"WHEN THINGS GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT?"

It was January 1978. The Minney family's seventy foot schooner "Shearwater" was on a year's voyage out of Newport Beach, California and presently at anchor in the picturesque little harbor of Russell, in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.

It had been and interesting and exciting year for the "Shearwater"crew. The Marquesas islands, French Polynesia, Somoa, Fiji and the New Hebrides were now far astern. When the cyclone season was over, the Minneys would shape a course for Sydney, the Great Barrier reef and Bali, Indonesia.

It was a misty evening with a light offshore breeze blowing from the little town of Russell. It was cook's night off. Captain Ernie had taken his wife Carrie and his two children Alice, age seven and Ernie, age 10 ashore for a lovely dinner at the Beachcomber's restaurant. It was about ten PM when the Minneys departed the cafe and little Ernie insisted on rowing the fifteen foot Pea Pod sailing dinghy the quarter mile out to the stately schooner. Captain Ernie helped to guide his son around the three, hundred foot plus passenger vessels, that were secured to large moorings a hundred or so yards up wind of "Shearwater". It was summer "down under," the big blue boats were capable of carrying three hundred or more tourists on sight seeing trips around the Bay of Islands. The passenger boats had solid bookings, this was to be their best season in years.

Ernie brought the long boat smartly alongside the teak boarding ladder. Soon Carrie was below deck in the galley helping Alice and Ernie bait their cockroach hotels. Captain Ernie had posted a bounty of ten cents a roach eight months earlier when departing from Tahiti. The cockroach hotels had become a good source of income for the Minney kids.

As Carrie was tucking the kids in bed, the skipper, who had perhaps taken on board a bit more wine than he was should have, made a turn about the deck checking the anchor chain, the riding light and position of the other boats in the anchorage. Soon our good captain was bedded down in the elegant mahogany paneled captain's cabin. Carrie, a registered nurse, "Shearwater's" ham radio operator, ship's cook, back up celestial navigator and shipboard chef, was soon to follow. As Ernie drifted off to dream land, his final thought was, "there could be no better place on the planet than being in a warm cozy bunk, aboard an elegant wooden schooner, with the woman he loved, and the gentle sound of rain pelting the teak deck above.

It was about two in the morning when"Shearwater" was dealt a sudden blow that reverberated through out the ship. Ernie sat up instantly and in a wine induced haze waited for a second blow. It never came? It was common while at anchor, "Shearwater's" anchor chain would angle across the bob stay (the cable under the bow sprit that transfers the upward pull of the bowsprit rigging back to the hull) and make loud metal to metal noises throughout the boat. Ernie knew the heavier blow that woke him up was not the anchor chain noise. Still he did nothing. Carrie was also awake and as they both waited for another jolt, Ernie had sort of a sixth sense or premonition that something was lurking just outside his port light. The thought of getting out of bed and going on deck in the rain had no appeal. Soon, husband and wife were sound asleep.

It was a little after daybreak when the sound of a boat engine wafted down the spiral stair case and into the captain's cabin. A minute or two later a voice called out, "ahoy, "Shearwater." Ernie was on deck in seconds and was surprised to see the uniformed Russell harbor master bringing his official looking launch alongside the schooner. Ernie took his bow and stern line and then asked, "what's up?" The harbor master asked, "did you see or hear anything unusual last night?" Ernie thought a moment and then answered that nothing out of the ordinary had taken place during the night. Ernie then asked the official, "why do you ask?" The friendly Kiwi then said, "sometime during the night a disgruntled crew member that had been fired from the cruise line company cut all the mooring lines and set the big steel cruise ships adrift. One has drifted across the bay and is ashore on the rocks and is badly damaged. Another one is aground on a sand bank and a third one we were able to get a line on and are presently towing it back to Russell." "Wow! I said in disbelief and then I recalled the bump in the night and mentioned it to the official. He asked, "where about on the boat do you think something might have hit you?" I told him it was toward the bow of the boat. After receiving that information he came aboard "Shearwater" and we both walked toward the bow. It took only a few seconds for us to discover bright blue paint chips adhering to "Shearwater's" bow pulpit. (the heavy stainless steel guard railing that protects crew members from falling overboard when handling sail out on the fifteen foot bowsprit. My god I thought, "one of the drifting passenger boats had hit us as it went drifting by".

The harbor master was obviously pissed and was doing his best to accept the fact that "Shearwater's" inept Yankee skipper had stayed in his bunk and done nothing after his vessel had sustained a substantial blow during the night. My incompetance had cost the Blue Line boat company hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to their ships and months of lost revenue to the company at the height of the summer tourist season. As the harbormaster boarded his patrol boat and fired up his diesel engine I apologized for my lack of vigilance and cast him loose.

Regretfully I thought, I could have been a hero. To my dying day I will always wish I could re-live that dark rainy night down under. Yes, I learned a lesson I'll always remember. When things go "bump in the night,"INVESTIGATE..........