TOXIC FREE ASIA TOUR

TOUR LOGBOOK

  December 6 to 8th - Mumbai to Alang

December 6, 1999: The Rainbow Warrior left Mumbai harbour at 1.00 p.m. (or 1300 hrs in nautical language!) on the next leg of Greenpeace's Toxic Free Asia tour. Sailing away from Mumbai's oily, murky waters and smog filled skyline, I spotted a dolphin entering the harbour. A sign of hope, surely, that dolphins still enter Mumbai's polluted waters. Once out of the harbour, everyone assembled on the upper deck for a general briefing on safety procedures. A few of the volunteers, myself included, started preparing a large banner saying "NO DUMPING ON ASIA". We started work but didn't get very far before darkness descended. A party mood prevailed that night, as we knew that the next few days could be dangerous and would certainly be tension-filled. We were headed north on a course for the Gulf of Khambat, and the ship graveyards of Alang, the world's largest ship-breaking yard.

December 7, 1999: We reached Alang by late afternoon. We had finished the banner, with everyone pitching in and really enjoying themselves, the music system we had rigged up on the deck adding to the carnival atmosphere. We also painted another smaller banner "NO TOXIC DEATH SHIPS", to be hung on poles and carried in one of the dinghies in the next day's action. The plan for the next day was to locate ships that were waiting to be beached. If permitted to board, we would probably hang the banner from the side of the ship. A dinghy would be sent out to get video and stills footage of the yard itself from the seaward side. Weather conditions permitting, we also hoped to get never-before-seen aerial photographs of the Alang yard. The tides at Alang offered two days in December (the 7th and 8th) on which conditions would be suitable for ships to be beached. Slightly higher than normal, these tides also, providentially, coincided with the dates of the Fourth Conference of Parties meeting of the Basel Convention in Basel, Switzerland, where we hoped our presence in Alang would highlight the issue of the movement of toxic waste (in this case old ships and their contents and components) from the rich OECD countries to poorer countries like India, Pakistan, China and Bangladesh, where environmental protection and worker safety come low down on the establishment's list of priorities.

December 8, 1999: I dragged myself out of my bunk at 0530 hrs. There was a somewhat stiff wind blowing, so plans for aerial footage were postponed until the breeze died down. At 0800 hrs two of the dinghies left for the yard, one with the photographer and videographer to capture footage of the yard and the beached ships, and the other with the smaller banner. They were gone almost two hours, and when they returned, we pulled anchor and moved towards one of the waiting ships, the Global Sao Paulo, which was a distant smudge on the horizon. After about half an hour, we drew up alongside her and launched three dinghies, with their complement of painters, all volunteers like me. I stayed on deck, preparing the painting poles and hanging the larger banner from the side of the Rainbow Warrior.

By now, our behaviour was drawing curious stares from the skeleton crew of the Sao Paulo. The entire painting operation lasted more than half an hour, and by the end of it, the starboard side of the Sao Paulo's hull was covered with words like "Toxic", "Danger", "Jaan ko Khatra" (Hindi for 'life-threatening danger') as well as a rather artistic skull and crossbones drawn by one of the activists. Simultaneously, we were on the radio with the skipper of the Sao Paulo explaining our position on ship-breaking and asking permission to come aboard. He, however, politely refused, saying he had to ask permission from his owners in Greece, who were not yet awake! The painting action was over by 1400 hrs and we moved back to our position directly off Alang. That afternoon, up on the bridge, we overheard the Sao Paulo reporting the painting action to the Bhavnagar port authorities, who immediately asked the skipper to contact the "concerned authorities"! Thats all for now from the heart of the action in Alang.