And so, we are sailing for Germany.
With our two Rhibs putting ashore our guests from the Swedish office at the outer edge of the Swedish archipelagos marking the end of our shore work, and the restarting of the ships work. We are all busy testing systems and going through fault finding exercises before we reach the shipyard in Germany, where any little bugs we find will be put straight in the shipyard she was built.Just before lunch on the first day out of Stockholm we hit some rough weather [video], I had been putting the covers on our aft crane to make it weather tight with a fellow deckhand and was feeling great, we were then asked to make the dry stores and the walk in fridges storm ready, we got the dry stores sorted but by the time we'd secured a couple of boxes in the fridge, which is right in the bows (front of the ship) and by this time was up and down like a fairground ride ! I had succumbed to a pretty major bout of sea sickness and had to take to my bunk for a while, all rather embarrassing , I can work all day on deck but once in a confined space where there are no portals for reference and I haven't got used to the way the ship moves, I usually succumb. Actually very few people are immune from sea sickness, it's just a process you go through to acclimatise to the motion of the ship in rough weather and once you have been through it your usually fine for the rest of the trip, unless there is a very calm patch followed by a storm...
I have been working in the galley (kitchen) quite a lot since we set sail from Sweden and have been doing a lot of peeling potatoes and cleaning, our cook keeps us all very well fed and he's great guy to work for but I have to be honest and say I much prefer deck work to galley work and a reefing (bringing in the sails) drill this afternoon confirmed that, not that it were needed, so I'm feeling even more respect for all who work as cooks and assistant cooks onboard our ships, I am definitely more of a deckhand type. I never tire of working and just being on deck and the view from the cabin top cant help but bring an often very windswept smile.
Well, we are now docked outside the shipyard in Germany after braving a force 8+ storm on the way in that lasted 24 hours, we all took quite a battering, the ship was airborne several times and her full weight crashing down onto the ocean makes quite a noise I can tell you, but she weathered its worst without a blemish.
The docking procedure was also quite a challenge, due to the tight space to manoeuvre, strong winds and a strong current. In order to get the first mooring line ashore, I and another fellow deckhand were tasked with jumping onto the pontoon as soon as we were close enough to receive the lines, it took a bit of a leap of faith over the railings off the stern to get the first spring line secured but it was a great feeling to see the line on and know the ship was secure, from my position on the pontoon I could see the expert way the other, much more experienced deckhands worked, together and in their own tasks, it really is something to see, they are experts at what they do and I really hope to get a chance to sail and learn more of their art at the earliest opportunity.
Once safely docked at the ship yard on Saturday night it was time for some R&R following our rough transit, Sunday was a day off, the first I'd have since I first saw the ship three weeks ago, and it was very nice to just sit and relax for a day as we all knew there was a lot of work to do in the week ahead that week was really a blur of activity, in fact you can see a snippit in the video below :)
You can see there were all kinds of work being done, from changing some of the designs of the mechanics following sea trials to general maintenance of the ship to prepare her for her coming voyages and actions, everything from washing ropes to greasing all the cables on the cranes, an absolute hive of activity from dawn to dusk.
And now I'm sitting in my room in London, remembering goodbyes to shipmates and missing it all terribly, it was rather apt that I left Rainbow Warrior III via one of the rhibs, I said hello to her and in fact fell in love with her on one of the UK boat team's ribs so it had a nice symmetry to farewell her in that way.
So what does it mean to be on a Greenpeace ship? The work is often challenging and hard but you know that your working towards something good and positive every day, but also your amongst people who dedicate their lives to that work, and of course at sea you are always in a state of balance between the strength of the ship, the skill of it's crew and the will of the sea, you learn a deep respect for the ocean very quickly, not only it's abundant beauty but it's awesome, humbling power, which is in itself beautiful.
To my mind Greenpeace is not an organisation, it is a state of mind, and to live amongst people so dedicated to those principles, even for as shorter time as I have, leaves you touched by something very special , you have been around very special people and that rubs off, leaves you somehow different to how you were before you got on-board.
The Greenpeace state of mind and action was founded on ships and it will always be found on the ships, and as our amazing planet is covered mostly by it's oceans we are completely dependant on them both for our survival, so if your not already involved, check out the Greenpeace website and find the best way to support the work that suits you best, there is room and a need for all manner of skills, so please get involved.
You can check out Marti's other two blogs from his unexpected voyage on the Rainbow Warrior III here - Running away to sea and here - Rainbow Warrior III in Stockholm, or please come along to the next Waltham Forest Greenpeace meeting to meet him in person.
Comments