Abandoned Page #6

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And please spare us any more

of your crackpot theories.

Although it's hard to admit, I...

I guess you were right... in the end.

Cheers.

But, I love you guys... and I hope...

I hope that after all we've been

through, we can remain friends.

Famous friends. They'll give us all medals.

Yeah, to friends.

Oh, pudding!

Can't sleep.

How's your head?

It hurts.

(SOFT MUSIC PLAYING)

(KNOCKING)

Yeah, yeah.

Can I help you, blokes?

Who the hell are you?

And what are you doing in Jim's house?

Where are we?

What do you mean?

Great Barrier Island.

Hey, what's going on here? Who are you?

We're the crew from the Rose Noelle.

That trimaran that went missing?

[JIM] That's right.

No... you guys are supposed to be dead.

Really good to see ya'.

A few hundred meters

either side of that cove...

I would've been filling in a

report about four dead bodies.

No chance.

There you go, mate.

(PHONE RINGING)

Hello?

RICK (OVER PHONE): Hi, can

I speak to Heather, please.

Speaking.

Rick?

- RICK (OVER PHONE): Yeah.

- Rick?

It's me. Sorry, love,

I didn't recognise you.

RICK (OVER PHONE): Are you there?

Oh, g... oh, god, sorry...

yes, oh, darling...

HEATHER (OVER PHONE): I don't

believe it's true. It's really you.

Yeah, it's me. Um, look,

we're on Great Barrier Island.

We're heading into Auckland soon. Get the

first flight you can, eh? You and Mattie?

HEATHER (OVER PHONE): Yes, I will.

Oh, darling, I love

you, love you, love you!

Mattie, Mattie, it's

daddy! Yeah, oh, darling...

See you soon, okay?

(HEATHER KISSES RECEIVER)

[KAHU] Port of departure?

[JOHN] Picton.

Date of capsize.

(PHONE RINGING)

- Hello?

- JIM (OVER PHONE): Martha? It's me.

Are you there?

Yes, of course, I am.

JIM (OVER PHONE): They're

flying us to Auckland.

Can you please get on a plane...

and meet me there?

Please, Martha?

Okay.

JIM (OVER PHONE): Okay, bye.

That was a first.

Okay, you mentioned sightings of a freight?

(MUFFLED SCREAMING)

Listen. Hey, hey, hey.

(MUFFLED LAUGHING, CRYING)

KAREN (OVER PHONE):

Ohh, oh, my baby.

Yeah, Snookie Pooh... it's Snuggle Beard.

- KAREN (OVER PHONE): Oh, my god!

- Hey, babe. Jeez, I missed you.

KAREN (OVER PHONE): I love

you so much! I'm so glad!

Yeah, I know. I really missed you.

Yeah, well, you should

get a... Get a plane.

Yeah, get a plane to

Auckland as soon as you can.

- Yeah.

- KAREN (OVER PHONE): I love you so much.

Bye.

Oh.

John, your turn.

No.

(SOFT MUSIC PLAYING)

(MUSIC CONTINUES)

(REPORTERS YELLING)

Did you have any doubts that you'd make it?

- Not one.

- Why's that?

Faith... abiding faith.

- Mr. Glennie, I presume?

- Ah, yeah.

Ross Laing, Marine Transport

Division. This is Captain McKinley.

Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?

No.

Did you keep a log book, Mr. Glennie?

Yeah.

Any idea where it is now?

JOHN (V.O.):
This was so unexpected.

Are you serious? Christ! Can't this wait?

If you want us to believe your story,

Mr. Glennie, you'd better co-operate.

JOHN (V.O.):
After

all we'd been through.

What did you do for food and water all

the time you were supposedly adrift?

Um...

Rick?

Oh, Rick, darling.

[KAREN] Oh, darling.

JOHN (V.O.):
I struggled to comprehend

how we could have survived...

so much and yet be and

treated with such suspicion.

I don't know what these men

have been doing for 119 days...

but they haven't been

drifting on the ocean.

JOHN (V.O.):
And it

was only the beginning.

We had no inkling of what

we were about to walk into.

No one would believe us.

(BABY CRYING)

Damn it! Mattie, please?

Ssh...

ANNOUNCER (OVER RADIO): Many people are

wondering, what power and spirit they had...

these four men who spent July, August and

September adrift on the Pacific Ocean.

ANNOUNCER #2 (ON TV): Ministry

of Transport officials...

are to retrace the 119-day voyage of the

Rose Noelle with the use of a computer.

CALLER 1 (OVER RADIO): They

look too good to be true.

I mean no salt sores, far too well fed,

what did they eat out there all that time?

CALLER #2 (OVER RADIO): Who the

hell do they think they're kidding?

Bloody drug smugglers, I reckon. They're

having us on and it's all bull...

CALLER #3 (OVER RADIO): I

don't believe a word of it.

How can they be floating around for

so long without someone seeing them?

It's just impossible. It's just...

CALLER #4 (OVER RADIO): Okay, mate.

It's just not humanly possible.

I know what conditions are

like that time of year.

No yacht's gonna stay afloat

for even half that time, mate.

REPORTER (ON TV): Amid the euphoria, relief

and sheer joy at the survival of the crew...

some serious questions arise.

The Transport Minister has asked

for a preliminary investigation...

into the crew members' claims

of the 120-day ordeal...

which has attracted

widespread scepticism.

So what do you say, John,

in response to those...

who don't believe you? Is

there an alternative story?

You know, I... I couldn't give

a stuff what anybody thinks.

Jim, check it out. John's on the tele.

We were adrift all that time.

Survived only because we were careful

and clever and looked after each other.

For the rest of my life, I'll be

grateful to Phil and Rick and Jim.

Under the circumstances, they were

the best men I could have hoped for.

If you're watching

this, guys, I thank you.

REPORTER (ON TV): We needed

a miracle and we got one.

Skipper John Glennie claims his yacht was

capsized by a huge wave 3 days into their voyage.

Ah, bullshit.

No, no, babe. Hey, it's all right.

REPORTER (ON TV): But

now after surviving...

119 days drifting at sea, the Rose

Noelle broke up in a storm yesterday.

Mr. Glennie returned to the

wreck yesterday by helicopter...

accompanied by marine division investigators

who are trying to piece together...

the final voyage of the Rose Noelle.

Empty.

Do you wanna have a look at this?

I might've been wrong.

REPORTER (ON TV): It's perhaps New Zealand's

most miraculous survival story ever.

How four men in an upturned boat could

drift on the high seas without trace...

for nearly four months and

live to tell the story.

So remarkable was their tale of survival, that

some began to doubt that it ever happened.

But a report released today

backs up the incredible saga.

This inquiry with detailed

scientific evidence...

supporting it has demonstrated

that this is absolutely true...

and it is in fact is one of the great

stories of human survival on the seas.

The Rose Noelle skipper, John Glennie,

describes the report as fair and thorough.

Glennie says it answers

the doubts some people had.

JOHN (V.O.):
Sadly, eight months after

our return, Rick died of a brain tumor.

Jim helped take care of him

and then trained as a nurse.

Phil went back to sea.

He even made several voyages across

the Pacific and fathered another child.

But despite the ordeal we had

survived so well together...

after we left the island, I never

saw Rick, Jim or Phil ever again.

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