go beyond oil

From Anais in the survival pod on the Stena Carron:

It’s my first time on the Shetland Islands. Rolling green hills, stunning cliffs, great wildlife, castle ruins and plenty of sheep everywhere. You can see how the life of the islands' inhabitants has been shaped by the sea over centuries. I am glad for this glance at another beautiful side of this planet - although we didn’t have much time on land.

We had to prepare an "instant action pack". On Tuesday morning in a hidden-away bay near Lerwick, the back of a van opened and a self-inflating direct action team popped out and unfolded. Boat drivers, a media team, along with the climb team (that's me and Victor from Sweden) boarded two inflatables filled with various gear bags and headed towards our target, Chevron's oil drilling ship, the Stena Carron.

Watch Leila give us a tour of the inside of the pod - the little survival station we've got setup on Chevron's anchor chain.

The pod has everything you need, bathroom, kitchen, hospital .. and housemates.

We'll get you updates from the pod as soon as we get them, follow us on Twitter, Facebook or GoBeyondOil.org for the latest.

-- James on the Esperanza

Following a heroic 24 hours by Anais and Victor in the tent suspended off the anchor chain, today we stepped it all up a notch by bringing in a purpose-built half-tonne survival pod.

I say ‘we’ but in fact I just sat on the safety boat watching in awe at the rigging magic going on at the hands of Anais, Victor, Nazareth and Timo.

Not all of us can scamper up an oil rig's anchor chain - but we can all come up with ideas, and we need yours asap.

As our occupation of Chevron's massive drill ship goes on, we want a banner slogan from you to explain what our politicians need to do about deep water drilling.

As you probably know by now, the ship our climbers are currently sitting on is the Stena Carron, a 228m drill ship operated by US oil giant Chevron. Texaco, its petrol station subsidiary, is perhaps the name you may be more familiar with, but here are a few facts about the company that you might not know.

Chevron's boss, John S Watson, is a director and member of the executive committee of the American Petroleum Institute (API). The API is a major lobby group funding research which seeks to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change.

A short but sweet clip of Greenpeace climbers Anais (from Germany) and Victor (from Sweden) in their Portaledge on the anchor chain of the Chevron drilling ship, the Stena Carron, off the Shetland coast.

According to Victor the weather is fine, both he and Anais are "very happy", and they have enough food to stay for two weeks!

Whilst they remain in position, the giant ship cannot move. It was due to leave anchor to drill for oil in the deep waters of the Atlantic off Shetland's west coast.

Listen!

I just spoke to Victor, one of the climbers currently hanging on the anchor chain of the Stena Carron drilling ship. Operated by Chevron, it was due to head out to a deep water site off the Shetlands, but not any more.

Despite the wind and having to manoeuvre their portaledge tent into position, Victor sounds extremely chirpy and pleased to be there!

Greenpeace activist Victor, hanging off Chevron's Stena Carron rig

A few moments ago, our activists started taking action against a massive oil platform, stopping it from drilling a deep water well off the Shetland Islands.

Using speedboats to reach the huge 228m long drill ship, they climbed up the giant rungs of the anchor chain, and are now preventing the ship from moving to its drill site.

It all started two days ago, when a handful of activists slipped off the Esperanza - which we knew would be monitored - and boarded a ferry in Aberdeen bound for Lerwick in the Shetland Islands.

Then this morning, at a sign that the drill ship was about to move, they started the action.

Victor, one of the climbers, describes what it's like on the Stena Carron's anchor chain

The ship is operated by oil giant Chevron, and was due to sail for a site 200km north of the Shetland Islands and drill a well in 500 metres of water.

More than 10,000 of us have sent an email to Chris Huhne - the Energy Secretary - calling for a moratorium on deepwater drilling in UK waters.  On top of that, last month we sent a letter to the government threatening legal action in an effort to stop the granting of new permits for deep water drilling.

But it's not enough. Deepwater drilling is continuing unabated.

We saw what happened in the Gulf of Mexico only a few months ago. The world's biggest oil spill - a direct consequence of reckless deepwater drilling. It's time we go beyond oil and stop gambling with our environment and the climate.

Follow the latest at GoBeyondOil.org and find out how you too can take action.