A week ago I caught an early train to Edinburgh, to join what I thought was to be a short 3 day jaunt on the Rainbow Warrior. One week on I'm still here, and I'm not planning on coming home any time soon.
The ship left Leith on a grey Thursday morning, and my position on board as an assistant cook couldn't be any simpler. I chop vegetables and do the washing up. On rare occasions I make the odd salad, but generally I do the washing up.
The North sea in December was pretty calm, at least for the North sea, but it's been a wee while since I've been on a ship and I suffered a fair deal on the first day. The galley's also towards the stern of the ship, and so is quite a frisky place to try and overcome the effects of sea sickness. Being surrounded by food doesn't really help either.
The second day I'd found my sealegs and became more accustomed to life on board. Everythings very regulated, and needs to be so, but I guess it's more relaxed on a Greenpeace ship than say in the Royal Navy. The native American symbols, the collections of odd Greenpeace artifacts and Penny's extensive garden in the Mess make it quite a different place to be.
Then by the third day, I'd got really good at washing up, which given the roll of the ship is quite a challenge. If they ever do a reality show on extreme washing up, then I'm there. OK I admit it I did kind of slash my finger with a carving knife, but the washing up I can handle fine. Anyway the point of all these references, is that I think I'd proved myself enough to the crew that I managed to slip the suggestion in that I'd like to stay on the ship as far as Copenhagen. Which to be honest was my intention all along, I just thought it was a really long shot.
The climate talks at Copenhagen may not deliver the strong climate deal the world needs, but there is hope. For me, at this time, there is nowhere else in the world I would want to be. As someone who finds the headlong rush to climate catastrophe incredibly dumb, I really wanted to get to Copenhagen, to in some way contribute to the change I want to see. And now by luck, quite a lot of washing up, and the confidence to take a chance on it, the 1st mate said yes, and I'm sailing onwards on board the Rainbow Warrior. Life doesn't get much better than this.
On the Monday morning I emailed my boss to tell him I wouldn't be back to work the next day, which I think (well hope) he's reasonably cool about. Then I got stuck in to the business at hand in Norway.
You see the Warrior had been planning on going straight to Copenhagen (the Arctic Sunrise and the Beluga are already there), but the opportunity to meet Obama in Oslo as he accepted his Nobel peace price was a bit too big to miss out on. We'd arrived into Oslo on the Sunday night, and were raring to go.
So on the Monday we headed out to a heavy snow covered field near the airport to spell out in what was the biggest banner I've ever handled 'Our Climate - Your Decision'. The hope is that he looks out his window on the way in, and see's a message in the snow 150m x 100m. I'm not certain as to how feasible this is, but at least it will make a good picture that the Norwegian media may will pick up.
Oslo Peace Prize Dec09
At the same time there has been a team cleaning strategic parts of the streets of Oslo, to spell out similar messages (we call it Clean-Peace) and a further team has been projecting images and messages on various strategic buildings around town. Then of course there is the hot air balloon team. For a small office the Norwegians really are throwing everything they've got at this.
Today (Tuesday) there have been open boats on board, with the public getting a detailed look at the running of the ship, which is equally interesting for me. I've helped organised a fair few open boat days in London, which are always manic affairs and it's really strange to be there as a crew member, which a different perspective as to what's going on. It's nice to not have the stress of juggling 1001 details but it's also equally wierd to have this fuzzy haze as to what's going on.
So there are more activities planned throughout the week, demonstrations, press conferences, vigils, marches and more and hopefully Obama will leave Oslo in the right frame of mind to put his money where his mouth is. To prove himself to be a progressive president with an eye to the future, and the courage to stand up to the vested interests that are likely to fight a strong international climate deal tooth and nail.
For me I'm still trying to avoid walking around the ship with a daft grin on my face.
Richard
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