PART 6 - THE JAMMING STOPS, BUT SO DOES RNI
On July 23, 1970, a crane ship assisted the Mebo 2 raise her anchors, and the ship set off back to the Dutch coast. Broadcasting resumed at 07:00. The jamming station remained silent, and RNI's signal albeit a little weaker, could be heard clearly once more. The FM transmitter had been re-tuned to 102 mHz, but all other frequencies remained as before. There were yet more problems, with stations' medium wave transmitter interfering with Hilversum 3, and so at 13:45, on 30th July the station was off the air once again. 

Transmissions resumed on August 3, 1970, on short-wave at 6.205 mHz  (49 metre band) and (on August 5) at 9.935 mHz (31 metre band), and on the medium wave-band at 1385 kHz. The following day, the FM service returned on 96 mHz. All transmissions were, at that time, in English and ran from 06.00 to 03.00.  

On August 17, a severe storm blew up during the night putting the medium wave transmitter off the air for almost a week. When transmissions resumed, the FM service had been changed back to 100 mHz. Interference was heard on 1385 kHz, and on August 24, when RNI closed down for the night, the medium wave frequency was changed yet again. The station was back on the air by 08:00 the following morning on what was to be her final change of frequency - 1367 kHz, 220 metres. At last, RNI had found a clear channel for her medium wave signal. Breathing a sigh of relief, those on board the Mebo 2 began to look forward to getting back what they did best, and a more settled way of life.

On August 27, the Dutch PTT seized ship to shore radio equipment that belonged to R.N.I. that was found in a bedroom of the Park Hotel, Scheveneingen.

Two days later the vessel itself was the subject of an attempted  seizure, led by a Mr Kees Manders (this is covered in detail in  'Part 5 - They're trying to tow us away'').

With the Manders affair seemingly over, life aboard the Mebo 2 began to return to normal. Plans for an expansion of broadcast services became a reality, when on September 22nd and 23rd, 1970, the 31 metre band and FM transmitters split from the 49 metre band and medium wave transmitters to carry a new service - RNI - World Service. Separate broadcasts were made from studio 2 between 10:00 & Noon, 14:00 & 16:00, and 18:00 & 22:00. This ambitious idea, which involved live broadcasts from both studios was to be short-lived however, for at 9:00 pm on the night of 23rd September, the tender "De Redder " drew alongside the Mebo 2 with a message that RNI was to close down the following morning at 11:00am. No explanations were offered, but chief DJ on board, Alan West was told to make some sort of announcement, and to mention Radio Veronica. 

Alan West, in a recorded interview, explains: I remember that we learned about the closure very late at night. I can’t remember how. I think it was telephoned out to the ship, radio telephone, something like that. There was an instruction to go on the air and make a statement and dribble something about Veronica. What I wrote about that 
announcement about the Dutch Government and the people of Radio Veronica was a load of garbage. I just invented it off the top of my head because something had to be said to cover up the real reasons why were we closing, which of course, we didn’t know. We just thought that the station had run out of money and that was why were we shutting down.
"Radio Northsea International is voluntarily closing down this morning at eleven o'clock due to the pressure in the Dutch Government to close down the off-shore stations. Our directors on Zurich feel that it would be better for the people of Holland for us to suspend broadcasting, so that the Dutch government will not attempt to close down Radio Veronica, so dearly loved by the people of Holland for the last ten years."
Alan West again: ‘Well considering everything that we’d been through in 1970, it was a tremendous defeat, great sadness and quite a good deal of disappointment as we were all to suddenly be out of a job’

The station stayed on the air all through the night, with all the DJs on board doing a "final" programme. The announcement that Alan West had recorded earlier was repeated at regular intervals, and at 10:00 the following morning, Andy Archer and Alan West co-hosted the "RNI Final Hour".

“Hello, this is Alan West for the last time on Radio Northsea International. Well, as usual, I’m lost for words, but I want to say that I feel it is very sad that we are closing down. We’ve achieved more on this station than any of the other offshore stations and given time, we could have achieved more. In summing up, I feel proud of this station and proud of the people I’ve worked with. We’ve been through a lot together and come out smiling and I’m sure we’ll all come out smiling from this. All of the announcers on Radio Northsea International have a great future ahead of them and I wish them all well. Thank you to Mr Meister & Mr Bollier and to everyone around me for all the encouragement and thank you for your support. Goodbye.”  

Alan West, again: ‘It was all very camp the last hour and it was done purposely. Andy and I had this thing about Radio London and T.W. (Tony Windsor) and the way things were done out there and we decided we wanted to do a real tearjerker and it sounded as though we meant it, although when we went into the studio to do, we didn’t mean it and we were still laughing over it, but by the time we were half-way through, it was beginning to get through to us’.

Alan West: ‘And as the clock ticks away, the time gets near’.

Andy Archer: ‘Both Alan and myself joined the station at exactly the same time, so together, we’ll be saying goodbye’.

Jingle: ‘What good are friends if you never call on them, your best friend station’

Alan West: ‘From Alan West, it’s goodbye’.

Andy Archer: ‘And from me Andy Archer, it’s goodbye too’.

Alan West: ‘And from R.N.I., it’s goodbye’.

Andy Archer: ‘And God bless’.

The sudden news of the closure came as a terrible shock to listeners and disc jockeys who could only guess at the reasons for the closure.

With the station off the air, the Mebo 2 remained at her anchor, which added to the mystery. Rumours began to circulate that the ship would be sold, and that an African country had shown interest. An asking price in excess of £800,000 was mentioned, but nothing more came of this. And so the Mebo 2 stayed at her Scheveningen Anchorage. Speculation began to rise in the press that RNI was to return to the air. Then the truth became known. Mebo Ltd, facing mounting debts, had struck a deal with the Veronica organisation.

In return for a payment of one million Dutch Guilders, RNI would cease all broadcasting for two months. A crew supplied by the Veronica organisation took over the running of the Mebo 2 and the ship remained at sea, but was this the end for R.N.I.?