Banners and Us

HI there,

Teunom. We we've finally made it here. We've been talking about it for a couple of weeks now, and now we get the chance to see what we can do here. It's still inaccessable by road so the only aid getting in is coming by chopper. Due to the conditions getting in by water there's been little activity from the sea as well.

There's a bit of a swell when we anchor, between a metre or two, and the waves seem to be breaking over the bar across the river mouth quite visibly from the bridge.

This does not look to be a good day for loading of boats and getting food into shore, or at the very least keeping it dry while it's attempted. Devrig from ACF has contacted the Warrior last night and informed us there were a couple of boats heading our way from Meulaboh, which have been earmarked for the unloading job. We have no idea if they have any local knowledge or have done the bar at all. He also informs me that they are not going to arrive until lunchtime.

So we make a decision that once we've anchored we'll head in by inflatable, meet the ACF guys and see if we can't find another option to get to the RW. We get across at around 0830 (the bar was a little gnarly but OK) and meet with Devrig, where he informs us there's been a problem with the boats from Meulaboh and now they are not going to be here until tomorrow. This isn't really very good at all.

Well there must be a solution.

There seems to be about 6 small local fishing boats about 6 metres in length that could be used as a last resort, but in a swell it's going to be pretty ugly for them alongside the Warrior especially. Then theres the problem of keeping the loads dry while they negotiate coming across the bar and they don't look all that watertight.

We see there's a large looking fishing boat about 25 metres long up a tributary of the river near the entrance. So Agus, Moritz and myself head on over to see it and see if they can work for us. We leave Phil Dunn standing by with the Inflatable.

We soon discover the boat has been chartered by Care International since the 3rd of January and is flying the Care flag. I suggest to Devrig that we need to get in touch with Care and get the OK to help to unload the Warrior using this boat. They've been on standby for the last three days and will be for a couple more so I see no reason why we cannot broker some sort of deal. We've got food that needs to come in and the right tool is here to do it.

If we can get the big boat back to this point the small boats can then unload it here, without crossing the bar and get the cargo to the road where trucks can be loaded. There is no way the big boat can get there, hence the second step.

It's perfect, a local skipper, knows the bar and can take 12 tons, nice big open deck. Four loads and we could be done, it'd probably be the first major civilian lift of food into Teunom. It's also suggested that Devrig rings ACF Head of Mission in Banda Aceh and talk to the Boss of Care there, might as well get the OK from the top. Then we have the problem of finding the Care team on the ground to get them to come to the boat and give the OK to the boats crew.

The talks in Banda go well and it's signed off. By this time Agus and I have been bouncing around for an hour through the ruins and out into the countryside trying to find the ground team in the back of a pickup. The first run is unsuccessful. So Moritz and Phil head back to the boat while we continue our search.

We head out to the Southern end of town to where we think they are doing a distribution at an IDP camp. The road is trashed, a four wheel drive would be good, all of the houses are gone, the mess is enormous. Not much in the way of heavy earthmoving equipment has got in here, so things are much as they were the day after the Tsunami. We did not see any dead bodies but the smell was bad in places, there are still there. People sift through the ruins trying to bring out pieces of wood to try to rebuild, or just sit around in small groups looking stunned still.

I feel bad waving to people but what can you do. They normally smile and wave back too. It's weird being a well fed foreigner in this place, I know we are trying to help but I hate it nonetheless, when I consider what these people have been through and are still going through. My only consolation is the food we will bring in, and I hope these folks get some of it.

This is going to go on for months or even years I reckon.

But we do find the Care guy, and he's OK with it all, so we head back to the fishing boat. Then it's a whole new set of negotiations but after some magic from Agus, we're away with half a dozen locals to help out. The payment will be water and a little bit of food. No problems.

It's a bit tricky tying up to the Warrior in the swell but after a springline is secured we are away. There's a few hits on the side of the Warrior and a couple of people are worried about his boat, but let's face it, this is one tough boat, it rode out the tsunami (three massive waves about 5kmout to sea) and stayed afloat, it'll be fine. The boat that was fishing next to it at the time was not so lucky and went down

Twelve tons in about an hour and a half on board. Fantastic. We've got it sussed at our end, and this guy can work for us tomorrow too. The big problem for ACF now though, is can they deal with it all once it's on land? Not looking too good on that count at this minute. They still have not secured any decent storage facility there and are desperately in need of something. But I do my best to encourage them to sort something soon, even if it is only temporary.Hell maybe we can put a work party together for them tomorrow if it's that desperate, and build them something, or even just find them a warehouse.

So that's about it for today. Things are set for an 0830 start tomorrow, we'll head across, sort things out on shore, and we ought to have 25 tons done by just after lunchtime. Only thing I think we need to sort out better is that the boat captain wants some stronger local boys to help, and a couple who don't puke!

let's see

cheers Rob

Hi there,

Well another day another arrival at Malahayati Port at Krueng Raya, we are getting to be locals in this place there is no doubt.

We anchor further out, and advise the Posko that we are there. They have no problems inviting us in, but it's decided to stay out to wait and get confirmation from Jerome about the next load from ACF to Teunom. The weather is looking a a bit on the dodgy side with rain in the hills surrounding Krueng Raya. That doesn't look good for food loading. There's no point loading rice in the driving rain, or indeed anything in boxes. I let Jerome know of the weather conditions and tell him to ensure everything that comes by truck is well covered for rain. No problem. I also tell him if it's raining we'll just have to wait for it to clear before we load. Again no problem.

The morning turns into afternoon and the crew briefing is an interesting one. As well as updating everyone on the latest from ACF (well most people already knew, I'm usually pretty liberal with info as I get it on this trip, obviously trying to observe certain hierachies where necessary), the suggestion is broached about our time here.

The thinking was that we had done as much as we can, but when we analyse the situation in places like Teunom where good quantities of food still have not made it in, it almost seems silly to leave just yet. ACF are having problems distributing and there's still the question of how the gap we create when we leave will be filled. Currently it will not be.

Although there has been a noticeable increase in NGO capacity on the West Coast over the last four weeks, it still needs time to develop.

There are other complicating factors that need to be considered.

It is interesting to know that there are definite Monsoonal patterns that need to be considered. The west Monsoon from April to August is when there are much bigger swells on the West Coast making the sort of work we've been doing much more difficult or even impossible.

We are currently in the East Monsoon, from September to March, when the West coast is generally accessable, small swells and small waves breaking on shore. Small craft access is good during this season.

Then between seasons (Pancaroba) Feb/Mar and Aug/Sept, it's all a bit intermittent.

