JET - Ops Files Read Online Free PDF Page A

steel cargo ship, eighty meters long, blue hull streaked with rust, pulled at its anchor chain as it rose and fell in the increasingly rough swell. A plume of white floated from its smokestack as men with skin the color of beaten bronze moved along the deck, eyes on the approaching squall as they hurried to finish their work.
    An expensive sport fishing yacht bobbed in the water next to the ship, its bow and stern lines secured to metal eyelets. A massive crane whined above; its motor strained as it lowered a pallet containing three wooden crates to the waiting craft. The crew of the smaller vessel guided the cargo to a clear area of the deck under the watchful eye of the captain, who stood silently by while his men unhooked the steel cable and swung the hook to the side. The captain waved at his counterpart aboard the cargo ship and then turned to face the gray wall of rain bearing down on them. He calculated they had five minutes to make it to land, which would be cutting it close.
    “Tie a tarp over the cargo while we get underway. I don’t want it getting wet,” he ordered in rapid-fire Bahasa Indonesia, and his men scrambled to obey.
    Satisfied they were doing everything they could, he mounted the stainless steel ladder to the flybridge. After a final glance below at the cargo, he signaled to the crewman on the bow to retrieve the lines. When they were clear, he engaged the transmissions and eased the throttles forward. The fifty-five-foot Viking sport fisher pulled away from the ship and began moving through the increasingly large seas, the surface the color of pewter. The rising wind churned the wave crests as the bow moved on a perpendicular course from the Korean tramp steamer toward the green rise of the island, where a protected harbor awaited them behind the safety of a rock breakwater.
    The men lashed the tarp in place. Angry gusts tugged at it as they secured the covering, and the captain goosed the throttles, giving the twin MAN diesels more fuel. The boat leapt forward and then leveled out, and was soon cutting through the four-foot slop, sending sheets of spray into the darkening heavens.
    A deafening roar reverberated across the sea as thunder exploded from the angry line of clouds, and the captain pushed the speed up several more knots. The agile boat slammed through the waves, and the skipper craned his neck from his perch to ensure that his precious load wasn’t shifting on deck.
    Another peal of thunder boomed, and a tree of lightning seared down upon nearby Pulau Telan island, only seven miles west. The air smelled of ozone and rain and the crisp astringency of open sea as the yacht closed the distance to the breakwater, the curtain of rain pursuing it ominously dark.
    The captain slowed as he neared the opening and guided the boat through the gap with a confident hand. The waiting crewman worked his way to the bow with a boathook in hand as the yacht approached a bright red float bobbing on the surface. The man retrieved the orb and hauled on a heavy nylon mooring line, which he wound expertly around a cleat, securing the vessel in place as a second crewman worked the other end of the submerged rope to the stern. He had just tied off the stern when the rain hit with thirty-knot force, blasting sideways, sheets of water blinding everyone on board.
    The captain watched the show from the enclosed flybridge, visibility down to only a few feet while nature doused the island. The crew took grateful refuge in the cabin below as the deluge pounded the boat’s topsides with the ferocity of artillery fire.
    Half an hour later the storm had blown by, leaving a breezy calm and a sweet freshness to the humid air. The captain lowered himself to the deck and called out to his crew.
    “Come on. We don’t have all day. I want this stuff off the deck, do you hear?”
    The men emerged from the cabin, blinking in the sunlight as the patchwork of clouds overhead thinned. The captain returned to the flybridge while