Indian Ocean Invasion - 10. IOI Chapter 10

A few hours later, we all sat down in the formal dining room for dinner, which was beautifully prepared by Melinda, and served by the two stewards, before they joined us, and it was a nice casual meal amongst the crew, before the first charter together. During dinner, Melinda announced the roster for all the crew, which would be posted in the crew mess.

Penny’s hours will be from 7am to 10am, 12 noon to 3pm, and 4pm to 7pm, while Janine would work from 9am to 12pm, 2pm to 5pm and 7pm to 9pm. Meanwhile Lachlan’s hours would be from 7am to 10am,12pm to 4pm and 6pm to 8pm. I was informed that I would be informed of my hours later, which meant I would have to work longer hours and be more flexible with rest breaks, which I didn’t mind at all.

The next morning, I was up at 6.30 am, and after a quick shower and getting into my new uniform, I headed to the crew mess to get some breakfast, and shortly after Peter and Melinda arrived, serving themselves some tea before sitting down, while I found some fruit muffins to toast.

“Good morning Skipper and chef, any news on today’s weather?” I asked as I sat down with a cup of tea. “Yes, fine and hot, with a good chance of a thunderstorm late in the afternoon” Peter replied, “Right, I will get onto uncovering all the outdoor furniture straight after breakfast, then get Lachlan started on the windows, while I mop the outside decks” I replied.

“Sounds like you have everything in hand Lewis, I think you will do very well here” Melinda replied. “Anything to keep me occupied and not get bored by just sitting around doing nothing” I smiled, before grabbing my muffins from the toaster and smothering them with butter.

“By the way, we have found a second deckie/steward, his name is Antonio, he is 23 and from Southern Italy, he has deckhand and steward experience, so we will split his duties between the two, he can do deck duties from 8am to 11am, steward duties from 1pm to 3pm, and deck duties from 5pm to 8pm, he has already been added to the roster, and is due to arrive before 8am” Peter informed me.

“Make sure to take enough rest breaks during the day, we don’t want you burnt, out on our first charter together ok?” Melinda said to me, “Yes Mum” I replied, and both Peter and Melinda chuckled at my response, “Sorry, I mean yes Ma’am” I added, which made them laugh out loud.

“Buongiorno” we heard a voice say from the stairs, as we turned to find out who it was, “Me, Antonio Leonetti, you expect me yes?” the stranger said, “Buongiorno Antonio, per favour… siediti hai… mangiato? I said in broken Italian, “Si Grazie” Antonio replied, “My Italian is not very good, as I am still just starting to learn, maybe you can teach me some” I said to Antonio.

“Si, nessun problema” Antonia replied, and I turned to the skipper, “Antonio, this is Peter, he is the skipper, and this is his wife Melinda, she is the chef” I said making the introductions. “I hope you can learn Italian quickly, or we may have some communications issues” Melinda stated, “No, I understand, just get English mixed up a little” Antonia replied.

“Good, Lewis can you show Antonio to his cabin, then get him to work, I will get his uniform” Melinda said to me, and abandoning my breakfast, I stood up and indicated to Antonio to go back up the stairs.“I been on this size and make boat, just like this in Mediterranean” Antonio said to me when we reached the main deck, “Good so you know the layout of the yacht?” I asked, “Si, I do” Antonio replied.

“Ok, you are in the cabin forward of the laundry on port side, Lachlan is in the other cabin, he will be up in about half an hour, we also have two stewards, Janine and Penny. We have charter guests arriving at 10am, so get settled into your cabin, and be ready for work at 8am” I said to Antonio, who headed towards his cabin, while I returned to the crew mess.

“He has been on a yacht this model and size on the Med, so he knows the layout, which I think will be beneficial” I said to Melinda and Peter, who were chatting when I entered. “Good to know, now we have a full crew, we should have a smooth-running charter” Peter replied. “Where did you learn to speak Italian” Melinda asked me. “When I was in Afghanistan, one of the guys in my unit is Italian, and he started to teach me.

