Esperanza

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.

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.

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.

Like many other marine species, pteropods are threatened by ocean acidification © Cobbing/Greenpeace

Janet Cotter, from Greenpeace's Science Unit is currently on board the Esperanza on the first leg of the Arctic Under Pressure expedition. The ship is currently in Ny-Ålesund in the arctic, where Janet has been helping seagulls from 'contributing' to ocean acidification research.

In my day job, I work as a scientist as Greenpeace's Research Laboratories in Exeter, which is part of the Greenpeace's Science Unit. We might not get do the banner hanging from bridges and all the dramatic stuff that other Greenpeace activists do, but we have an important role in the organisation.  We analyse samples from around the world in our laboratories, often looking for toxic contamination of soils, rivers and seas, or sampling foodstuffs for GM contamination.