Obviously we are getting to this part of the season, ACF hasn't secured sea based transport, Greenpeace still has a little time before it's next campaign needs to start too. Not much but some.

Looking around the meeting it's obvious everyone is pretty tired, but when canvassed the energy is still there to go on, if the need is still there. Emails and phone calls to Greenpeace International indicate that if we are happy to continue for a while longer it is acceptable.

ACF are happy that we can assist for a few more days too.

At 1500 we decide to come in. Again it is fine by the Posko. The weather is at its worst at this point, we can't really see much more than 100m through the sheets of rain and even at that distance anything would have only been a shape, you get soaked in 5 seconds it's that heavy.

We tie up and the rain clears. Another two hours later and the six ACF trucks arrive. The rain is still clear and after dinner, along with 20 or 30 local guys the loading commences.

Then it's the usual story, load in as fast as possible, but this time with a bit more of a plan. Because we'll be in effect a floating warehouse for a couple of days, we need to be careful how we stack it so that we can get to everything for the individual distributions we'll be unloading for. I think I explained that last night.

So it's closing in on 2200hrs and we are getting close to getting things finished. Because Teunom is around 15 hours from here, by the time we finish and get off the wharf we'll not get there in time to do much tomorrow, we'll probably anchor here tonight and leave tomorrow morning.

This gives ACF more time to sort the fishing boats at the other end, there are suggestions of getting some of the guys up from Meulaboh to do it, it'll be interesting to see if they can do the bar. There are other boats close to Teunom which may be more appropriate for this and this needs more work on the ground tomorrow as well.

So it looks like tomorrow will be a quiet day on the update.

cheers Rob

Hi there,

Well here we are yet again in Lamno at the beginning of the day. We arrive at our stated time of 0800 and sure enough, there are two boats waiting to greet us at our anchorage.

After anchoring a third boat arrives and then a fourth, this time with about 20 of the local guys on board to help us get this very full boat of ours unloaded yet again. It's still relatively cool in the mornings, around the low to mid twenties, so it's a good time to get started, it wont last for long though. All the light stuff is packed on top and in the foc'sle, that's the noodles and the biscuits and by 1100 this has all been shifted.

Sometimes there are four different human chains on the go as we are getting things out so fast with many of the crew involved and we have boats loading up on both the Port and Starboard sides of the Warrior at the same time. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. It's all going to change of course as soon as we get to the heavy stuff and the temperature starts tipping the thermometer at 35 or so. Things will slow down and the work will get much harder, it's just natural. Working in this heat means you lose sometimes litres in sweat. It's important to keep the fluids up and out of the sun when you are not working.

All the local guys know this and grab as much shade as they can underneath the inflatables on deck.

Abby and Isha have put lunch together for the guys, but as usual there is always a couple of complainers, we just never seem to get the local flavour right. Oh well, at least we try, and to be honest after two huge loads of food (noodle and rice base) there isn't anything left, so it can't be that bad.

Faisal the Indonesian ACF wrangler whose job it is is to make sure the local boys are found and working (not easy sometimes) tells me most of the workers today are sourced from the IDP camps, it's good to give these guys work more than most of course. They all must have lost eveything.

In the afternoon the sea picks up a bit and we move onto the canned fish and the rice, 15 tons of canned fish mostly by hand through the foc'sle where the temperature must be in the 40's and 40 tons of rice. The fishing boats just keep coming.

Fortunately the extra wind also brings with it cloud, so the temperature comes down a little on deck at least. It also makes the transfer of boxes and sacks of rice a little trickier to the boats, but these guys know what they are doing and there is only one box of noodles that goes into the water through the course of the whole day.

The system from last time works well with the rice and by 1800 the hold is cleared. 70 tons in 10 hours! Noone can quite believe it, only 3 hours slower than getting it all on. A special mention has to go to Doctor Clive today because he spent all day in the hold (maniac), I think he handled every box of canned fish and was down there helping to load every cargo net of rice. He must have lost 5 litres in sweat, not bad for a guy who has just come form the Canadian winter.

ACF are very happy yet again.

The call went through to Jerome, their head of logistics tonight as well, to see whether they have anything more for us and the answer is yes they do.

We'll give it a go, this is going to be our last job by the looks of it and we know that food distribution around Teunom has been poor.

We will be back in Krueng Raya tomorrow morning and I'll be on the phone to Jerome to see whether they can supply us tomorrow.

More tomorrow I'm sure

Rob

Hi All,

You can certainly feel like things are starting to get back to normal in some ways, if this is possible in this state of bedlam. Paperwork, documentation, beauracracy and red tape is returning to the Port of Malahayati here in Krueng Raya. I can't quite remember how many times it is we have been in here to load but it must be about eight.

This morning started off with us still at anchor, and still watching the Indonesian vessel alongside. There did not seem to be much going on in the way of unloading for the majority of the evening and I'm not happy, as there is no doubt we could have slipped in and done a midnight loading. But its probable everyone could do with the rest as well, so there is some good out of this.

The morning strategy starts talking to the vessel on the radio at 0800 to find out what their intentions are. Unfortunately the Radio Operator seems to be using this as practice so we get nowhere.

We have to go to see the Captain then, and find out from the top man what he can do, we should have forced this one last night, but got sidetracked by the other guys. Abby, Agus and Myself head across to find him. That's easy, when we walk up the gangway he is right there. Most of the talk is in Bahasa Indonesian and is very civil but nothing really happens, he's there until he's finished and that's final, fair enough too I guess. He is unloading relief for the Tsunami afterall. But we do discover that he will pull himself forward to accommodate the ferry from Sabang at 1100, not for us yesterday of course. Never mind we think there may well be an opportunity there for us. Derek agrees when he sees the space on the wharf, that the Warrior can get in if we can get the spot, once the Ferry leaves. There is about 30 metres of useable space.

Again we head out, Abby, Agus and myself at 1300 to once again meet with the captain to ensure this happens. This time in his airconditioned quarters, we discover that the vessel was originally a German one, all the fittings seem very similar to the RW, but Tapio puts the age in the late 70's This time we meet the commander of the temporary Posko (literal translation is Command Post) that has been set up in place of the Harbour Control that used to exist, as well as the Captain. The Posko has been set up since we were last in. It all starts to become apparent now. Along with the cleanup that is going on here, authority is starting to become evident again. It was a long way around things to get to this point but now after weeks of unfettered access, we need to start supplying crew lists, manifests and the like.

The upshot of this meeting though, is that they are all happy for us to pull in being the vessel. Excellent. We also discover that we can call the Posko prior to arrival as well as hail them on channel 16, so things are starting to get a little more normal, a far cry from the almost deserted ghost port we found four weeks ago. So much for all those Harbour Masters.

