August 2010

While our ship the Esperanza is busy confronting the oil industry, our colleages in the US are on the Arctic Sunrise in the Gulf of Mexico, researching the effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill. Paul - a longtime Greenpeace campaigner and campaign director at TckTckTck - updates us on how it's going.

It is just after five o'clock in the morning. I've just had a slice of toast and a cup of tea. The decks are wet from a recent downpour that has cooled the air somewhat. It is quiet, the ship and crew sleep. The 4 to 8 is the best watch. You get to see the sunrise and the sunset. But just now it is the darkness just before the dawn – just the harbour lights and the occasional lightning flash in the darkness.

Is this the kind of whale watching Icelandic whalers are considering? © Greenpeace/Axelsson

I've long since given up trying to apply any semblance of logic to the arguments for whaling, and the latest news from Iceland doesn't prove me wrong.

Ben Stewart, comms officer onboard the Esperanza writes... 

Well I have to say, I didn’t expect that. Yesterday afternoon I was on the rowing machine at the back of the ship as we bobbed along somewhere north of Scotland when Helena tapped me on the shoulder and told me there was a journalist asking for me on the satellite phone. I made an undignified attempt to get to my feet but my legs didn’t work, then I realised my shoes were still strapped into the machine but I couldn’t reach them so I sort of flapped around a bit like an Emperor penguin on an iceberg until I managed to slide along the floor and out of the door.

A minute later I was in the campaign office on the top deck, phone plugged to ear, heaving for breath with a ruddy red face. It was Radio Faroe Islands on the line and they wanted our reaction to the news that the Danish government has sent a team of special forces navy SEALS to the islands to ‘take on’ the Esperanza.

Anais from Germany writes from the Esperanza...

And as the lockmaster is unveiling the curtain we are putting out to sea - leaving behind murmur, feet scraping and rustling plastic bags of the overcrowded cinema. it's the curtain call for sea monsters, herds of white horses riding on top of giant waves, jack o' lanterns and other strange weather phenomena.

Victor, an activist on board the Esperanza, wrote a blog for us yesterday -- while most of us were all feeling too seasick to look at a computer screen - let alone type.

We left the harbour in London on Thursday at 2:30pm local time. No problems there. I don’t know if it’s normal, but we were escorted by a large inflatable. I’d guess they were the water police checking up on us so we didn’t make any surprise action in their jurisdiction. The mood on board was great, and we were all happy being on our way out at sea. The grand adventure was waiting around the corner.

I'm a Swedish activist for Greenpeace, living in Denmark. The ship we’re on, Esperanza, is the biggest of Greenpeace’s three oceangoing ships. On board we are about 35 people from various parts of the world. English is the official language on board, but you hear Spanish in various places on the ship. A fantastic mix if you ask me.

A view from the bridge of the Esperanza as it leaves London.

Hi, I'm Lisa - I'm the webbie on board our ship Esperanza currently sailing out into the North Sea from London - to confront the oil industry that's scrambling to get into the planet's last oil reserves - further away in riskier places.

Being a webbie means I'm responsible for making sure you can join us without actually having to join us, if you get what I mean. I'll be sharing every part of our journey online and offering you the chance to be part of our virtual crew. And I'm getting seasick and homesick so you don't have to!

I’m on the Greenpeace’s ship Esperanza and we're leaving London today. I can’t tell you where we’re going yet, but I can tell you that we are off to confront the oil industry’s reckless search for the last drops of oil on the planet.

We've also released a map that features some of the most dangerous drilling sites in the world.