Tim on the Warrior

Our very own Purple Tim spent a few days on the Rainbow Warrior in November, and helped out with the Open Boat days in Edinburgh. This is what he has to say:-

Rainbow Warrior open boat days 27-28^th November 2009, Edinburgh

Arriving at the Ocean Terminal at Leith Docks Edinburgh at 8:30 am for the briefing, I was pleased to find I was to be part of the team giving the tours of the Rainbow Warrior. As we were given our own tour of the ship and given useful information, the other volunteers prepared the terminal building for the expected visitors.

The tours themselves consisted of a talk at the stern of the ship, then a talk from a crew member on the bridge, another crew member then another crew member talked about the RIB’s (Rigid Inflatable Boats) that are synonymous with Greenpeace actions at sea. Finally it was back to us tour guides to give another talk on the bow.

Saturday was a fine, calm, but cold day. We often had four groups of 20-25 people on board at a time. This called for some precision timing from all of us, especially as we all had to take turns going for lunch provided on board the ship.

At the end of a busy day the rest of the volunteers had the opportunity to take the tour themselves.

Saturday night I volunteered to take a watch on board the ship. Being in port this helps the crew to have a little time off. It also meant I got to see a few parts the ship that I’d not seen before when doing a couple of actions from it. Captain Mike Finkern came to the bridge for a chat during my watch. Having met him whilst briefly on board the Esperanza it was good to catch up a little, and to also get to meet a few of the crew properly during the night.

Sunday was a very stormy day. The wind had picked up and it lashed it down with rain several times. For health and safety reasons it was decided to not take visitors onto the bow due to it being so wet and slippery, but to spend more time on the bridge where it was warm and dry.

Again it was a busy day. As I left at 4pm to get my train home there were still 100 people waiting for the tour. My personal estimate is that we had perhaps 1000 visitors over the weekend.

For me it was a great pleasure to be able to help out with the tours, and to find I’m actually quite good at it. I found it quite inspiring to see the effect it had on many people to have the chance to go on board this iconic ship. I had a long talk with one lady who walked around in a daze. She told me she found it hard to not cry during the tour. I know what the ship means to so many Greenpeace members, but to see the same effect on members of the public, some supporters, some not, was really quite humbling. The memory will stay with me for a long time.

Tim