ACF has been standing by with 11 trucks since 0900, and we are relieved that we can finally get in to load up. This time we have 40 tons of rice, 15 tons of tinned fish, and 18tons or so of noodles and biscuits. the rice and the fish is OK but the noodles and biscuits don't weigh much per unit so are going to take up a whole heap of hold space.

ACF are an impressive organisation by my reckoning. They only have 25 expats working in the country but the have distribution happening out of Banda Aceh, Arongan, Lamno, Calang, Teunom and Meulaboh. From these places they are now spreading the food they get up and down the coast from these points using smaller local boats to do the carrying. Our job is to supply the Lamno hub, obviously the only effective way to get good quantities in is by sea, unless one has access and money to utilise heavy lift choppers.

The 70 tons we dropped there the other day has been ditributed already and they want more.

They are extremely good at utilising local labour and this really makes things go a lot more smoothly. The chain is super effective (a mixture of RW crew and probably up to 50 local guys through the course of the afternoon/evening) and the hold is filled in, I mean totally chokka, so chokka the fo'csle has been filled with biscuits, that's probably not happenned before.

So 2200hrs and we are out of here again, heading back down the West Coast, past the ruins of Banda Aceh and back to another drop off, trip number eight or nine

cheers Rob

Hi there,

Well one of those frustrating "We've finally been caught in Indonesian Bureaucracy" days. We arrived back at Krueng Raya from the latest run (Our 7th I think) around 1100, just in time to see the ferry coming in. It was decided we'd take a closer anhorage this time so that we could swoop in at a moments notice if we needed to beat any other vessels in.

Also present were the Red Cross and one of their landing craft loading from the wharf.

Peter had confirmed the next cargo as being another ACF one, back to Lamno once more. The reason Lamno was chosen again was its inaccessibility, and the fact that the 70 tons we dropped there the other day had been distributed. They are distributing not only in the IDP camps of Lamno but now also employing local fishing boats for short transits North and South of there to communities in need. This is good, and we like the idea of resupplying them.

They reckon they can get the trucks to us by 1400 so we prepare to go in there at this time. The Red Cross leaves and then the ferry, so we are clear to go in. An other vessel is lurking just off the coast and they have a couple of small boats that have been looking around the destroyed port area.

Anyway just as we are heading in, we also see a 100m landing craft heading into the port. Not good for us I'm afraid, but we've committed for a run to the wharf by this stage. We can also see others and some equipment starting to accumulate on shore, all this and our trucks do not seem to be there. Not good.

Well we get waved off only a few metres from the jetty, the landing craft is coming in. We can't do much especially as our trucks are nowhere to be seen. Bugger. The Warrior goes to another anchor and Abby and I get in as fast as possible in the Avon to see what's up. We get a few different stories, 2 hours, 3 hours, 5 hours and one day while we are watching it berth. I'm not sure about the ship drivers around here (you'll remember the story of the other night) but they managed to smash into on of the bollards on the quayside with its bow so heavily it bent it out of its concrete footing. No way that one's going to hold if the next ferry doesn't cast it's line off.

Frustration all around but we do find Agus waiting for us, all fixed up at the pier, excellent to have this man back. Also Lino the new 2nd engineer and Peter are waiting there. So we head back to the ship for a couple of hours.

ACF though, are having their own logistical problems liberating food from WFP, and in the end they don't get here until 1900, which means of course we would have had to give way anyway, but frustrating nonetheless. We have many conversations to try and get access but at the end of the day we have to wait and this is exactly what we are doing as I write this. I guess it's good to have a bit of a break, another 70 tons is going to be a bit of a mission.

Krueng Raya is certainly getting more and more busy with vessels. It was lonely here when we first arrived some weeks ago but now it looks like the Harbour Authority is getting back into business and this is simply going to mean more beauracracy and red tape for us to deal with.

In other news, we also lost Christian today, he's heading back to Sweden, he's been a crucial part of this team over the last four weeks, not only because he works both Video and Photo, but because he fits so well into any team dynamic on a GP boat of anyone I've ever worked with. We'll all miss him.

Let's see what tomorrow brings though, with luck everything we want and a departure to Lamno once again.

Cheers Rob

Hi there,

A fairly uneventful trip to Meulaboh for this run for UNICEF and we arrived at 2200 last night. A fair amount of Indonesian vessels were anchored in the bay and a couple of larger unidentified vessels further out as well.

The transit down also highlighted that the amount of other NGOs starting to get the Marine side of things sorted was on the increase. We passed two landing craft working for the Red Cross, one of them was on the way into Calang, and the other heading North, I am not too sure where. Added to this, we were aware that the latest MSF charter was on the way into Lamno with a truck and a 4WD, as well as other equipment.

Dawn told us that the vessels further out were also Indonesian, so I am not too confident that it will be easy to contract the local fishing boats to help us unload as I am assuming that there will be competition and that it will be intense. So with Abby we try to arrange the local guys. We have also arranged to meet the UNICEF staff at around 0815 near the wharf, told them to get a bunch of trucks and some local labour.

This being our fourth trip in here, we are well known and negotiations go well and we manage to secure a couple of fishing boats and some of the local boys to come out to the Warrior and give us a hand to unload.

As we have noticed over the last few weeks here as we go on, there are more and more boats able to service us, and in fact there is no shortage at all. This brings out a slightly different attitude in the guys on the boats, everyone is now out to make something from us as well as competing with each other, they know they can, and hell, if it was me I would too. Abby goes back to the ship to anchor the translation at that end as we predict this may well be necessary.

Things are chaotic on the wharf. Indonesian landing craft are unloading copius quantities of boxes of donated food (mostly noodles and biscuits), as are local boats onto the jetty. There are two mountains of these boxes around 2 metres high and 25 metres long and a front end loader is scooping them up and loading trucks with them. Many boxes wind up in the fishing boat holds, but really not much of the bulk. The boxes keep coming off faster than the chain of people or the front end loader can cope with and the pile grows. I really wonder where all this stuff is going to and hope it is going to those who need it.

In amongst this chaos we need to get our boats in and unload into the back of the UNICEF trucks, not easy, but we do it by nosing in and unloading our boats from the bow, not easy for the crews some of the boxes must weight 50kg, but possible.

Abby calls on the radio and things at the RW seem to be chaotic too. All of a sudden there are 5 or 6 boats lining up to unload the Warrior. We'd only cut a deal with two of them and a bit of labour on the boat, so this comes as a surprise. Capacity is returning, there is no doubt. It appears to be a little out of control keeping track of who is doing what, and everyone wants diesel for their efforts. I'm glad I am not there, as things are quite enough for me on the wharf, and very hot, again it's into the mid 30's, and it's only 1100.

