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From the captain's quarters
By Pete, skipper. 13 March. Greetings.
It was over fast. Too fast. They had almost caught us napping.
It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. We had planned a very
ambitious afternoon of photographing the lumber ship and
ourselves. This was all based on the assumption that the
Guardia Civil would not come out to escort the ship in until
Monday. We had reasons for assuming this.... Maybe not quite
good enough reasons.
We left Sete last Wednesday, March the sixth. Forecast
was for NW winds force 4 to 5. At least that was what Athens
said. The pilot thought we would get 50 knots by the time
we got down to the Spanish border.
A word. Wind is measured in at least four different ways.
Miles per hour, kilometers per hour, meters per second and
Beaufort scale. We mostly use Beaufort scale, because we
use antiquated British log books. But we all like The Clutha,
because we are used to it! Force Four is 11 to 15 knots.
Force Five is 16 to 20 knots. Force Ten is 48 to 55 knots
or 61 miles per hour. Got that?
The pilot was right! The wind gradually built until we
were reefed down to handkerchiefs. The jib was about at
50 percent, the main and fore to 15 percent, and the mizzen
to 50 percent. Whenever the GPS showed over 11.5 we would
reef. When it went below 10 knots we would un-reef. It was
just great!
I am sure some of the crew were not feeling too good the
way we were dancing along the wave tops. Disneyland
with knobs is how Lesley describes it! The only ones
who got seasick though were our microbes. R.W. has a new
biological sewage treatment plant. State of the art! But
we have not figured out what sea sickness remedy to give
to the microbes. When they are upset, they bubble. Sort
of like Old Faithful (a geyser in the States). It was a
real R.W. moment when one of the women crewmembers came
jumping out of the aft head by the mess yelling, "bloody
toilet is pissing on ME". Life is hell at sea....
March 8th, Friday
We arrived off Sagunto early in the morning (0200) on Friday
the 8th. Because Sagunto is just north of Valencia, it is
hard to tell what is passing coastal traffic and what ships
are going into Sagunto.
The bridge team was kept very busy that night, listening
to the radio when ships would report in, and tracking everybody
on the radar. When the Meltemi had come into Sete, she had
not made berthing arrangements on the radio. The port office
had called them on their cell phone. We expected the same
here, but they used the normal channel. Around 0330, our
big inflatable identified her and we started launching our
other boats. It was a scramble, but we made it. Shortly
after this we put a boarding team on of Kenneth (action
weenie, Belgium), Chris (deckhand, UK) and Janine (ship's
doc and action junkie, UK).
The ship's crew had to show they were tough guys, and pushed,
shoved and threatened to throw the climbers stuff overboard.
They calmed down after awhile.
It was pretty easy to keep the pilot boat away from the
ship with the inflatables. The pilot was completely surprised,
and they did not try to push it at all. After ten minutes
of trying, the pilot told the Meltemi to anchor, and he
drove back into the harbor.
We were hoping the Meltemi would anchor. But we were not
so lucky. They steamed full speed for... Mallorca? (Don't
I wish.) I do not think they cared. They just went straight
out to sea to get away from this pesky sailboat with all
the inflatables. They no doubt were aware of what we had
done to the anchor chain of the other lumber carrier in
Sete. We did not get a chance to do that again.
The Meltemi took off first for the north, then the south,
and ended up ten miles off Sagunto. The climbers got a banner
up. Natalia Truchi (irrepressible press officer - Argentina)
cranked out the press releases, Tim Birch did interviews,
and the rest of us napped.
It was this afternoon that we learned of the other cargo
on the Meltemi. So now turn off the humor light, because
there is nothing funny about this. Onboard were eight stowaways,
escaping from Liberia. Stowing away on a lumber ship is
a desperate move. The eighth man had crawled out while the
ship was unloading in Sete. After over three weeks of living
under the logs on deck, he was too weak to feed himself.
If Charles Taylor had the slightest concern for the people
of his country, instead of his bank account, maybe this
would not be happening.
