MV Greenpeace / PC 8023
Noon Pos: 1 57'S 142 35'E
May 30, 1996
Day 14
Early this morning, for most of the watch, lightening flashes were
making electric blue / white snapshots of the surrounding sea and sky.
A brown footed booby that had been hitching a ride with us all the day
before, was sleeping under a starboard liferaft and a half hour
downpour washed away the gritty, salt layer that had gathered
everywhere after our couple of days rough weather.
It is getting really hot now. Down in the engine room today it
was 39.5 degrees celsius. Whenever a engineer comes up from
below, I feel I should wring them out, the sweat is just dripping off
them.
We received a message from our cook Lynda today. She is out of
hospital and if she can get a visa will meet the ship in Manila. So
thats great.
Frank, our bosun set up the salt water shower on deck, a nice way to
cool off at the end of work. It is enjoyable to work beside him too as
he seems to have a huge reportoire of sea shanties and romantic
ballards.
As we get closer to Manila, more and more computer mail arrives
every day. A lot of information to read up on about China and the
issue we are dealing with there.
Also soon the ship will be home to 21 more people, so the
dynamics on board will change completly, exciting and daunting at the
same time. Nearly all of us have been here two and a half months now
and looking foward to being involved in actual Greenpeace work,
instead of just being ship / housekeepers. Also hoping our
contingency of new `flatmates' are house trained as well.
I think all the crew were on deck this evening, it was beautiful and I
wished I were a painter. Steaming along 5 miles off the coast of
Papua New Guinea through the Bismarck Sea. Karker Is. (an active
volcano) and Bagabag Is. off to starboard. The sea was smooth and it
faded into a sky of many textured greys. The mountainous islands
looked like mirages, layered tones of smokey blues floating on the
water. On the mainland wisps of smoke rising from the cooking fires.
On the subject of cooking, todays meals were yesterdays
leftovers. Complimented at dinner by a pizza that Rob made. He
seemed really impressed at how kneading the dough removed the
ingrained, engine room grease and oil from his hands.
Mmmmm.......all I know is it tasted pretty good!
Tanya Popp
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