Bernard and Christian have also come in when we did, to go out and do some more documentation, and they return for some water and a rest from the heat.

Bernard and Christian bring back stories of the cleanup. Things are now just being bulldozed and cleared and there are dozens of bodies, even after all this time still getting pulled out. But it has to be this way after four weeks. Things need to be cleared now, and the potential of disease needs to be stemmed, so there are large fires all over town casting a pall across the city.

I head back to the RW at lunchtime, and indeed there is still chaos on the boat, as well as a few frayed tempers. Every boat is trying it on and going for the diesel option from the RW, what can you do, we are a large NGO and they know it. It is hard to keep track of our two legit boats, Abby is really starting to get mad with them all and does not mind telling them, she's hardcore when she wants to be.

But for all the madness the boat is unloaded by 1230 and we are ready to go. Bernard and Christian are ready to come back and I go back in to pay our two boats and say goodbye to the UNICEF crew. They are hugely grateful, they have not managed to get anything in for their water sanitation, hygiene or education programmes until now and without the RW and the crew.

So we are off again, yet again back to Krueng Raya where tomorrow will bring a whole new set of similar but new challenges I am sure.

That's it from me, but please read the following story from Bernard and his time ashore today, it's quite sobering.

cheers Rob

So today at 0800 the avon went in the water. Christian, the stills/videographer was going ashore to get some video of Meulaboh. He couldn't carry all his equipment by himself so I volunteered to go with him. Now before I go further I would like to point out a little known fact which is, because of the work we're doing, getting food, medicine, clothes, and hygiene products from where they are to where they need to be, actual on the ground first hand visuals of destruction is limited to a small percentage of the crew. The outside world has seen more than most of us on board.

So today was, to put it mildly, the most surreal can't get my head around it kind of day I've ever had in my life. The destruction was indiscriminate. Rich or poor it didn't matter, your house and family was gone. The smell of dead flesh that's been in the tropics for 4 weeks that reaches to the back of your throat and tickles your belly until it wants to expell it's contents, I've experienced. I could tell you my take on what flesh looks like after a month buried under rubble but my limited vocabulary would hinder me.

I tell you though, I'm not saying I'm tough and it didn't affect me, but I could handle all of that and keep going, but at one point, I came across a very small baseball cap with a teddy bear on it and it was all I could do not to lose it. And as the day's horrors progressed, each time we came across baby shoes or baby toys or anything associated with the very young, Christian and I without saying a word, aknowledged the significance.

In closing I would like to share a thought I had...I can only imagine that places like Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Dresden looked like the place I was today. However...unlike those places that were destroyed by war, and those survivors, here in Meulaboh, every face I saw, every single face, old or young, had a smile and a "Hello how are you?" for me and Christian.

I'll take that with me when I go. Bernard.

Tsunami Relief: Another day, another arrival back at Krueng Raya

Hi there,

Well another day, another arrival back at Krueng Raya. When we arrived we were again unsure who we'd be carrying for and what. As it turns out after the morning download from Pete Morris in Banda Aceh it appears ACF are not ready for another load of rice. MSF are today loading their newly chartered landing craft, also at Krueng Raya, so there's nothing from them, so we move to the next agency in the list and UNICEF most certainly can use the RW.

They are wanting to shift a load of hygiene kits, toilet parts, large tents and what they call schools in a box. I am not exactly sure what is in them but I guess it's the resource material to get schools up and riunning again.

They want the gear to go to Meulaboh.

So yet again I go into the wharf with Abby to start the routine grind of getting alongside. Phil Lloyd and Clive have gone to town already to buy some essential ships items and also pick up the embarking crew.

We can't find any of the harbourmasters this time. There is a large ferry with a stern ramp taking the end of the wharf the ferry from Sabang usually takes. It is forced to wait while the larger ferry repositions itself at the other end of the wharf. The passengers are made to wait approximately two hours before they can get off. Once all of this is out of the way, it is apparent that there will be enough room for the Warrior. This is good, we ought to be able to load then and get away tonight.

As soon as the passenger ferry is loaded, they're off, running a bit late of course. The Warrior is free to come in. As soon as she is alongside the UNICEF trucks arrive, and the whole loading show starts again.

The new crew also arrive at around this time, some new blood to add into this madness, Isha the cook, Texas Joe the 2nd mate and Dilip on deck. It's good to see them arrive, and it's a little sad to see the others leave, Beate 2nd engineer, Miguel the cook and Lesley the medic. We've still got a couple more to come in in the following days, but they'll have to get on during a return trip.

News from the Agus tooth saga is finally good after many more days of pain. Pete's found a dentist, and he has the last part of his therapy tomorrow morning and ought to be back in Banda Aceh after this.

The disembarking crew are off to stay in the MSF house and then they need to start the battle to get out of here, all flights are waitlisted unitl the 29 January, including theirs. We can't help much from here of course, perhaps they'll all still be there when we get back.

So we are finished loading at around 2000 when the fun begins, well actually it's very dangerous. The ferry moves out slowly from the quay and around 50 metres out decides to throttle out. Only problem is there are still four mooring lines attached, noone has cast them off.

So the lines pay out and pay out until they can't pay out anymore and the tension pulls them tight. The skipper obviously thinks he's free, so he's away, no-one has told him. We can't believe what we are seeing. Bernard is on the bow, and Derek back by the bridge sees what's happenning and just yells at him to hit the deck. A snapping mooring line is enough to cut you in half and we are pretty close. Then Bang, first one, then the second and finally a third line snaps under tension before the skipper takes the throttle off. It's surreal. He's still got one on. Phil gets to the bollard and tries to unhook it, but it's pretty dangerous, it goes tense and slacks off, Phil runs away and then comes back to try to save the line. He finally does it, but not before blood is spilt.

The next half an hour is also surreal, as the vessel manouvers in and around, it doesn't appear that the props have been fouled, but there is not much room and after a performance like this we are a bit worried that this guy will hit us, we can't do anything. I think he probably ran over a couple of the deserted local fishing boats in his efforts, and after a lot of time he redocks right next to us. So we are gone as fast as we can. Tapio has had the engines on for half an hour already and we can't wait to get away from this circus and get going once more.

more tomorrow no doubt

cheers Rob

Hi there,

It was a pretty quiet start to the day today as the Eid festival is in full swing all morning, so there is no chance to unload anything until 14.30, more on that from Abby. We are still at Lamno and in need of getting the last thirty or so tons of rice out of the hold. Starting at this time of day and with so much still to do, I am dubious we are going to get this finished today. And it's hot.

