A child visiting the Rainbow Warrior in Southend, after having his face painted on the pier. © Will Rose / Greenpeace.
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Occasionally, when we pass each other in an alleyway and none of our more seasoned seafaring friends (the crew) are around, us Greenpeace UK office-dwellers lucky enough to be on the Rainbow Warrior will whisper to each other: I love this ship.
It turns out a lot of people feel the same. In London, we had passers-by shouting from the quayside to tell us so. And over the past two days, well over a thousand people have come from all over - Manchester, Devon, Wiltshire, Bristol, Jersey - to visit the ship. Toddlers and octogenarians, nuns and football fans all queued in the rain for the chance to see the Rainbow Warrior II (or too) in the 55.2 metres of riveted steel flesh. A huge thank you to everyone who came.
As visitor after soggy visitor piled on, soggy crew members and volunteers showed them around the old vessel, telling stories and explaining that she used to be a herring trawler and was retrofitted with sails. The guests were introduced to Dave the dolphin who lives on the ship's bow (some say he was once a real dolphin who fell in love with the Warrior and turned himself to wood to stay with her; others insist he's an oak sculpture donated by supporters in Germany).
The highlight for most of the visitors I talked to was meeting the ship's crew - the people who help to make the ship what it is, by physically maintaining it, by contributing to its atmosphere, and by doing everything necessary to make the ship a force that helps Greenpeace win campaigns.
This 15-strong crew comes from 13 countries - from Argentina and Bulgaria to the Soloman Islands and South Africa. They've spent weeks or months sailing together, living together, taking nonviolent direct action together and getting arrested together to help Greenpeace win its coal campaign around the world.
For the past year, they've been on a mission to stop the threat that coal poses to our environment and our existence, and to promote the solutions to climate change. Have a look at exactly what they've been up to in the UK and around the world on this map (zoom out to see the non-UK events):
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And keep checking back - I'll be updating the map throughout the UK tour.
