Indian Ocean Invasion - 11. IOI Chapter 11

Deciding to have a sleep in, I walked into the crew mess shortly after 7am, to find Antonio drinking coffee and looking very sorry for himself. After grabbing a cup of tea, I headed upstairs to the bridge, where I found the Skipper and Melinda chatting. “Good morning Skipper and Melinda, I regret to inform you that we lost our two stewards last night, they gave Antonio their letter of resignation to pass onto me” I said, as I handed over the napkin.

“Interesting form of resignation notice, what about their belongings?” Melinda replied after reading the message on the napkin and showing it to Peter, according to Lachlan they took it all with them, when they went out last night” I replied. “Ok, well we have a plane arriving on the island today, so maybe we will get lucky and find some new crew members amongst the backpacker visitors.

I will write up another notice to put around the West Island accommodation, in the meantime, how are our two remaining crew members?” Melinda replied, and I chuckled at the thought of Antonio still sporting a hangover, “Our Italian friend is not too well this morning, currently holding a strong cup of coffee, and Lachlan isn’t up yet, but he was happy and not too drink when he returned last night” I replied.

“Ok, let’s give them a few hours free to recover from last night, but its back to work for both at 10am” Peter said to me, “Lewis, can you join me on a trip to the supermarket for food supplies for the next charter please, we will leave at 8am” Melinda asked, “Yes Ma’am, as you wish” I responded.

When I returned to the crew mess at 7.30, both Antonio and Lachlan were chatting, while finishing eating breakfast, and stopped chatting when I entered. “How do you feel now Antonio?” I asked the Italian deckie, “Not very good” Antonio replied, “Well, both of you are lucky, the skipper has given you a few hours off this morning, so you can rest for a while, work will start at 10am.

I must take Melinda to do some supply shopping, and look for some replacement crew members, so while I am away, Lachlan, can you please make sure that all the outside decks are washed down and dried, and all windows are washed on the outside. Antonio, I need you to clean the two girl’s crew cabins, and make the beds ready for new crew members, then clean the windows on the inside” I instructed.

I called for a minibus to collect us from the main jetty at 8.20am, and as we pulled up at the jetty, the mini bus was just arriving, and took us directly into town, where we visited all of the main tourist accommodation places, to put up notices that we are looking for two or three crew members for three-day charters, for a period of one to three months, and we were just leaving the last place, when a lady came rushing out the front to stop us.

“Excuse me, I just saw this notice about you looking for crew members, I have just resigned from my job at the resort, because the new management are not very nice, and I don’t get along with their new housekeeping supervisor” the lady said to us. Melinda looked to me and I just smiled. “Please join us for a cup of tea, so we can discuss this some more” Melinda suggested, which the lady agreed too, and five minutes later we were seated at a nearby café.

“My name is Phillipa Glover, as you can probably guess from my accent, I am from New Zealand, and I have been on the island on and off for the past three years, during December and January, I go home to Dunedin, to spend time with family and friends, while the Monsoon season is in full swing” the lady said.

“Well, my husband and I are also from New Zealand, Te Kao is our home town, but we have been Yacht chartering in this region for a few years now. Our yacht is a Sunreef 115 Power yacht, named Jericho. My husband – Peter is the skipper, and I am the chef, oh and this is Lewis Shaw, our Bosun” Melinda responded.

“Nice to meet you both, I am divorced and have older children attending boarding school in Sydney, where my ex-husband works, so there is just me. As I said I have been a housekeeper here for three years, and before that on several cruise ships for Caribbean Cruises, for a total of four years, so I am used to working on the sea” Phillipa said.

“Melinda, I suggest you hire her right away, before someone else snaps here up” I commented, which made Melinda chuckle, and Phillipa smile. “Your hired, are you available to start right away, as we have a charter starting tomorrow morning at 10am” Melinda stated. “Yes ma’am, just give me an hour to pack and I am all yours for as long as you need me” Phillipa replied.