It's a bit of a dilemma, because what happens if we have ten tons left at the end of the day, do we wait an extra night to finish it off (potentially wasting a day when we could be loading for another drop somewhere) or turn and head back to Krueng Raya with it still on board. It's all theoretical of course, but all part of the daily equation... we really just have to wait and see. To be honest most of us are thinking it is going to be difficult for ACF to get people to work today, but we are hopeful, and we head the Warrior back into the anchorage off the river at 1300 and wait.

We send the Avon off with Christian and Abby again, they are going into document the feast of goat and buffalo. This will be the first meat a lot of people in the Lamno IDP camps have had for the last four weeks, so in amongst everything we've seen in the last while, this will be an interesting departure from what has become the norm.

1500hrs rolls around and still no boats, it's not looking good. We are all in the mess for smoko when Moritz rings down from the bridge, a small boat has arrived and everyone has jumped on the Warrior, he wants a few people on deck to suss it out. We do, and all they want is some water. We recognise a few of them from the workforce yesterday, no dramas, and they point my attention to their boat. They have a body bag, it's full, communication is difficultt but there is no doubt they are transporting someone back to Lamno. We are one Indonesian speaker down with Agus off the boat and Abby in town so we are not too sure of the circumstances, but a little chilling nonetheless. Of course we give them as much cold water as we can and they are on their way again all smiles and waves.

The boats do arrive soon after with the ACF logistics team. Again they've done a brilliant job. Four boats, 20 workers and coupled with a departure from the pallets we used yesterday (to crane the rice sacks out of the hold) to the cargo net, within an hour and a half 30 tons is off the boat and on the way to the ACF store in town ready for distribution.

That's 30 tons in an hour and a half. I still can't quite believe it, no one can really. We certainly have made some good friends here in Lamno over the last three drops. I hope we can come back.

So we are off again.

I have rung through to Pete and told him that we are heading back and ought to be in Krueng Raya early morning tomorrow. He informs me Agus is still down, dentists are not easy to find, the Indonesian Army one we had lined up the other day seems to have disappeared. Local dentists in Banda Aceh are non existant. We are now onto a German Army one, so hopefully a good result tomorrow. Added to that Dina, who is looking after him has come down with the flu. We'll check in with the whole lot when we are back tomorrow, we need him back and we need him fixed.

After discussions on the bridge to the ACF logistics guys, Fred and Damian, Derek and with Pete on the phone, we are firmly of the opinion if there is urgent food needs somewhere then we ought to be doing it as a priority. We think ACF ought to have first refusal on use of the Warrior for next load and Pete makes the call once he knows we are on the way, to the ACF team in Banda. We all agree that if ACF are ready for it, we'll do a load of food in Teunom. It'll be the most difficult one we've attempted so far, a tricky and shallow sandbar crossing with anything less than fair weather. Little assistance at the fishing boat end, it might take a while.

But assessments tell us that major lifts have not gone in there yet, approximately 10 000 IDPs with small helidrops of noodles and bottled water. The preganant women and kids are getting food, but the rest are not. Best we do something here. Water and Medicine seem to be OK.

We'll also meet tomorrow with the MSF landing craft charter, which has finally made it to Krueng Raya. It's good it will still be there because the skipper (Andi) and the crew have not been this way before, so we are looking forward to giving him some information and what is approaching local knowledge. We have already found some extra charts for him as well, as he did not have any!

His initial job will be to bring a truck and 4WD into Lamno, and he wants to know about the entrance. I think we can help. It will also give us a chance to get a good communication schedule with him so we can support him however we can. We'll not be far apart at anyone time, and I can see possiblities for cooperative work over the next couple of weeks. Excellent.

Other news: It was Dereks birthday today. Funnily enough he spent his last birthday on the RW in Indonesian waters too, on the Forests campaign. An excellent apple cake from Sarah capped off the pizza from Miguel.

We also have the beginning of the crew change tomorrow and tomorrow Miguel, Lesley and Beatte leave the boat. Flying out of Banda Aceh is going to be difficult and it make take a couple of days for them to get out. Isha, Dilip and Texas-Joe get here tomorrow too. So it'll all be a bit of a change on this front. A couple more have yet to arrive but we'll just have to see about getting them on at another time I think. It just depends how we go with this next load what ever and wherever it might be.

More tomorrow I'm sure

cheers Rob

Lamno, 21 January 2005

It's Idul Adha today. The holiest day in the Muslim calendar. I am in a festive mood. So I put on my best T-shirt, trousers and went to Lamno with Christian to see how the refugees are celebrating the day.

ACFare starting their work after the Friday prayers today at 2.30. So we went in after lunch with the inflatable. Phil D. and Helena dropped us off at Lamno, a few hundred metres from the ACF basecamp. We said hi to Damian et. al. and walked to the town centre. Just down the road from the ACF camp, we found a group of people distributing meat. A woman carrying a child suddenly shouted at my face: why didn't you give my child new clothes! Since yesterday, I met many people who came up and ask me for money. Now that they have enough to eat, people need money to buy their coffee, sugar, and cigarettes.

We are not in a hurry today and Christian is waiting for the magic hour, at about 4 o'clock when the sun isnt too harsh, to get good pictures. So we hang out here and Christian pull out his photo gadgets. People are all too welcoming with the intrusion. I stood in the shade while Christian did his work. Several women came tome and chat. After the standard, 'where are you from' and 'oh you speak Indonesian', came the 'how old are you' and 'are you married' queries. When I told them that I am single, they were quick to match me with a man! I politely declined :-)

Then we carried on to the common kitchen. The men were cooking the meat. I was curious to know how they cook the meat. Here's the recipe:

A. Corriander seeds, shallots, garlic, chilli, ginger, pepper, candle nuts, turmeric, kelapa gonseng*, salt --> grind smooth into a paste, use it to marinate meat

B. Temurui leaves**, lemon grass stalks --> sautee and put in meat. Add water when half cooked.

*shaved coconut meat, dry it in a wok until brown. **it looks like bay leaves, a common spice here

Can you imagine the taste? They let me taste the curry, not spicy enough for my taste but quite appetizing. If I had'nt had lunch I would've sat there with them.

We went around a bit in town and talk to some more people. Then we walked towards the loading area. Not far from our pickup spot, we met Abdul Muthalib, he was clearing the rubble in the field that he use to plant rice before. Like a lot of people I met so far, he was quite submissive about his future. He was one of the lucky ones that live at the foot of a hill. Him, his wife and his three children ran up the hill when people started to shout that water is coming. He moved in to his half destroyed house after living in the camp for about 3 weeks, but he still depends on the daily food rations.

