The Rainbow Warrior - big city, bright lights and night watches

I'll be adding to this map throughout the tour (zoom out to see events during the global tour).

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Some time yesterday morning (was it really yesterday morning?), I left the Greenpeace office, took a short tube ride eastwards, crossed a gang plank and fell through a rabbit hole into the weird and wonderful world that is a Greenpeace ship. And not just any Greenpeace ship, but our flagship Rainbow Warrior II, which is so tied up with Greenpeace's history. 

London offered a reassuringly British (cold, drizzly, grey and generally Mondayish) welcome to the Rainbow Warriors, just so those crew members who've never been to the UK before were under no illusions about what's in store for the next couple of weeks, during the UK bit of their global tour to stop coal.

Now it's four in the morning and - after a day spent meeting the crew, catching up with a couple of old friends, helping to unload the recycling and load new supplies, and tagging along on a tour of the ship - I find myself sitting on the ship's bridge, looking out at the bright lights of Canary Wharf.

I'm on the night watch. I'm sure I'll get over it soon but, as a landlubber, the night watch is one of my favourite parts of Greenpeace ship life. There's something a bit lovely about looking after the ship while lots of tired folks get their sleep - just as, when you're in dozing in your bunk, it's reassuring to hear the ship creaking as the night watch creeps around to check everything's in order. 

In an hour or two though, the crew will be awake and readying the ship to head into central London. At 10.45am, Tower Bridge is going to open to let us through and - all being well with the technology gremlins - I'm going to live stream the whole thing from my phone. Right here, so check back at 10.45 (until then, there'll be nothing to see):

(Update: we're now going through Tower Bridge at 9am.)