Indian Ocean Invasion - 18. IOI Chapter 18

Since we have now lost two crew, there will be a change made, Margarite you are now galley hand, since you have cooking experience, and I will arrange for two replacements for the two steward positions, that is all, thank you” Mr Wagner said, and he headed upstairs, with the Captain following.

I went back up to the main deck stern, and took a few minutes looking around the harbour, when the radio crackled, “Mr Lewis Shaw to the Bridge right away please”, and I quickly headed upstairs to the bridge, where I found the Captain and Mr Wagner chatting.

“Mr Shaw, we have a special request to make, as you saw I asked young Wyatt to reveal who the two crew were regarding the discrimination matter, I would like you to keep an eye on Wyatt, to make sure that he doesn’t receive any backlash from today’s matters, also I want you to keep an eye on things in general, you have the training and experience to know what is right from wrong.

So, if you see anything that should not be happening, you have my authority to put a stop to it, no matter what rank they hold on the yacht”, Mr Wagner asked, “Yes sir, I would be happy to do that” I replied.

After dinner, I went out onto the Boat deck aft outside deck, where I just stared out to nowhere, and wondering if this was the right decision, to be a junior deckhand on a large yacht. Eventually I headed indoors, and I retired to bed for the night.

The following morning, I was up early, and after some toast and a cup of tea, I headed out on to the aft main deck, where I found Wyatt washing and scrubbing the main deck floors. “Good Morning Wyattisn’t there meant to be another deck hand on duty at 6am?” I said to Wyatt smiling.

“Yes, but he always sleeps in, and doesn’t start till 7am, and he expects me to have all the work done by then” Wyatt replied frowning, “I presume you are meaning the Bosun – Toby?” I asked, “you got it in one” Wyatt replied, “Well never mind him, I will assist you, let’s get this finished, so we can have some proper breakfast” I answered, and I grabbed the stiff bristled broom, and began scrubbing the deck.

Finishing in record time, we packed away everything and headed down to the crew mess to get some breakfast, where Melinda and Margarite were on duty in the galley. “Good morning ladies, all ready for a busy charter?” I said as I entered. “Good morning Lewis and Wyatt, what would you like for breakfast?” Melinda replied.

“Anything will do thanks chef” I replied, and moments later Melinda produced two plates of cooked breakfast, and Melinda saw the surprised look on my face. “I saw you earlier, working with Wyatt, when the roster clearly says that someone else should be on duty” Melinda said with a big smile, and I just chuckled.

Just as we were finishing our delicious meal, Toby the Bosun appeared. “3rd Mate, you are meant to be cleaning the decks, and 4th mate, you should be ready to start on deck” Toby shouted at both of us, “Calm down Bosun, the deck has been done, as I have assisted him with completing the job, which we finished ahead of time, so we came down for a quick breakfast” I commented calmly.

“Don’t tell me to calm down, now get your arses upstairs and on the main deck right now” the Bosun shouted in reply, “Ok, fine, we are going, thanks chef” I replied, as I followed Wyatt to the stairs and the Bosun sat down, “I will have what they had thanks” we heard the Bosun say to Melinda.

“No way mate, you were rostered to start an hour ago, you can get your own when you take your required break” Melinda replied as she collected the dirty plates from the table, and I stopped half way up the stairs to listen in on the conversation.

“Don’t tell me that I can’t have a cooked breakfast, now get it” the Bosun snapped, “Don’t you order me around mate, you have no authority to that” Melinda barked back, with her face very close to Toby’s, and she held the stare for a few moments, before continuing her duties, and I continued up the stairs.

A few minutes later, I joined Wyatt and began washing the windows. “Tell me, in the time you have been onboard, how often has Toby not started at his rostered time?” I asked Wyatt, after checking that we were alone.

“He has never started on time, he always starts an hour later” Wyatt replied. “Have you mentioned this to the Captain or your boss?” I asked, and Wyatt hesitated for a few moments.

“I have hinted to Mr Wagner, that there were a few crew members who were not pulling their weight with work duties, but no names, although one of them was dismissed yesterday, so there is only one left” Wyatt replied, as we continued to work.

About fifteen minutes later, Toby appeared, and he looked carefully at what we were doing, before storming off, with happening several times over the next 3 hours, grumbling when he couldn’t find Wyatt, who had gone on is assigned rest break at 9am.

Half an hour into my two-hour rest break, there was a knock on the door of my cabin, and I called for whoever it is, to come in. “Sorry to disturb you on your break, but the Captain requests your presence in the Sundeck lounge on this deck” the 1st officer said as he stuck his head into the door.

“Very good sir, I will be right there” I responded, and the 1st officer closed the door as he left. I quickly changed into my dress uniform, and made my way to the sundeck lounge, at the back of the yacht. As I entered, I saw Mr Wagner and two young men, who I guessed to be his younger brothers, as well as the Captain, the 1st Officer and Wyatt, who I thought was still on his break, and he was dressed in a full suit and holding a silver tray.

“Come in please Mr Shaw… Lewis, I would like to introduce my younger twin brothers, Joachim and Louis, and you already know my house staff member Cooper. Coop, can you get Mr Shaw a drink please “Mr Wagner said, “it’s a pleasure to meet you both, and just water please Wyatt” I said to the twins and to Wyatt, as Mr Wagner indicated for me to take a seat.

I saw the twins look at me, then at each other, as they began to chat very softly, in what sounded like Italian, “Enough of that you two, don’t be rude and talk in English if you must talk” Mr Wagner said to his twin brothers, who both stopped talking and blushed. “Coop, you stay for this please” Mr Wagner said when Wyatt brought me a tall glass of iced water.