Abby

Hi there,

Well there are plenty of tired bodies around the ship this morning after last nights 70 ton effort loading the hold with Rice for ACF. The nylon bag rashes are evident on everybody's forearms this morning, however the mood is good. Loading was finally completed just before midnight and everyone was involved from the crew at some point.

It is evident that we are not going to be able to take a physical lead on the unloading operation and that we ought to be asking ACF to organise ten of the local guys to come to the Warrior to assist with the lifting. The crew have been absolutely amazing to this point but there is no way we want to physically burn anyone out, and that's easy when it's still and the temperature reaches 35 degrees every day. We've also been at it for almost three weeks and half of the crew is already over their three month period on board the ship.

These people have nothing left a lot of them, all have lost family and friends and we ought to be doing everything we can within reason to assist even at this basic level.

ACF appreciate this. They have consulted with MSF in Lamno about the best ship to shore operational procedures. Damian, their logistic guy on the ground I spoke to last night had arranged three boats at our request, and he rang the brige twice before 0800 to confirm arrival times and ask whether there is anything else they could do for us. Derek tells them about the need for the ten local guys to help on deck and it all happens.

This is the first substantial civilian food drop into Lamno, and ACF are incredibly grateful that the Warrior has made this possible for them, and on another level it's great to be doing some food, the most basic of all the humanitarian needs around these parts.

ACF is a French NGO who specialises in getting their hands on the large amounts of aid coming in from various sources like the World Food Programme, and basically distributing it. They have been sitting on a large pile of food in Banda Aceh with no way of moving it down the West Coast, so this seems like a perfect partnership in some ways and we are only too happy to help.

By knock off time (1700) and several rotations of helpers on board we had successfully unloaded at least 40 of the 70 tons (maybe even a little more), not bad and a lot better than anyone thought would be possible when we closed the hatch on it all last night.

It is the Eid festival tomorrow, which is going to be quite big here. To poorer people it can be more of a celebration that the breaking of Ramadhan, which is usually done with rice. Eid is more about eating meat and is a lot more of a special treat. In many places in Indonesia goats are slaughtered for this, tomorrow we know know there are going to be 12 water buffalo slaughtered in town and maybe not any goats. This could well be very special to some as a constant diet of rice and instant noodles for some since the Tsunami is a bit boring.

Christian and Abby also went back into visit the IDP camps to get interviews with people on the ground who had survived the Tsunami and Abby's report follows

OK that's it from here

cheers Rob

Lamno, 20 January 2005

Christian and I went into Lamno at about 10am. We waited for the 15-ton truck to fill up and hitched a ride to town with them. The ACF warehouse was by the main road, not far from the one of the camps. The warehouse is about 200 sqm, but only half of it is being used for storing ACF's rice. It was (still is?) a rice processing (where they process the husk off rice for consumption) and storing place. So the place seems good enough.

We left the ACF guys to do their work and went into town. There are a lot of white tents with UNHCR printed in big letters on it. The tents are not concentrated in one place. Then we walk further to the soccer field-cum-helipad for Christian to get pix on heli landing. The security guys are doing their job now and no children are chasing helicopters now.

Then we head back to the IDP camp near the soccer field and chat with people. There are 6 UNHCR tents set up in front of the classes. The women said that only the men sleep there at night. They don't use it in the afternoon because its too hot inside. Children are using it to play hide and seek.

We carry on walking to the back of the camp. Behind the curtains of laundry, the smell of curry cooking smells quite inviting. The only green vegetable I saw around here is 'pakis' -- a type of edible fern. They cook it in coconut sauce. Next to the pakis curry, a woman pour something that looks like beans in tomato sauce into a wok and mixed it with chilli. I asked them what it was, and they say it's beans in cans from the helicopters... Apparently they don't have a common kitchen system and everyone is cooking for their own family. They don't have stoves. What they do is arrange red bricks together are make fire in the middle with wood.

We interviewed 3 IDPs today and they tell incredible stories on how they escape, how high the wave was... and so on. They don't know where they are going next. There are reports that school will start soon and they have to leave the premises. UNHCR tents have been distributed to the IDPs, so it looks like they are going to be relocated soon, but nobody knows where.

Hi there,

We arrived today back in our favourite loading port of Krueng Raya at around 0730 after an uneventful trip up from Meulaboh.

Pete spent the morning in the NGO logistics meeting in Banda Aceh from 0900 to around 1100. For the last couple of days he's been furiously working hard to assess whether there was much more for the RW to be doing here. Of course there is, all the trips down the coast tell us this.

MSF have exhausted the use of the RW to this point, Meulaboh is now accessable by road from the warehouse in Medan and Lamno has been well set up by the two visits from the RW already.

We have been in discussions with a couple of other NGOs in the last days to assess whether anyone else wants to make the use of the sea transport we offer with the RW but there have been no bites through his discussions.

It gets to the point where I've just about decided that if there is no further assistance we can provide then we'll leave the area. This is articulated at the meeting and of course when it's put on the table in such a way there is a big change. All of a sudden ACF is very interested in moving food aid down to Lamno and Teunom.

After the crew meeting where I explain what is happenning I get the call from Pete that 80 tons of rice will be on its way to the ship at around 1630, and ACF wants it to go to Lamno.

MSF are also happy that we carry for them. We have not really done much food up until now so it will be an interesting if somewhat heavy departure to everything we have done for MSF.

Looking at the wharf as we are anchored some kilometres off we notice that the large ship that was taking up the whole jetty has moved off, so has the daily ferry and another cargo vessel with an on board crane has moved in. I think it's a good idea to get in there and ensure that there is space for the Warrior, so we take the Avon in with Abby to try and find the Harbourmaster (one of the five if you remember) and make sure it happens. The cargo vessel we notice is actually an ICRC chartered vessel, registered in Ulan Bator in Mongolia, I did not realise they had a coastline but there you go.

It is taking up too much room and the stern lines are hindering our safe docking. We negotiate with the Harbourmaster, and get the boat moved forward 10 metres and the stern lines made fast on another bollard. No problems the Warrior can come in. I get to talking to the ICRC logistics coordinator, another Kiwi by the name of Don who looks like he is having a hell of a day wrangling everything and is way behind schedule. The troopcarrier delayed them for 6 hours and he's pretty frazzled, as they wanted to get their cargo unloaded today and it does not look likely.