“Good, be at the main jetty in 90 minutes, you will find a Rib boat tied up there, that is our ride back to the yacht, we have some shopping to do, and we also need to find one or two more crew members” Melinda said. “I will be there, and if you like you can call me Pippa for short” the new crew member said, “Ok Pippa, that is fine, oh and you will be the Lead Steward, so you only answer to me, and my husband, as does young Lewis here” Melinda said smiling as we stood up and left.

“Well that is one definite long-term crew member, remind me to check with the other two, to see how long they will be staying with us” Melinda said to me as we made our way towards the supermarket. “If you don’t mind, I would like to collect the rest of my things from my accommodation and check-out” I said to Melinda as we walked. “Oh sorry, I had no idea, you were still paying accommodation on the island” Melinda said to me sounding shocked.

“I’m not really, the Navy is, and since I will be on the yacht most of the time, it is probably best to stay on the yacht for as long as I am needed, as I will be accepting the offer of Medical discharge from the Navy, I sent an email to my CO this morning” I replied. “I see, well I am pleased that you will be staying with us” Melinda responded happily.

Once I had collected all my luggage, and informed the motel that I am checking out, and I loaded my remaining luggage into a shopping trolley at the supermarket and walked inside, and soon found Melinda, with a nearly full trolley. “Ah good you are back, I will look after that, can you go to the bottle-shop, and get everything that is on this list for me please” Melinda asked when I arrived, handing me one of her lists, and $400.

When I arrived back at the supermarket, with a trolley full of alcohol, Melinda was outside chatting with Pippa, who had added her luggage to mine, and there are two shopping trollies full of groceries. “Good timing, I have just called the minibus company to come and collect us”Melinda said when I arrived. I smiled and nodded my head in understanding, “Oh, and Peter is bringing the yacht to the main jetty to make it easier for us to load up all the supplies” Melinda added.

“Melinda has just been telling me about the crew, quite a mixture of nationalities I gather” Pippa said to me, “Yes, but we are all new to the yacht, with just one charter under our belt, so we are still settling in. Antonio has reasonably good English, but sometimes he slips into his native tongue of Italian, and you must ask him to say it in English, I know some basic Italian, so if you have any issues, just ask me, and Lachlan’s Scottish accent, can be a little tricky sometimes, if he uses Scottish slang” I replied.

“All we need now is an Irishman and an Englishman, and we are set for a comical joke” Pippa said, which had all of us laughing, just as the minibus arrived. At the main jetty, the yacht was moored and waiting for us, and we soon had all the grocery and alcohol supplies onboard, along with the extra luggage. “Lewis, can you help Pippa to get settled in, she can have the aft starboard crew cabin, while I get sorted with the supplies and get lunch sorted” Melinda asked.

Leaving my luggage just outside the main saloon door, I lead the way into the main saloon, and down the starboard stairs into the crew mess area, “as you can see this is the crew mess and galley, your cabin is that one back there, Antonio cleaned it this morning, I am not sure how good a job he did, as he had a massive hangover this morning.

There is an extra loo just here, and up front is the other crew cabin, all crew cabins are set up as singles, but if we get two more stewards, that one will have to become a twin bunk cabin. On the other side are two identical crew cabins, and the laundry, I am in what is classed as a guest cabin on the port side lower deck, behind the aft crew cabin.

The yacht has a master guest cabin and double guest cabin, in the forward main deck, along with a 9-seat cinema room, and main galley, while behind that, as you saw when we entered, is the main saloon and formal dining area, plus outside on the aft deck there is an outdoor dining area and sunbeds.

The upper deck has a second saloon lounge, and two more double guest cabins, along with a small gymnasium, plus the main bridge and the Skipper’s cabin, on the aft deck there is sunbathing area, with a bar, day loo and stairs up to the Fly bridge, which has an outdoor kitchen and bar, outdoor dining and lounge area, sunbeds and a jacuzzi” I said describing the layout of the yacht.

