Kijana Page 11

  I hesitantly dialled the office number and my voice was soon being broadcast on the speakerphone to those in the office. I told them how the bond among the guys was getting stronger, but the relationship between the guys and the girls was getting worse. I could not keep going this way, I told them, for I was at my wits’ end.

  They simply told me to hold on.

  ‘Don’t say anything just yet’ until there is a clear plan, they said. A plan for what? I suppose they needed time to let it sink in. Meanwhile, I had to keep my mouth shut and not mention my conversation to the others, least of all the girls.

  Back at the boat, as we prepared to leave Nhulunbuy the following morning, Mika asked if she could talk to me – alone. She asked me straight out whether I wanted her on the boat. I answered truthfully – no. She didn’t respond, instead heading up on deck to sit on her own in the dark. Fifteen minutes later she came into the cabin and announced to everyone that she would be leaving the boat in Darwin. So much for the office’s plan! The following morning we weighed anchor and began the five-day leg to Darwin.

  It was the most miserable leg of the entire trip. The weather was overcast and no one spoke. Beau, Josh and I spent most days on deck huddled behind the steering wheel, while Mika and Nicolette rarely came out of their cabin. There was no ‘dinner’ together, as previously.

  Nicolette didn’t say much at all. I wondered what she was thinking. Josh made an effort to make things less miserable, spending time sitting with Nicolette and joking with her as best he could.

  The fourth of July came and nearly went. Late in the evening I remembered the significance of the date. Not because it was American Independence Day, which may have been significant to Nicolette, but because it was Josh’s birthday. I double-checked with him if it was the right date, then wished him a happy twenty-second birthday. He glumly told me it was the worst birthday of his life.

  As we sailed past Melville Island, a few hours out from Darwin, I checked the emails, hoping for some word from the office. Suddenly, Nicolette swept into the cabin and demanded to know if I wanted her to stay on the boat. I couldn’t lie to her, so I said no. She said she would leave with Mika once we arrived in Darwin.

  A heavy mood hung over the boat as we entered Darwin’s Fanny Bay. Mika and Nicolette had gathered their stuff and were ready to leave. We entered Cullen Bay Marina and tied up to a floating pontoon. Mika and Nicolette loaded their possessions into the dinghy and Josh took them ashore. There was no farewell between Beau, myself and the girls, just relief that they were off and that maybe we would be free to find and film paradise.

  Forget the plan, my email to the office said, both the girls were already off. The office immediately organised their flights back to Melbourne and Flip, the publicist, was called back from holidays that day to work out a strategy to let the public know. The aim, of course, was to keep it as low-key as possible.

  The interest in what had happened was high. All the daily newspapers across Australia covered the story, and I did quite a few radio interviews. I was honest in what I told them. Things hadn’t worked out with the girls, so they had decided to leave. I didn’t reveal how they’d driven me crazy and that I’d discovered that I certainly wasn’t the best captain to have ever sailed the seven seas when it came to people management.

  The one question most people wanted to know was who would replace Mika and Nicolette? The guys knew we could sail the boat on our own, as that’s what we had virtually done since day one. So we didn’t necessarily need people with sailing experience. In fact, we didn’t really want to take a ‘sailor’ with us. We liked our routine and most sailors we’d met were the cliquey type who used sailing terms way too often for our liking. The three of us were relaxed and we wanted people who could fit into that groove. Attitude was the most important attribute. But how could we judge that until we were out sailing with them? It was a case of once bitten, twice shy.

  I wanted Maya to come on board but I hadn’t mentioned that to the others. How could I, especially with the problems we’d had with Mika and Nicolette. It would look like I wanted them off so Maya could come on board. That wasn’t the case and I certainly didn’t want anyone thinking it was. Josh asked me about her joining and I said, yes, of course I wanted her to join. As far as Beau and Josh were concerned, she had as good a chance as anyone of fitting into our groove.