We have a problem with Agus I have not mentioned up until now, he has had an infected and impacted wisdom tooth that laid him low for a couple of days last week. Lesley had him on antibiotics and severe pain kiilers then but it's flared up again today and he's in extraordinary amounts of pain. It's time to get him to the dentist and Dina has taken him into Banda Aceh. He will be well looked after, it's a real shame to lose him but we need to get him off for his own sake. We'll be back in a few days to pick him up I am sure. I could tell he thought he was letting us down but nothing could be further from the truth, he has done an amazing job in the last three weeks and he'll come back stronger than ever.

It's currently 2300 as this is written and we have one truck to go, this will make the full 80 tons, the hold is very full, and there is no doubt this is going to take more than a day to unload. We also have the complicating factor of the Eid holiday on Friday. This is a Muslim celebration, where a lot of goats get slaughtered and it may well be that coupled with Friday prayers, we may not get too much done until the weekend. Everyone is truly knackered and will be looking forward to a good sleep tonight.

Hope all is well in the outside world

Cheers Rob

Hi there,

A fairly straight forward day today. We arrived back in Meulaboh at around 0730 for the third time.

The MSF crew arrived shortly afterwards with all their local help to assist with the unloading, and we quickly got about the process of getting a couple of local boats to unload the RW. Not a huge load, mostly extra water sanitation gear, tents and large water bladders.

There are more boats vying for business now and there was no trouble securing assistance, unlike our previous two visits where there was much more coming ashore from boats anchored off the town. There also seems to be more fishing boats as well, which is probably an indication of the locals getting more of them back in the water.

So it certainly appears that there is much less effort going into Meulaboh. We did not travel around too much but there really appeared to be very little difference to the amount of rubble and general mess around the place. The roads seemed to be a little clearer.

This ought to definitely be our last trip to Meulaboh, although the first overland transport has still not arrived from Medan, apparently it was leaving today. I hope it all goes well for them.

The interesting item in the unloading today was the twenty 200litre drums of AV gas we unloaded. We finally trialled the Phil Dunn inflatable boat adapted frame device that had been built a couple of weeks ago but not used until now. It worked a treat and was 200% faster than the tow behind method utilised until now.

Peter still has not sourced any other cargoes for us from Banda Aceh at this point either in the near future, but in the medium term ACF (Action Against Hunger) has asked for a little logistical information on a place about 30 miles North of Meulaboh, Teunom.

Teunom has a large amount of IDPs encamped closeby, and is completely cut off. Apparently they have water sanitation sorted out and the Medical side is sorted, but they are short on food. So we stopped there on the way back North, launched the Avon and Moritz, Phil Dunn and Agus went in to scout it out. Of course the town has been destroyed. Teunom is flat and there are no major hills closeby unlike Lamno. It is exposed here for anchoring and there is a pretty vicious bar here that really can only crossed in very good weather.

There are four small fishing boats the guys found upstream that could be used for hauling stuff off the RW (or whoever), easy unloading to the river bank and an intact road that leads to the main IDP camp approximately 12km away. Apparently the Red Cross has been in according to the locals as well as BKS one of the foremost Muslim political parties who mobilised on day one and two of the disaster in many communities around here.

So we are back on track again for Krueng Raya, yet with no plan again. The crewchange is imminent and it is probably a good time to get this out of the way while we have a little time to reassess where to from here. We also need water, we have not been making any on this trip, for various reasons.

There is an NGO forum happenning tonight Peter is attending, and an NGO logistics meeting tomorrow morning which may provide more information.

Another interesting piece of information from Pete is that he has found 20 20 ton fishing boats capable of distributing supply down the West Coast, and the owner is keen to use them. Excellent news this will be for many people and scratch NGOs out there.

We could be helping these guys more too. It's just one of the options.

Cheers Rob

Tsunami relief: Meulaboh

The Rainbow Warrior is helping the charity MSF distribute aid to tsunami hit areas of Indonesia. Rob onboard is sending updates on how the ship and crew are helping the MSF operation.

Hi there,

A fairly straight forward day today. We arrived back in Meulaboh at around 0730 for the third time.

The MSF crew arrived shortly afterwards with all their local help to assist with the unloading, and we quickly got about the process of getting a couple of local boats to unload the RW.

Not a huge load, mostly extra water sanitation gear, tents and large water bladders.

There are more boats vying for business now and there was no trouble securing assistance, unlike our previous two visits where there was much more coming ashore from boats anchored off the town. There also seems to be more fishing boats as well, which is probably an indication of the locals getting more of them back in the water.

We did not travel around too much but there really appeared to be very little difference to the amount of rubble and general mess around the place. The roads seemed to be a little clearer.

This ought to definitely be our last trip to Meulaboh, although the first overland transport has still not arrived from Medan, apparently it was leaving today. I hope it all goes well for them.

The interesting item in the unloading today was the twenty 200litre drums of AV gas we unloaded. We finally trialled the Phil Dunn inflatable boat adapted frame device that had been built a couple of weeks ago but not used until now. It worked a treat and was 200% faster than the tow behind method utilised until now.

Peter still has not sourced any other cargoes for us from Banda Aceh at this point either in the near future, but in the medium term ACF (Action Against Hunger) has asked for a little logistical information on a place about 30 miles North of Meulaboh, Teunom.

Teunom has a large amount of IDPs encamped closeby, and is completely cut off. Apparently they have water sanitation sorted out and the Medical side is sorted, but they are short on food. So we stopped there on the way back North, launched the Avon and Moritz, Phil Dunn and Agus went in to scout it out. Of course the town has been destroyed. Teunom is flat and there are no major hills closeby unlike Lamno. It is exposed here for anchoring and there is a pretty vicious bar here that really can only crossed in very good weather.

There are four small fishing boats the guys found upstream that could be used for hauling stuff off the RW (or whoever), easy unloading to the river bank and an intact road that leads to the main IDP camp approximately 12km away. Apparently the Red Cross has been in according to the locals as well as BKS one of the foremost Muslim political parties who mobilised on day one and two of the disaster in many communities around here.

So we are back on track again for Krueng Raya, yet with no plan again. The crewchange is imminent and it is probably a good time to get this out of the way while we have a little time to reassess where to from here. We also need water, we have not been making any on this trip, for various reasons.

There is an NGO forum happenning tonight Peter is attending, and an NGO logistics meeting tomorrow morning which may provide more information.

Another interesting piece of information from Pete is that he has found 20 20 ton fishing boats capable of distributing supply down the West Coast, and the owner is keen to use them. Excellent news this will be for many people and scratch NGOs out there.

We could be helping these guys more too. It's just one of the options.

Cheers Rob

Click here for Digital Globe's satellite imagery of damage to Meulaboh.

