Mike Mate

Dimitry wears bright blue Bermuda shorts; “Bali” in a repeating pattern is written across the legs. He’s a middle aged man with receding hairline and he’s crouching behind a nikon mounted upon a tripod, taking pictures of Maite, the Spanish deck hand from Majorca. Photography is Dimir’s passion – he spent last year at Dunedin University on the South Island of New Zealand – at the end of the year he graduated as a professional photographer.

He is also the second mate and this morning I awoke to the Rainbow Warrior slamming into the sea and waves crashing into my cabin. I rang the bridge and Dimir answered. ‘Slow down’ I said. He did. He brought the pitch back to half-ahead and we ended up making a speed of less than 3 knots into a gusting 40 knot wind, but at least we could sleep as we made our way past Emily Reef, where the ill-fated sister ship to the original Rainbow Warrior ran aground. In 1987, two years after the Rainbow Warrior was blown up in Auckland, the sister ship of the Sir William Hardy – the “Debut” – put in to Cooktown on the north Queensland coast. The skipper had run out of gasoline and out of money and food too. He tried, unsuccessfully, to make amends in Australia but was forced to sail and got no further than Emily Reef. The boat is still there – a wreck on the reef.

I am fast at typing; as fast as Slade, but still… I prefer he compiles and sends the route plan – a course inside the Great Barrier Reef, down the coast of Queensland – to Reef Vessel Traffic System (REEFVTS). I hand him the co-ordinates and remarks scribbled in pencil on a piece of scrap paper and he sets out a pre-arrival email. Two hours later we send an arrival report by telex, using the SAT-C: “Rainbow Warrior arrived at Boobie Island bound for Prince of Whales Channel”. No pilot is required (we’re less then 70 meters in length) – it’s quiet, only two other ships pass us in the pouring rain. But then the rain clears and we transit the Torres straits that mark the top of Australia. The sea is streaked aquamarine light reflecting off shoals and corals between which we pass. It will take us five days to transit all the way down the inside of the reef and not one person on board has ever been this way before – it’s a treat.

Santa could not fit through the exhaust pipe of the Rainbow Warrior and so he came through the galley hatch instead (looking remarkably like King Neptune, who appeared a few weeks ago whilst crossing the equator, in a different coloured suit). Santa’s bag overflowed with presents for the crew – treasures from Indonesia. But, his greatest gift to the ship was a north-easterly – the first steady breeze of the voyage. We cut the engines, put out all the canvas, and heeled over to starboard on Christmas day – listening to the slapping of waves against the steel hull of the ship and the wind whistling through the rigging – a peaceful Christmas day.

Stop engine, de-clutch propeller, lower ladder, jump into the water… I was the first to abandon ship into the shallow Arafura Sea – just one hundred meters deep – a tepid 32 C swim stop. On board and underway before the sun set and the chart table turned into a banquet table; navigation instruments swept aside – Christmas on the bridge and barbeque beside. Carols about reindeer and snow cranked out of the speakers, except when Slade, (back as radio operator), insisted on Ralph Harris – tying his Kangaroo down sport.

Then the squalls arrived, one after another, a family of them stretching out for mile after mile. I altered course… they followed. Babu barbequed alone in the rain and fed his cosy and dry international family of Christian, Buddhist, Moslem, Hindu, and Individual (imaginations of their own) Rainbow Warriors through the wheelhouse windows.

Rainbow Warrior has reached the eastern end of Flores, one of the bigger islands in the Indonesian chain.  We are traveling along the norht coast of these islands where there is a steady following current.  The days have been rainy with variable winds – sails assisting about 40% of the time. I am keeping the 4 – 8 watch – decided to make a change (watch the sunrise and set) as the year draws to a close. Lesley is on watch with me.  She is from New Zealand and I ask a lot of questions – planning my three month shore leave.

On watch we have seen dolphins and whales swimming in front of volcanoes and have been joined by an additional passenger; a red footed Booby has perched in the rigging.  It has tucked its head beneath its wing for the night.  Ed and Canan have dressed the Mess-room in red and green tinsel and placed fairy lights in a tree.  It feels like Christmas.