“Sounds wonderful, it will be very different from housekeeping on a huge cruise ship, but I think this is a lot more of a challenge” Pippa said to me, as she headed to her cabin, “Oh and you will find a two-way radio on the bench there, we all need to carry one when on the yacht, for crew communications” I added, before heading upstairs, and grabbing my luggage, I headed to my cabin.

Once I had my extra luggage in my cabin, to be sorted later, when I have time, I went looking for the two deckhands, who were chatting on the fly bridge, “So guys how are things going, what have you done while I have been away?” I asked when I arrived, and I was given a rundown on what had been completed, and I allocated them some more jobs, as there is lots to do before the guests arrive tomorrow morning, but this was interrupted by Melinda announcing that it was lunch time.

As we were eating, Peter entered the crew mess area just as he was finishing talking on the phone, and he smiled to Melinda and nodded. “We have great news, we have two more stewards, they are Sumiko and Yoshe, from Nemuro, Japan, who have agreed to stay with us for 3 months, and I hope the rest of you will consider doing the same” Peter announced.

“You have me for a definite three months skipper, I am really enjoying this work” Lachlan stated, “I can stay for one month only, then me have to return home” Antonio added. “Well one month is better than none, as we have three bookings per fortnight for the next six weeks” Peter said to us all, as he nodded to his wife, and at that moment, Melinda placed today’s edition of the West Australian newspaper in front of me.

“Chagos Archipelagos, now part of Australian Indian Ocean Territory”

“Yesterday the British Parliament, with the blessing of the Queen,transferred ownership of the British Indian Ocean Territory of the Chagos Archipelago to Australia, with the Australian Government immediately making it part of the Australian Indian Ocean Territories, along with Christmas Island and the Cocos Keeling Islands.

In a joint announcement between the British and Australian governments, they announced that after lengthy discussions, and noagreement been reached with the United States, regarding the lease of Diego Garcia, the British government has left it to the new Australian government to decide the fate of the island’s military base.

The Australian government has announced that the newly createdmarine reserve around the archipelago, will remain in place, and theywill allow the Chagos people who were displaced from their homes in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, to return to their homeland, along with their descendants, apart from the island of Diego Garcia, once their appropriate checks have been completed.

The government of Mauritius and the United States are outraged that the transfer of ownership of the Chagos Archipelagos has taken place without consulting them first, but in reply, a representative of the British government stated that it had legally transferred ownership, just like it did with the Cocos Keeling Islands”.

“Well that is an interesting twist to everything happening on this ocean” I commented after reading the article, “It sure does, and will also mean we may be able to do charters from there in the near future” Melinda replied. “Turn to page three” Peter added, and I did as he suggested, to find another news heading of interest.

“Australia placed immediate embargo on Indonesia”

“As of midnight, last night, Australian eastern time, the Australian government has placed an embargo on all Indonesian shipping and flights into and from Australia, with the Indonesian airline companies, given 48 hours to remove all of their ships and aircraft from Australia.

This means that thousands of holiday flights to Bali and other parts of Indonesia have been cancelled, and Australian aircraft have been dispatched to collect any Australian citizens still in Indonesia. The Indonesian government has yet to make a public statement regarding the embargo, but in response, they have given the Australian ambassador to Indonesia, and staff 48 hour to pack and leave Indonesia, and recalled their Ambassador to Australia”.

“Well, I am not surprised by that at all” I commented with a big grin.“Lewis can you take the rib boat, and collect the two new crew, from the main jetty at 5pm please” Peter asked me, “Sure skipper, no problem, I replied. After lunch I helped Lachlan and Antonio with cleaning the whole of the outside of the yacht, ready for the guests tomorrow, before setting off back to the jetty to collect the two Japanese ladies.

“Kon’nichiwa, watashinonamaeha Lewis” I said in fluent Japanese, when I stepped onto the jetty and face the ladies and gave a slight bow. “Kon’nichiwa” both ladies replied and gave a slight bow. Changing to English, I let them know that I am the Bosun, in charge of the outside of the yacht, and that I am here to take them to the yacht. “Thankyou… Mr Lewis, you are very good with your Japanese” one of the ladies replied.