  Sure, she didn’t fit any of the roles we had designed in the Kijana mission statement, such as extreme sports coordinator, mechanic, etc. But we’d discovered they were just words anyway. An adventurous attitude was more important than any specialist skills.

  So, we had one girl and needed someone else. Or did we? We thought about it and came up with an idea. Why not leave the fifth position open for people we met along the way to come with us for short stints. After a couple of months if things weren’t working out we could say their time was up. If we got on well, we could ask them to stay for the rest of the trip. It was a great idea.

  We stood at three consecutive payphones in Darwin, each dialling the number for the conference call with the office to discuss our plans. We stood and listened as the job description for new crew members was read out to us. We were told we needed someone who could write the web updates, be a mechanic, sailor, researcher, female and preferably someone who wasn’t Australian.

  We were digesting the impossibilities of finding such people in Darwin, when they delivered a bombshell. The deal with the American book publisher, worth $100,000, had fallen through. The fact that we no longer had an American on board was being blamed. It was a huge blow. We’d been counting on that money to pay for virtually everything. We basically now had nothing in the bank. It meant the documentary series had to be sold immediately to cover food, fuel and the wages of the office staff.

  As we digested this news, Josh suggested Maya as a crew replacement. I looked over at him as he listed the reasons. We didn’t need a sailor, we needed someone we could get along with. He explained that he and I could write the web updates and we had plenty of time while sailing to read about the interesting places to visit, so we didn’t need a researcher. Beau was doing great with the cooking and together we were a strong team.

  But the office were firm. No way, we were told. Imagine what people would think. As soon as Mika and Nicolette get booted off then Jesse’s girlfriend comes on board. We had to think about our image for the sake of our sponsors.

  But they offered one small concession. If we kept going, filmed more and got the documentary series sold to secure our finances, then maybe Maya could be considered. I was not surprised by what they said, and I had no choice but to accept it.

  We had two weeks in which to find a crew member who could quickly join us, so most likely they would already be travelling. The fifth position could be left open for someone we met while in Indonesia, our next destination.

  Losing the publishing deal was a big blow, but at least we heard some good news during the call. We’d received more than two million hits on the web page – people logging on to see the video clips and read the updates. A lot of those, we were told, were from school children. It was the first feedback we’d had about how the updates were going. It was just the tonic we needed as we set about finding a new crew member and getting the Kijana adventure back on track.

  I had to call Maya and tell her she would not be joining us. It was difficult, because I couldn’t even tell her who was. It was a bit like saying anyone was better than her. ‘Someone with a foreign accent,’ I said in passing as I tried to play it down.

  I wondered what Josh and Beau thought about our conversation with the office. Most times I spoke to the office on my own and filtered what I was told to the crew. I was, after all, a part-owner of the business, captain of the ship and director of the filming, so I had to keep some stuff to myself. But after the conference call with the office I wondered what Beau and Josh were thinking about the workings of the trip. The trip was never designed to be so political, but they were now very mu
ch caught up in it. I wasn’t surprised when a few days later it came out.

  Kijana had been hauled out of the water in Darwin to repair the damage to the keel. Beau and I were under the keel ripping off a plank with screwdrivers, while Josh climbed about the place trying to find the best angle to shoot some footage of us at work. Like so many times before, Josh asked Beau to hide his cigarette. Beau reluctantly butted it out, then took out his frustration on the keel.

  ‘It doesn’t look natural,’ Josh said referring to the angry scowl on Beau’s face.

  ‘Well, what do you want me to do?’ Beau asked. I could see he was getting pretty steamed up.

  ‘Just do what you were doing before, as if I wasn’t here.’

  ‘This is what I mean,’ Beau said, in a huff. ‘This is what I hate about the trip. We’re meant to be making honest docos out here, but it’s not honest. It’s not real. When Jesse first told me about this trip what I loved about it was that we were real people going on a real adventure without make-up or any of that stuff. But this is fake. We’re meant to be inspiring young people by being ourselves but I have to hide a stupid cigarette. It’s bullshit.’ He settled down a bit and started working again.