The captain of the Meltemi told us of an incident he had
witnessed in Liberia. Three stowaways had been found on
his ship. The police came and arrested them. They bound
the first man's hands behind his back, and as they were
doing the same to the second, the first man jumped over
the side and drowned himself. He died rather than face the
police. I realize I am getting way out of my brief here,
but I have to wonder how bad things have to get before the
rest of us feel compelled to act. It seems to me it is Charles
Taylor's time to go.
Back on the Rainbow Warrior, everyone was concerned for
the stowaways. We sent them some food, but this is not to
say the captain was not feeding them. In a day when some
crew will throw stowaways overboard, the Meltemi's captain
had faxed the Liberian embassy out of concern for the men.
We contacted Amnesty International.
Later that afternoon, the Meltemi made another run for
the harbor. This time the pilot came out in a police boat,
with a ten meter RIB (rigid inflatable boat). Helen and
Phil charged up to the ladder and Phil climbed up it. He
was fun to watch. Because he could only use one hand. Because
a couple days before he had tried to slice part of it off
with his rigging knife. Which Janine nicely sewed back on
for him. But Phil only needed one hand. If anybody out there
needs a spare, you might make him an offer. The police and
pilot gave up and went home.
Round two to the good guys.
March 9th, Saturday
We spent the day napping, and jumping up in a panic every
time what looked like a police or pilot boat approached.
This gets old after a short while. We picked up some press,
and took them back to shore. It was looking more and more
like the action would go down on Monday. Our lookouts were
watching the harbor, with varied results.
The Guardia came out in their fast boat to look at Meltemi
and us. They were very friendly, and strongly hinted that
they will be back out on Monday.
March 10th, Sunday
We started this day by putting up our new sail banners.
You can see them on the web site listed below. They we made
by the Hamburg Toystore and they are beautiful! We made
them for open days in port, because they have to be taken
down when the wind reaches Force Four. We had the conditions
for them on Sunday morning and took advantage.
We planned to put them up again after lunch. We invited
out some activists to wear animal costumes on the log ship,
and invited some Spanish press to enjoy the show. We even
hired an airplane to take pictures from aloft, because this
shows the Meltemi's cargo so well! I was feeling like we
needed a Hollywood director to pull it all together. At
1430, one of the boats headed in to pick up the activists.
I was checking out his course to shore when I got a large
surprise.
Five big speed boats were headed in our direction, FAST.
I hit the general alarm, and everybody ran to their boats
to get dress and launched. It was lucky I noticed the police
boats when they were still four miles away. Taken by surprise,
we started our pilot blocking action. That was a mistake.
The boat crews put up a good flight. The Guardia Civil
have one very fast 15 meter jet boat. They say it does 45
knots. It was not long before just Haussy (electrical engineer
N.Z.), Meghan (webmaster - Vermont) and Nikki (climber -
UK) were the only ones left. Tim and I decided to call it
a day. But it would be a couple hours before the cops let
the crew go, something that pissed me right off after we
agreed to stop. But what pissed me off even more was that
the cops used our boats to round up our other boats. This
is downright embarrassing!
Well the Meltemi made it into port. The climbers, remember
the climbers, were still in the rig. And everybody shut
down for the night.
We anchored a couple miles off the port entrance, and began
keeping a boat on watch for the climbers.
March 11, Monday
It took about two hours and 40 cops and firemen to get
the climbers down.
We held the Meltemi up for three days. We all lost sleep.
No problem.
It is Wednesday the 13th today. I think I have caught up
on sleep. The last word we heard about the stowaways was
that some are under the age of 18. They may be allowed to
stay in Spain. It looks like the rest will be sent back.
We are on our way to Genova, Italy, where the Italian office
is eager for us to do open days. It is tough scheduling
open days when your actions depend on changeable ship schedules.
A couple days ago, campaigner Tim Birch forwarded us a
very hopeful message. It seems that the Japanese government
will propose a system of log identification to combat illegal
logging. As Japan is the largest importer of wood in the
world, this could be good news. It sounds like they will
be using the same system our Amazon team came up with a
couple years ago. This could be a very positive step.
Later
Pete
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