.

The ship's crew are all fantastic, and we rarely saw any of them except for Captain Paul Kingsley and 1^st Officer James Andrews, with Jack and Xavier, being the ones to bring us our meals, drinks and snacks, and I was surprised to learn that we only had a total of 16 crew members on this huge ship. With the spectacular views from the Storm Lounge, which I can see now is quite an appropriate name, the storm outside was huge, with high waves crashing into the ship, but we hardly felt a thing inside, even on the second from the top deck.

After a day and a half of stormy weather, we could finally see some reduction in the size of the waves, which we hoped meant that the storm was nearly over, and Joshua and I headed to the Bridge to get an update on our journey, which we were granted permission to do. “Well Joshua and Kipling, what do you think of our magnificent ship? She does very well in very rough seas, does she not!” the Captain said to us as we entered the Bridge and sat down on the lounge.

“Yes, sir, very much so,” I responded, just as Xavier and Langley entered the Bridge, “Here you both are, come for your latest dose of update news?” Xavier said to us smiling. “Yes, to an update, no to hiding,” Joshua replied, which had Xavier and Langley laughing. “Mayday, mayday, mayday.This is the sailing yacht Mini Titanic, we have lost our rigging and have sustained some hull damage. Does anyone copy us, over,” came a distress call over the VHF radio.

First Officer James picked up the Mic to respond to the distress call. “Sailing Yacht calling mayday yacht, this is the Supply Ship Southern Explorer, currently located 983 nautical miles due West of Exmouth, and 496 nautical miles dues South of Cocos Keeling Islands, at a bearing of 275 degrees. What is your current location, over” Officer James responded.

“Thank heavens, you are close by, we have come from the Maldives, and heading for Geraldton, via the Abrolhos Islands, and we estimate that we are… 120 nautical miles due north of your location, and we are dead in the water at present, as we have had to cut away our rigging, over,” came the reply, and all eyes suddenly went onto Xavier.

“Yes, of course, you have my permission to divert to rescue their yacht, it is an emergency after all,” Xavier said. “Mini Titanic, we are diverting to your location, what is your yacht’s description and how many souls onboard? Over” Officer James asked. “We are on a 20 metre Fontaine catamaran yacht, and just a family of five, plus our captain, who was injured overnight when he went out to cut the rigging, over,” came the female response.

“Very well, prepare your dinghy for escape if you need to leave due to possible sinking. Prepare your dingy with food and water, and EPIRB beacon, just in case, and we are on our way, with our estimated arrival of 9 to 10 hours, over,” Officer James informed the distressed yacht.

Captain Paul made a ship-wide announcement over the PA, to inform all crew that we are diverting to assist a catamaran yacht in distress located ten hours north of us and that he asked to prepare for six passengers, including one injured. With it now being just after 2.45 in the afternoon, it is going to be about 1 am, in the morning when we arrive in the area of the distressed yacht, I wondered how on earth we are going to locate them at that time of the night, as we felt a sudden increase of power to the ship, to lessen the time to get there.

It was a very worrying and stressful wait, as we speeded north towards the distressed yacht, and as the sun was setting, we heard the fourth of the hourly reports from the sailing yacht, this time reporting that the yacht was now sinking due to an increase of leaking into the yacht’s hull and that they were preparing to abandon the yacht. We heard Captain Paul give them specific instructions to make sure that they have everything that they need, to survive as well as to continue afterwards.

Due to our increased speed earlier, our estimated arrival time had been reduced by 90 minutes, so it would now be around 11.30 pm when we arrive at their location, which is still a very long 4 and a bit hours away. An Australian Customs Watch plane has flown over the yacht two times and reported back to us their observations, and we continue to be the closest vessel to their location.

With the Southern Explorer having a medical team onboard, it was decided by Australian Search and Rescue, to allow the Southern Explorer to take the lead with the rescue, and Captain Paul had arranged with them to have a medical flight arranged for Cocos Keeling Island to fly the injured sailer back to the Australian mainland for treatment if it is required.

We received an update from the distressed yacht about half an hour later, letting us know that they are now leaving the yacht, which is rapidly sinking, and that all passengers and the captain are now in the rescue dinghy, and he give a final location of the yacht before ending the call. With no further news for the yacht, we just had to hope and pray that they are all ok until we arrive there as soon as possible.

When we arrived at the last coordinates of the distressed yacht, the ship was stopped, and the majority of the crew headed to all outdoor areas on each level, to search for the rescue dinghy before Captain Paul gave three long and loud blasts of the ship's horn, and we waited. Just a few minutes later, a crew member shouted out, “Flare on the port side,” and Captain gave one long blast of the horn to say that we saw the flare, before giving the order to head directly to that location, as spotlights were turned on to try and locate the dinghy.

“Dinghy straight ahead slightly to the starboard side” a crew member called out, as spotlights searched for and located the dinghy, and we saw several very happy faces waving to us, and Officer James ordered the lowering of the transfer boat into the water to collect them. Xander, Langley, Joshua and I headed down to the main deck to see the arrival of the rescued yacht crew and passengers, who looked very tired after their ordeal. As the transfer boat approached the aft beach deck, Xander and Jack arrived with trays of hot soup, while other crew members arrived with blankets.