  ‘Do you know what I mean?’ he asked Josh.

  Josh had lowered the camera. ‘Yeah, it’s kind of fake but in the docos you can’t make everything absolutely real. We’re aiming this trip at students and young people. How do you expect a school to endorse our study kits when there’s footage of one of the “role models” smoking?’

  I interrupted before Beau could answer.

  ‘I know what you mean Beau, but no documentary or film can be totally real. Robert McKee (a world-renowned scriptwriter) even says it’s only an interpretation of real life. So if that means we have to hide a smoke so we can get the good message out about young people achieving dreams, then surely that’s not a big deal.’

  I was relieved when Josh put the camera away. I knew Beau had to be handled gently.

  Josh picked up a screwdriver and joined us under the keel. It was two against one. I knew in any other circumstance Beau would have stuck to his guns, but my opinion held sway with him. I knew what he was saying and I even agreed with him. It was just that I needed support from both guys and didn’t want the argument to escalate. With the girls gone I had a much better chance of making the trip ‘real’ for all of our sakes.

  We got the keel prepared for the shipwright to fix the damage, then gave her a few extra coats of anti-fouling. While I supervised the work at the dry dock, Josh and Beau distributed an advertisement for a crew member at every backpacker hostel in Darwin. They even hung around bars handing out leaflets to anyone who looked like a traveller.

  Over the next week we interviewed a few people, but there was only one who filled our main criteria – a foreign female. Her name was Maria, and she was a backpacker from Denmark. She was working at a pub when Josh and Beau met her. Josh shouted over the bar above the noise as he handed her a leaflet. She read it, then came back to their table with a free jug of beer and her phone number.

  I met her two days later and, knowing Beau, was not surprised to discover that she was good looking. She was 22 years old and had been travelling in Australia for several months. She had blonde hair and tanned skin with a slim figure. She also had a heavy accent, which would prove very entertaining as we got to know her better. She’d finished her studies and was travelling before working out what she wanted to do with her life.

  At the outset I stressed that we were considering her for a two- to three-month stint only, which I made sure I told her a number of times so there would be no confusion later.

  But it was not a one-way interview. She had to be convinced we were legitimate – not just three guys trying to pick up a pretty girl. She wanted to know exactly what type of filming we were doing. ‘Our travels,’ we told her, which must have sounded suitably suspicious. We gave her the Kijana web address for added assurance.

  She must have been convinced, for she accepted our offer on the spot. She had to return to Darwin to meet her brother in about three months, so the timing was perfect. She seemed pretty laid back and we all had a good feeling about her. She also told us she was a hard worker, which was all we could hope for. We made plans to leave in three days’ time, despite the fact that she hadn’t even seen the boat.

  I phoned the office and told them of our choice. They had a short chat with her and seemed satisfied with our decision. Not that there was much they could argue with. She was Danish and a girl. Two of their wishes had been granted.

  Over the next few days Maria gave notice at the pub and packed the bulk of her belongings into storage. She updated her immunisations and Customs officially checked us out of the country.

  Finally, we were off. After more than a month in Darwin, and five months after beginning our journey, we were leaving our home shores in search of adventure.

  Being on Kijana as she heaved up and over a swell had become an unfamiliar feeling. The guys even commented that they’d forgotten how to sail. We had to make a conscious effort to remember our sail-raising routine. But it was good to be home.

  Our destination, the city of Kupang, lay 600 miles north-west across the Timor Sea. Kupang is the capital of the West Timor province of East Nusa Tenggara. West Timor, in turn, is part of Indonesia. We chose Kupang as our first port as it was the closest place to Australia we could get our papers stamped by Indonesian Customs. From Kupang we planned to cruise along the hundreds of Indonesian islands, stopping in to check out the notorious komodo dragons as we headed towards Sulawesi on our way to Thailand. There, in the southern islands of Phuket, we planned to hang out at Maya Bay, the location of The Beach, before we began the long haul towards India and onward to Africa.