It seems that I have a natural talent for picking up languages” I replied, as I picked up the last muffin to eat it, and I poured the last of my cold tea down the drain, before heading upstairs again, this time up to the fly bridge, to start mopping the decks, and wiping down the steel and panels, from the overnight rain.

By 9.30am, the yacht was clean and gleaming, ready for the arrival of the charter guests, “Attention all crew, please meet in the crew mess right away” we heard over the yachts PA system, and within minutes we were all crammed into the crew mess area. “Right, we all know our jobs, so I expect an outstanding job from everyone, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask me, Melinda or Lewis.

On the table, you will find two-way radios for everyone, make sure that you put them on the charger at the end of your shift each day, so they are fully charged for the next day, to call someone on the radio’s, you say the person you are wanting to speak to twice, then your name once.

So, if I was wanting to speak to Lewis, I would say, Lewis, Lewis, Peter, and the person replying would say…” Peter said and indicated to me, “Go for Lewis” I said, “Does everyone understand?” Peter asked, and everyone nodded their heads in the affirmative.

“If Peter or I call for all crew, it will be… ‘All crew, all crew to the Crew mess in five minutes’, so make sure you are always alert and listening to your radio, and make sure that you acknowledge that you have heard the message” Melinda added.

“Right, everyone, grab a radio, and be on the aft main deck in fifteen minutes for the arrival of the guests” I said to end the meeting, and all the crew grabbed a radio before heading off upstairs.

When the junior crew were all gone, I looked at Peter and Melinda, “Don’t worry, I know you have a completely new crew, but I will make sure everything runs smoothly, and Melinda, can I suggest that maybe you ask Antonio to assist you in the galley, I bet he has some good family recipe’s in his head” I said to the bosses, before heading upstairs.

I did a quick check on each deck to make sure that everything was in order, before making my way to the aft main deck, just as the guests arrived.

Good morning, my name is Peter, I am your skipper for this charter, and this is my wife Melinda, who is the chef” Peter said starting the introductions, as the guests boarded the yacht, and each crew member introduced themselves, with Penny at the end of the line, holding a tray of glasses with white wine.

“While Penny and Janine are showing around the yacht, getting you settled, we will get underway for our first destination” Peter announced to the guests, and the stewards lead the guests inside.

“Right, Antonio and Lachlan can you deal with the mooring ropes, Lewis to the bridge to take us out please” Peter announced, which brought two surprised looks from the deckhands, and I chuckled at this as I headed upstairs.

I hadn’t had a chance to look at the controls of the yacht properly, so it took me a few minutes to locate everything that I needed, and Peter came into the bridge and silently observed. “Deck crew release the mooring ropes” I said into the radio, “Yes Bosun” Antonio replied, and after a short delay, Lachlan also responded.

Carefully I manoeuvred the yacht away from the jetty, before heading north east in the sheltered bay. “Very good Lewis, a job well done, I will take over for now, if you can make sure that the mooring ropes are correctly stored away, and we will be at our first anchoring spot in 30 minutes” Peter said to me, “Yes skipper” I replied, before heading downstairs.

When we arrived at Horsburgh Island, we dropped the anchors, when Peter gave the command, and prepared the rib boat, to transport the guests onto the island, letting them know that lunch will be served on the beach in an hour’s time.

Once the guests were on the island, the deckie’s and I got to work to get the transport the 3.5 metre gazebo, tables and chairs to the island and set them up.

We also brought the kayaks to the island along with the life jackets and paddles, before assisting the stewards with getting the table set ready for the guests, who enjoyed their short visit on the island.

Once everyone and all the equipment was back on the yacht, Peter had me sail the yacht twenty minutes to the south east, to Direction Island, where the skipper took over to get the yacht to its anchor location.

Once the guests were on the Island exploring, I took a short break to relax, and when I arrived in the crew lounge are, I found a copy of the West Australian newspaper from the mainland, dated two days ago, with the front-page headlines caught my attention. “Indonesia invades Australian Territory”

“Australia calls for United Nations intervention, against Indonesia, for taking over the Australian Territorial Island of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, 350 km’s south of Java, Indonesia, and 1550 km’s north west of Australia”

I read the news article with interest, since I had spent two weeks on the island, some of that during the initial time of the invasion. “The Australian government is threatening embargo action against Indonesia, if it does not stop phosphate mining, stop transporting the phosphate to Asian countries, release all of the island residents from detention, and leave Christmas Island altogether”.

