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Who was I kiddin?
By Lesley, assistant cook. 10 March. Did I say it was gonna
be a quiet Sunday? Huh. We made it through lunch and a few
hours on deck, sunbathing.
I've cleaned up after lunch and am planning a 'Queen of
Pudding' dessert. Marco tells me we don't have enough breadcrumbs,
how about ice cream. I counter with, how about apple pie
- he says we don't have enough apples. I go back to my cookery
book, How about custard tart - do we have enough eggs???
We agree on custard tart, even though I've calculated that
I will need 25 eggs!!!
I start to prepare. Marco suggests puff pastry cos he has
loads. I agree (much easier than short crust). I break the
eggs, add the sugar and put the milk in the big pan. Marco
brings up the puff pastry to defrost.
I go and sort out my laundry. I'm sitting in the hold casually
folding my trousers and sorting my socks out when I hear
an alarm. Sounds like the engine alarm. I ignore it. But
it keeps on going. I put down my socks and go out to investigate.
The deck is full with busy action people. I hardly have
to ask. I rush to my cabin and put my gear on and grab Mickey
Mouse. Off we go. Apparently two huge commando boats and
four commando inflatables are heading towards the Warrior.
Buggars.
We get five inflatables into the water in five seconds
(OK, maybe a bit longer). Me and Tyronne are the last boat
out cos we have a special mission. But before we can do
the special mission, we have to stop the commandos from
getting onto the Warrior. Sounds easy, but not if your inflatable
engine had cut out and we are drifting away from the ship.
Crickey! A big commando boat comes zooming up to us. In
two seconds a bloke jumps over and lands on me. I scream
(memories of tear-gas) and he pats me on the back and smiles.
There is no two ways about it, me, Tyronne and the Mickey
Mouse bag have been taken over by commandos. What to do?
Errr, nothin?
They take over the engine and start driving. Tyronne radios
the Warrior and tells them 'We've been taken'. But then,
so has every other inflatable.
Then begins the commando game. They catch us all, one by
one, then circle the Warrior, then take us back to their
huge inflatable, then back to the Warrior. I sorta figure
they don't know what they are doing. Eventually, they get
all our inflatable crews onto their huge inflatable, force
us to sit down and then drive really fast so we all get
covered in waves. Very clever. Commandos are in our inflatables
and we are in theirs.
At one point they bring their huge inflatable along-side
the Warrior. Captain Pete shouts…'Hey, the action's
over, can I have my boats back?'
I laughed.
Then began the boring bit. There is me, Dimitri (Russian),
Bernard (Canadian), Tyronne (Vincentian), Helen (American),
Marco (Dutch), Kristina (German), Nikki (English), Meghan
(American), Haussy (New Zealand) and a new bloke (Outer
Mongolian?) in the commando inflatable. They don't seem
to know where they are taking us. We drive in one direction,
then another. There is massive radio contact between the
boat we are in and the big commando ships. All the while,
the commandos in our inflatables are having a great time,
pretending to be Greenpeace activists and zooming around
the place.
The inflatable we are all on is having engine problems.
If only any of us could speak Spanish, one of our crew could
help em out!
An hour and a half later, we get into the port - after
the log ship has docked of course. Then the top commando
enters our inflatable. He speaks to us in Spanish and we
all look blank. I mean he could have tried English, Dutch,
German, Russian or even American and we would have got it.
Ah well, an English speaking commando says…'Look, you
did your job, we did our job, you can have your boats back
in five minutes, are we still friends'!!!!
Big cheers from us. We pile back into the inflatables we
started with and head back to the Warrior, arriving by 6pm.
Then Marco and I perform a miracle in the galley and we
produce a huge meal with shwama (meat and veggie), salad
and ginger chickpeas and a custard tart and ice cream (guavas
and chocolate Soya-cream for the vegans). I go back to my
laundry and sort my socks out.
Bye
Les
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