Calypso's Mast

Chapter 2 - Tin Can Bay

"Can you please take line six, Winston?" The operator's sweet voice murmured in Hatfield's ear.

Hatfield looked out toward brilliant pink and reds of the rising sun from his sixth story office. It was going to be another warm one. The northwesterly winds were bringing in the hot desert air, as well as fuelling the fires around western New South Wales. The result - kaleidoscope sunrises and sunsets as the smoke and sun painted the canvas of the upper atmosphere.

"Sure, Cathy. Which region is it?

"Northeast – Great Barrier Reef"

"Ok. Thanks." He punched a button. "Winston Hatfield – Can I help you?"

There was a short delay. Just before he was about to speak again, a deep male voice spoke.

"Good morning. My name is Aaron Huntley-Woods and I'm a skipper for Ocean Farm. I'm on board the trawler 'Tin Can Bay' in the Northern Barrier Reef area."

There was a pause and Hatfield thought, 'Who names their boat Tin Can Bay? Surely they could have thought of a nicer name than that. It made it sound like a used, piece of junk.'

He didn't speak his thoughts. "How can I help you Aaron?"

There was another pause from the delay in the satellite link.

"I need to talk to someone about something that happened last night," he said. "Our trawl net was destroyed last night by something whilst we were working in deep water outside the Barrier Reef east of the Sir Charles Hardy Islands."

Hatfield made some notes on a pad on his desk as the caller spoke.

"We couldn't see it, but whatever it was, it happened to be big and powerful. We were pulling the net at four knots and it began dragging us in reverse faster than the speed we were going forward. I lost a man overboard and it's wrecked the net and damaged the rigging."

"Oh. That's not good. Ok. First thing. What's happened to your man?"

"We picked him up. He's ok. The sharks were circling when we got back to him. We 'choppered' him ashore to Hospital for observation."

"All right. That's good. What happened next?".

"Whatever it was, stopped and then disappeared. But by then, the damage was done. It was after that, we jumped into the tender we were towing and picked up Steve in the water. I thought it was very strange and someone should know about it."

"Have you got any ideas? What do you think it was?"

" I think it was possibly something from the Navy."

"What do you want me to do Aaron?"

"I just want you guys to know that there is some unusual stuff going on out here."

"All right." Hatfield scribbled on his pad. "Anything further you want to add?" 

"No. That's about it. Do you know if the Navy is operating here?"

"I couldn't tell you, but I can check."

"Ok. Thanks for your help. Do you have my contact number?"

"Yes. It's displayed here. Is there anything more I can help you with?" Hatfield intoned the usual Government department sign-off.

"No thank you."

"Ok. I'll look into it. Thanks for your call." Hatfield hung up and made a number of entries on his computer from notes on the pad. Then he printed the document to the network printer down the hallway, walked down to collect it and headed for his supervisor's office.