climate change

Sadly, all four of our climbers will not be coming back to the Esperanza after all. Jens, Sim, Timo and Matt are flying home to Germany, USA, Finland and Poland respectively. Their personal belongings are still on board and they are going home in spare clothes bought for them by friends in Greenland. I'm sure they'll be glad to see their families again but we're really going to miss them on the ship and we haven't finished our 'Go Beyond Oil' tour yet.

We are still waiting for our climbers to be released but hoping they will be back on board the Esperanza soon. They are sorely missed - especially Timo's lovely guitar playing in the evenings. Anais is talking about preparing a "Welcome Back!" banner for them and every time the captain or our campaign leader walks past we keep asking "any news?". The answer is still no. Nobody knows exactly when they will be out and perhaps they wont be allowed back to the ship at all.

Ben writes about this morning's events from the Esperanza...

Well, that was dramatic. Yesterday afternoon, the seas started churning and our huge banner on the oil rig was twisting and flapping as a gale blew up. I spoke to the four activists under rig and they assured me they were fine. They had self-heating meals and water and were still doing interviews, telling the world about Cairn Energy’s plans to spark an Arctic oil rush.

I kept eyeing the scene through the porthole in my cabin with concern. The swell was heaving and the lips of the waves were breaking white across the stretch of sea separating the Esperanza from the rig. The weather forecast on the screen on the bridge looked ominous – lots of grim symbols over the coast west of Greenland – while a quick duck outside had my eyes watering with the cold.

BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico

Today our lawyers sent a letter to the UK government threatening legal action over their decision to continue giving licenses for deep sea oil drilling even before we know for certain the causes of the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

Watch Sim talk about his "relatively comfortable" night dangling off the underside of Cairn's Stena Don rig. Our four climbers are still on Cairn's rig, stopping the company from continuing its dangerous drilling in Arctic waters.

Read more at: www.GoBeyondOil.org

In the last couple of hours, we've received this footage from the Esperanza from this morning's daring occupation of the Stena Don, the oil rig operated by Cairn Energy. It shows just what an amazing feat the guys and gals there have pulled off, not least evading the Danish navy and scaling the oil rig legs.

From this morning's ongoing action against Cairn's reckless drilling

Just a moment ago we launched our inflatables at the crack of dawn in the misty Arctic waters of Baffin Bay and headed straight for Cairn Energy's deepwater drilling rig, the Stena Don. A group of highly experienced climbers are now scaling the rig in order to stop the drilling and defend the Arctic. I'm writing this with a deep sense of pride in my fellow activists who are out there in near freezing conditions - taking action on behalf of all of us.

They had to outrun the Danish navy and dodge special forces to get onto the rig but they've done it! And I'm writing this for you -- to make sure you are the first to know about what we're doing today and to say thanks for sticking with us since we left London three weeks ago.

This morning, before dawn, our activists evaded a massive security operation and scaled Cairn Energy's controversial rig off Greenland. We've stopped their drilling.

After dodging Danish Navy commandos in our inflatable speedboats, our activists climbed up the inside of the rig and are now hanging from tents suspended from ropes.

We'll get more news to you as soon as we have it, but for live updates go to www.gobeyondoil.org

Thanks for your support,

Lisa Vickers - on board the Esperanza