ships

As the Rainbow Warrior sweeps into town, here on the other side of the planet the Esperanza is sailing through the warm waters of the old Spice Islands. We left Manokwari on Monday and are currently en route to Jakarta, slipping past bewitchingly exotic names such as the Ceram Sea, Buru Island, the Halmahera Sea, Selat Sagewin, the Banda Sea... I could go on.

If you're trying to place these exotic names, you could do worse than download the Google Earth layer which is tracking the progress of the Esperanza through Indonesia (you'll need to install Google Earth first, of course, but there's a plain map version below). I'll be posting highlights from the tour there, and it will update automatically so check it often for the latest stories, videos and other titbits from our expedition.

Oh, and we saw whales yesterday.

The Rainbow Warrior coming through London's Tower Bridge. © Will Rose / Greenpeace

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Pete is a volunteer deck hand on the Rainbow Warrior.

I'm only on the Rainbow Warrior! With some awe and trepidation, I joined the ship yesterday afternoon. It's now Tuesday night and, fighting to keep my eyes open, I look back on my first, very full, day on board.

An early start to move the ship to Tower Bridge. With two RHIBs (Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats) in the water, slightly twitchy river police turn up in a launch and escort us all the way up the Thames. It's impressive, the power Greenpeace has to motivate others...

I'll be adding to this map throughout the tour (zoom out to see events during the global tour).

See all Rainbow Warrior tour updates or get them by email.

Some time yesterday morning (was it really yesterday morning?), I left the Greenpeace office, took a short tube ride eastwards, crossed a gang plank and fell through a rabbit hole into the weird and wonderful world that is a Greenpeace ship. And not just any Greenpeace ship, but our flagship Rainbow Warrior II, which is so tied up with Greenpeace's history. 

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With only one sleep to go until the Rainbow Warrior gets here, I was planning to tell you about her adventures over the past year, when she's been on a mission to get the planet to quit coal - trailing the odd campaign victory in her wake But then I noticed Captain Mike Finken has done it for me, on the Making Waves blog. Here's a snippet:

The Rainbow Warrior's protest at the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant in the Philippines has ended on a high note. Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri sent a message of support to the crew saying, "I will file a resolution in the Senate seeking a halt in the construction of new coal fired power plants in the country."

The action ended on the eve of the G8 Environment Ministers Meeting in Japan, where the richest industrialised countries in the world gathered at the weekend to discuss solutions to climate change. Ending the use of coal needs to top the agenda.

More information on our international site »

The crew of the Rainbow Warrior kicked off a month long "Quit coal" tour around south-east Asia today when they blocked a coal shipment at the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant in Quezon province, south-west of Manila.

A Greenpeace volunteer on the boom at Faslane nuclear submarine base in Scotland

I don’t know if your remember our Trident Tour last year - that five week frenzy of Faslane blockading, crane climbing, arrests, solitary confinement, losing a ship, getting it back again, bearing witness, gigs, press conferences, political events and rallies.

Well, it’s been a long time coming but, over a year after the event, I can give you the final results of the legal wranglings that ensued.

Arctic Sunrise this week became the latest ship in the Greenpeace fleet to carry its own webcam. The webcam updates every minute, so now you can follow the ship's progress almost in real-time, 24 hours a day. Thanks are due to radio operator Thom and external systems expert Wout for making this possible.

The image above was taken as the ship headed into the French port of Cherbourg for a routine maintenance check after the recent successful action at Caen, where the crew successfully prevented a shipment of Amazon timber, acquired from companies linked to illegal logging activities, from entering the EU.

Watch the webcam here. And in case you're confused, that's the stern which it's pointing at - the big 'H' painted on the deck is to show helicopters where to land!

Yesterday at 3pm local time the Esperanza departed from Hobart in Tasmania, Australia bringing to a close the 2007/2008 Southern Ocean Expedition. The ship had arrived on Sunday evening to a great welcome from the people of Hobart, including the mayor and a number of councillors.

After spending close to two months tracking the Japanese whaling fleet, Esperanza was forced to leave the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary last week when her fuel supply started to run out. The sanctuary had remained fatality free for the whales during the previous fortnight while the Espy chased the factory whaling ship, the Nisshin Maru, across 5,000 miles of the Southern Ocean.