The Masteka Log — From the Crew

Their office, from the water line. Shot from the tender, driving around, as one does.

Every photo in this edition was taken by the crew. Every caption owes something to their narration.

The escort service

The boys on charter

On every passage between anchorages, while the guests paddled surf skis across open water, the crew ran the escort tender alongside — part safety boat, part press pack. Their verdict on conditions was delivered with professional understatement.

“They’re paddling in the open sea. It is quite rough — but they made it there very safe and smooth.”

The crew, narrating the photo reveal

Double ski seen past the tender radio — The escort’s view: one hand on the radio, one eye on the paddlers.

The double ski through the tender windscreen — Through the windscreen, mid-passage. The office has no bad seats.

Alongside the double ski — Alongside the double. Close enough to help, far enough to photograph.

Solo paddler into the chop — Solo into the chop, side-on to the swell.

Paddler in the swell — Following sea, following tender.

Solo paddler catching a breaking runner — Caught mid-runner, wave breaking astern. The crew’s best frame of the week, taken one-handed from a moving tender.

Heavy water on the crossing — “Quite rough.” The crew’s full meteorological report, in one frame.

Their boat

As only they see her

The guests photograph Masteka 2 from her own decks. The crew photograph her the way you photograph something you’re proud of: from the water line on a tender run, into the sun at anchor, and from a lookout above the bay at South Molle — “a very beautiful photo of the boat,” the narration notes, correctly.

Masteka 2 at anchor from the lookout, framed by leaves — At anchor in the bay off South Molle, from the lookout, framed in leaves.

Masteka 2 bow into the setting sun — Bow to the setting sun. No filter required, none applied.

The Cup, from behind the camera

Everyone at the beach

The full-company photographs from the Masteka Cup — the ones already framed in the Cup’s own pages — were taken by the crew, who assessed the day in a single line worth engraving on the sand turtle: “The Masteka Cup was a very lovely day.”

The full company on Whitehaven Beach — The company at Whitehaven, Cup day, by the crew.

The full company on Whitehaven Beach, second frame — Second frame, same lovely day.

The narration, for the record

In their own words

The crew delivered their photo reveal as a single unbroken commentary, preserved here as the log’s shortest and most efficient piece of art criticism:

“The pictures are the boys on charter — paddling on our passages on the way to our anchorages… a very beautiful photo of the boat in the bay off South Molle… everyone at the beach on the Masteka Cup — a very lovely day… and some more photos of the boat, just from the water line, driving around on the tender. And that’s it.”

The crew of Masteka 2 · “That’s it. Perfect.”

The people behind the lens

The crew themselves

Captain Paul at the wheel, whose deck log has never been wrong. Skye and Johanna running the decks and the service. Billy and Harry on the tender and everything else. And chef Boris, who fed twelve people like royalty for five days and has a gold-edged edition of his own. The log is mostly photographs of the guests; this section exists so the people who made the week run are in it too.

Chef Boris — Boris, chef. The first crew member the archive held a portrait of.

Two crew members with a guest at dinner — Service with a smile: the stewardesses at the final Boris dinner, briefly in front of the camera.

Skye serving champagne at the Whitehaven beach bar — Skye, running a full-service bar on seven kilometres of sand. Both glasses were claimed within the minute.

Reserved: the crew of Masteka 2, in one frame. Someone take the photo before we disembark.

Twelve guests took two thousand photographs of the trip. The crew took thirteen — and theirs are the ones with everyone in them.