  Maria felt a little queasy as we got underway, but she hid it well. We showed her over the boat and she practised raising the jib and unfurling the foresail.

  The wind died down on the second day out of Darwin and we were forced to motor. By the third day the water was oily calm. We motored through big patches of fish breaking the surface of the water on either side of the boat. Beau and Josh unpacked the fishing rods and tried casting a lure to the place where the most recent fish had disrupted the surface. They tried for half an hour with no luck.

  The lack of wind made it very hot. The book I was reading was dotted with wet patches where sweat was landing on the page, so we rigged an awning over the cockpit to enable us to read in the shade. Josh was reading about a man who lived with a tribe of Indians in the Amazon Basin. Every now and then he’d read out a passage, then relate it to us.

  Beau was reading the Buddhism book Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace. He’d already clocked up four Buddhism books since leaving Melbourne. He was trying to work out which strain of Buddhism he wanted to follow. Maria recommended her Stephen King novel to us, while I found relief reading about an Arctic dog-sledding adventure.

  The searing heat of the tropics made night the best part of the day. The soft glow of a hurricane lantern reflected off the canvas awning, lighting our little cocoon of a cockpit. The moon was nearly full in those first days and sent a searchlight-like beam across the water. It was beautiful and warm and everything was under control. I couldn’t remember being on the ocean on more beautiful nights.

  Josh put on the George CD for about the twentieth time since leaving Darwin.

  ‘Who is this?’ Maria asked.

  ‘George,’ we told her, as if the band was an old friend.

  ‘I like this one,’ she declared.

  We took it as a compliment. We told her George had played at the St Kilda festival back home and reminisced about what it would be like sitting on the grass with friends listening to George play live. Maria produced her selection of CDs and shared her favourite songs with us. No Woman No Cry by Erykah Badu and Jimmy Cliff was a favourite, as well as The Cranberries. She explained that her brother had made a CD for her before she left for Australia, whic
h she constantly played as it reminded her of him. We liked her music and she liked ours. It was a good sign.

  I’d taken over the back cabin since the girls had departed, which allowed me to stretch out for the first time on the trip. I wasn’t too keen on heading back to the main cabin when Maria arrived, but I graciously offered her the back cabin. She insisted we share, which I was happy to accept, as it was a damn sight more comfortable than the couch I’d been sleeping on, and at least I now had a spot to store my own gear.

  The next day the wind picked up enough for us to raise the sails. Maria was delighted when a pod of dolphins swam beside our bow for a while. In the afternoon Beau noticed the fishing line was tight and Maria pulled in a small tuna for dinner. It was our fourth day at sea. At our current sailing speed we expected to arrive in Timor the next day.

  We had a competition as to who would be the first to sight land. The winner would get a whole can of Coke at dinnertime. Before lunch on the fifth day Beau claimed the prize.

  We were all excited, but Josh displayed it the best. Whenever he got excited he made us all feel good.

  ‘More tea!’ he exclaimed in his best taking-the-mickey tone.

  Beau, Maria and I looked at him. I didn’t get the joke, but the way he said it was funny enough.

  ‘More tea,’ he said again. This time I wondered what the hell he was on about.

  Then, in his loudest voice, he pointed to the land on our left and shouted: ‘TEA MORE.’

  We fell about laughing. (You probably had to be there.)

  It was a great feeling. We were finally in another country, we were a strong team and the journey of Kijana was heading in the direction I had always hoped it would.

  CHAPTER SIX

  CELEBRATION

  KUPANG WAS LIKE ANOTHER WORLD. SITTING on the western tip of Timor, it is the major trading centre for the region, with a population of 148,300 people.