“Well in about 1 ½ hours, we will have our next charter guests, and I am hoping that it will go smoothly, as it will be friends of mine from Switzerland and Italy. After yesterday’s incident, and with a bit of sleuthing on the part of my twin brothers here, we have discovered a very worrying problem.

Very early today, the twins overheard a conversation that you had with the bosun, regarding work duties, or the lack of attendance of duties on the part of the Bosun, they also over heard the conversation between the Sous chef and the Bosun soon afterwards” Mr Wagner said to me.

“You remember that conversation that you and I had, with Melinda present?... Well I am acting on that right away, as of now you are the Bosun of this yacht, Toby will shortly be given the offer of either taking a demotion to Lead Deck Hand, resigning, or if he doesn’t accept those offers, he will be fired, we also have two new mail stewards and anextra galley hand joining us before the guests arrive” the Captain announced.

“Well it wasn’t the way I wanted to be promoted, but with Mr Wagner here, I guess I have no choice, I will pack my gear in readiness of the move” I responded. “One last thing, I would like to have a less formal chat with you later, if you would mind coming up to the owner’s suite, say half an hour after you have finished your shift at 8pm tonight” Mr Wagner said to me, “Err yes sir, no problems” I replied, before leaving the room.

A few minutes later, I heard on the radio, the Captain calling Toby to the Sundeck Lounge, and I about five minutes later, I heard the door slamming shut in the adjoining cabin. Slipping out of my cabin quietly, I headed to the Sundeck lounge, to find out exactly what happened.

When I entered the lounge, I saw Wyatt picking up a broken vase from the floor, and the Captain did not look happy. “Come in Lewis, it is settled, Toby had had his opposition terminated, so with you as Bosun, we will get Henry back to being Leading Deckhand, and he is happy that you are Bosun now.

With Wyatt now back at his usual position serving Mr Wagner, you will be two crew down, but I am sure you will be fine with that?” the Captain said to me. “Yes, sir that is fine, we will get everything done on time” I replied.

“Good, now the charter guests are 12 adults and 4 children, aged 10 years and older, so we are going to be quite busy for this five-day charter, I will leave it up to you to make sure everyone is well entertained, when they are outdoors. Any questions?” the Captain stated, “No Sir, except do you know what the invite later, is all about?” I responded, “I think Mr Wagner would like to get to know you better?” the Captain replied, which made Wyatt giggle.

I looked at him, wondering why he did that, but he said nothing, as he disappeared after completing cleaning up the mess. “That is all for now thanks Lewis, once Toby has vacated the cabin, one of the stewards will do a thorough clean, before you move in later today” the Captain said.

I went back to my cabin and lay down on the bed, as I was still on my rest break, and I snoozed for a while till it was time to get cleaned up before the guests arrived. I was not sure how many of the crew would be on the main deck when the guests arrived, but I presumed that it would be most of them.

Just as I clipped the radio to my belt, a call came over the radio. “Attention all senior crew, be on the aft main deck in 5 minutes, for guest arrivals” and I recognised the voice as being James, the 1st Officer.A few minutes later, I arrived on the aft main deck, where the Captain, 1st Officer, Henry – the lead Deck Hand, Eric – the Hospitality manager, the chefs, Marco and Melinda, plus Sarah and Mary the senior Stewards.

I slipped into the empty space between James and Henry, as we spotted the group of guests walking down the jetty towards the yacht, and as they stepped aboard, Mr Wagner appeared and stood next to the Captain. Once the guest had introduced themselves to the line-up of crew, and received a glass of drinks, the Captain spoke up.

“Welcome aboard the yacht Huon, and we hope you enjoy your stay with us, our stewards will give you a tour of the yacht, and we will be on our way, once your luggage has been collected and delivered to your assigned cabins” the Captain announced to the guests.

As the guests started to be shown around, I grabbed my radio and called all deckhands to the aft main deck. “Right, for those who don’t know, Toby was dismissed earlier, and he left the yacht about an hour ago, and I have been appointed the new Bosun, with Henry returning to his duties as Lead Deckhand.

For most of you who are unaware, Wyatt is a permanent house staff member of Mr Wagner’s, based in London, and he has taken over butler duties for Mr Wagner. “Right, let’s get the guests luggage onboard and into their cabins, then prepare for departure” I announced.

The departure went very smoothly, and I was happy with how the deck crew all worked well together, and I made sure that I put in my worth of work into it, to prove that I was in no way like the former Bosun. Just 45 minutes after leaving the port of Nice, we arrived in the Principality of Monaco.

With the guests having just completed their lunch, and we anchored just off Monte Carlo Bay, to allow the guests the remainder of the afternoon to explore the city of Monaco, providing the short launch trip to the beach landing. The crew were even given 3 hours of shore leave, with our return time, to be no later than 4pm, an hour before the guests return.

When we boarded launch fifteen minutes after the guests had been taken ashore, I was a little shocked to see the Wagner twins arrive and join us for the trip to shore. On the short trip over, one of the twins who was seated next to me, goodness knows which one it is, as they are hard to tell apart, leaned towards to me and whispered to me.

“We would like you to join us for this shore excursion, we have been here a few times before, so we know the city well” he said. If it is not too much hassle, I would be honoured to join you sir” I replied softly, so no one would over hear us. “That is good, you will have a great time” the twin replied.

The next 2 ½ hours with the Wagner twins was fantastic, and we were now at a café near the foreshore before we had to return to the yacht. “So, is there any particular reason that you both chose to invite me to tag along with you, not that I minded, as you were both great company, and hand with language translation” I said to the twins, as we enjoyed the summer warmth, with a cup of tea and cakes.

“Very observant, Commander Shaw, and yes we know all about your award, the basics of your Naval career, and what you have been doing for the past year” one of the twins said, “We believe that our older brother has a crush on you, and we think that you are swinging in the same direction, if we are not mistaken” the other twin added.