As I read this news article, I did hope that the United Nations would act, as it is a beautiful Island that should be kept as it was before the invasion took place. The rest of the afternoon went smoothly, and the guests were happy with the service on the yacht, and I was one of the last to head to bed, shortly before 10pm, after doing a patrol of the outside of the yacht, to make sure everything was secure.

The following morning, I was once again up early, and both Peter and Melinda arrived nearly half an hour later, shortly after 6.30am. “Good morning Skipper and Chef” I said cheerfully to them, “Good morning, Lewis, did you see the front-page story of Tuesday’s paper?” Margaret asked me.

“Yes, I did in fact, the paper was left in here yesterday afternoon” I replied, “Yes, one of the guests had brought it onboard, and discarded it yesterday, and I asked that it be kept, so that you could see it, since you have an interest in what is happening over there” Margaret responded. “I see, well thanks for that” I replied, as I began to rinse my breakfast dishes and prepare for work.

“We have a two hour sail this morning, so we will have to keep the guests entertained during that time, when we do arrive at the northern island, can you get the Kayaks out, and we will transfer the guests to the island, before preparing a beach lunch” Peter said to me, “Will do skipper” I replied, before heading upstairs, to begin cleaning the tables and seats on the outer decks.

The next two days went very smoothly, and when we arrived at the main jetty in the mid-afternoon, on Friday, the guests thanked us for an awesome charter, and we were given a $1,200 tip each which was a lot more than I expected.

Once the cleaning was completed two hours later, all crew were given permission to have a night out, off the yacht, with a minibus coming at 6pm to pick up those who want to go into town, as we have another charter booked for two days’ time.

I had decided to remain on the yacht, and catch up on some rest, and Peter decided to move the yacht back to the main mooring area near Direction island, and he asked me to take the large rib boat back to the jetty to collect the crew at 11pm, to bring them back to the yacht, which I was happy to do.

In the meantime, I had 4 ¼ hours of peace and quiet to myself, and I decided to watch a movie in the yachts cinema room, do some reading and deal with some emails, that I have not had a chance to reply to, while on charter.

When it came to time for me to go and collect the crew from the island, I quietly lowered the Rib boat into the water and set off on the twenty-minute journey to the main jetty.

When I arrived at the jetty, there was no sign of any of the crew, which really started to annoy me, as all the crew were instructed to be at the main jetty at 11pm, to be transported back to the yacht.

I waited for over half an hour, and I was just about ready to call the skipper, when I saw the lights of a vehicle approaching, which was the expected minibus, but only two crew members were on the minibus, Antonio and Lachlan.

“Where are Janine and Penny?” I asked, and an inebriated Antonia handed me what looked like a napkin from a restaurant, “They told me to give you this” Antonio said as he swayed and nearly fell over, except Lachlan managed to keep him upright, as I looked at the napkin. “We quit, signed Penny and Janine”.

“Oh great, we have another charter in just over one days’ time, and our two stewards quit, that is just great, come on you two, back to the yacht, so you can get some sleep” I said, and both Lachlan and I had to help Antonio onto the Rib boat, so he didn’t fall into the water. During the journey back to the yacht, Antonio vomited over the side twice, and he didn’t look at all well, as he mumbled something in Italian.

While Lachlan helped Antonio back to his cabin, I brought the Rib boat back onboard and secured it, before heading downstairs. “He is tucked in bed and has u bucket with him just in case, oh and I have checked the girl’s cabins, they managed to sneak all of their luggage with them as we headed out for the night, as their wardrobes are both empty, and their uniforms are on their beds” Lachlan said to me.

“Ok, thanks mate, I will see you in the morning at 8am, goodnight” I replied, and I headed out onto the main deck to do one final check, before heading inside for the night.