Tsunami Relief: Lamno Day 3

The Rainbow Warrior is helping the charity MSF distribute aid to tsunami hit areas of Indonesia. Rob onboard is sending updates on how the ship and crew are helping the MSF operation.

Today strated smoothly with an arrival in the bay off Lamno at around 0700. Peter had made contact yesterday with the base in Lamno and had informed the MSF crew of our arrival time, as well as to ensure that they were ready for offloading this morning by way of chartering the local fishing boats again.

This was superbly executed today because as we dropped the anchor, two fishing boats were already standing by waiting to commence the job. Brilliant work MSF!

On board the boats were Remi, one of chief logistics guys, Delphi an epidemiologist and Jean one of the doctors here in Lamno. Unloading was a simple 1.5 hour affair, or roughly two truck loads of Water Sanitation equipment and miscellaneous items.

We wanted to get Christian and Abby ashore to document one of the local IDP camps and a few of the crew also took the opportunity to do this, including Clive our Doctor on board. There was no pressure for us to leave today because even if we went as fast as we could to our next drop off, Meulaboh, we would still not be able to unload due to an arrival on dusk. So it was deemed more important for Christian to continue his documentary work on behalf of MSF and a good opportunity to do so was provided today.

The reports back from the shore party were encouraging with respect to the MSF work there. All of the water sanitation equipment we hauled over from Krueng Raya a few days ago is operational already and is supplying clean water for four IDP camps. Other materials hauled have been used to build better clinic space, the toilets are going up too which will make a great difference in terms of being able to control preventable disease, and this is a great improvement. It is extremely gratifying to see the work we have put in to help, come to fruition at such a good speed and benefit people affected on the ground. This work would not have been possible had Greenpeace and the Rainbow Warrior not been there to help.

That's it from me, but I also enclose a couple of reports from Abby and Phil about the shore party's experience in Lamno today, sounds quite amazing what's going on in there

cheers Rob

From Abby:

We arrived in Lamno early this morning. It was good to see the MSF guys greeting us with two fishing boats ready to load. Christian and I went in with the first load along with Remi, Jean-Paul and Delphi from MSF. Faye, Clive and Phil L joined us with the next boat. There were three trucks waiting, but there were not as much load to transfer so we ride to the MSF basecamp on the empty truck.

On the way to town, on either side of the road, nothing remains. Only plastered floors that can tell you that there once use to be houses on top of it. Our guide said it used to be a densely populated area. By the landing site, there were three concrete buildings that are still standing. The buildings look like they weren’t even finished yet. Bare bricks show here and there, cement walls with no paint. Most of the walls in the first and second floor are mostly gone now and what seems like a balcony facing the river had collapsed. It used to be a boarding school complex and a lot of their students didn’t survive the disaster.

Aside from the three buildings, nothing stands for hundreds of meters inland. At one point on the road, we can see the three masts of the RW, when I am sure before the disaster it would be impossible to see.

When we arrived at the basecamp, one of the MSF water trucks are going on their water distribution rounds. The truck loads one of their 4-cubic metre collapsable water tanks. So went along with Adi, Chandra and Nisfu, MSF logistic guys to the reservoir where they fill the tanks. We left Phil behind, then Faye, Clive, Christian and I follow the truck on a ‘becak’, a motorcycle with a side car fit to what they say is up to 10 people.

Along the way to the hill where the reservoir was, the view was magnificent. Rice fields on each side, hills in the background. A nice house in the middle of it with its satellite dish. Very strange how the Tsunami wave wiped out entirely one side of the area and left the rest intact.

We arrived at the water filling spot. MSF set up a spot where they placed a 20-cubic metre collapsable water tank. The tank is connected to a hose that runs down from the reservoir. So we went up the hill to see it. Chandra said its not far, only 5 minutes up the hill. I can tell you it takes more than 5 minutes to climb the hill. After catching my breath a couple of times, we arrived at the reservoir. It is a small tank about 4 x 3 metres -- a small spring runs through it. Nisfu said that there is a waterfall further up. The water is fresh and clean. The reservoir is built to serve the small town of Lamno and distributed to houses by pipes.

When we return, the truck is all filled up and ready to go. We followed them to the village clinic, their next stop, to fill the tank there. The clinic is served by the Pakistani Army. They have a lab and provide surgical care there. From the clinic we went to one of the big IDP camps. It is a school building, now home to about 2000 people.

On the badminton court in front of the school there was a pile of clothes. It seems that the TNI dropped some secondhand clothing for the refugees yesterday. The remaining pile must be the ones they don’t want. As I go closer, I was surprised to see half of the pile were… neckties!! What on earth are they doing here? I am sure a lot of the villagers don’t even know what to do with them.

Apparently, there is a very logical explanation to this. The batch must be one of the many confiscated second hand clothes that have been imported illegally to the country. The government instructed that all of the impounded clothing that hasn’t been destroyed, to be sent to Aceh.

In front of the school an American medics group set a medical service there. I am not sure what they are doing there. But a lot of groups set themselves up in Lamno are doing either assessments or coordination meetings. Glad to see that MSF is actually doing something! Apart from the daily clean water distribution, they are also setting up toilets and showers for the IDPs. (This is where the sacks of cement, sheets of plastic and other building material goes to!!)

Just across from the school-IDP camp there is a soccer field. The field is used as a landing spot for helicopters. The traffic was quite busy today. I saw a British Army helicopter flying over so I got curious and look at them landing. It was another bizzare sight. Just as the helicopter was about to land, children from all directions came and gathered around it. Very closely! An Indonesian army personnel that I spoke to said that its difficult to control the people there, especially the children. So I guess he got tired of fending of the kids and just let them do whatever they please. The helicopter spew boxes and boxes of bottled water and instant noodles, which turns out to be Pakistani aid. Then when they chuck all of the boxes out, the rotors spin faster and faster and all of the children around the chopper tilted towards it, holding themselves against the wind… and after the Brits flew off, run towards the boxes and grab whatever they can before a car takes it all off for distribution.

We then head back to the MSF basecamp and wait for Tom to go to his daily clinic service. We did an interview with Hans, MSF’s water and sanitation expert, about their operations. In the back of the house, which they rent as their basecamp, they set up a platform for the water tank and beside it there are two showers and a toilet. (Again, those pesky sacks of cement and sheets of plastic are used for very important purposes, guys!)

After that, Phil and Faye went to help Remi and Adi and several other people set up another water reserve. Christian, Clive and I went with Tom (the doctor), Syaiful (the nurse) and Loli (the interpreter) to the clinic they set up in one of the other camps. It is another school building and about 2000 people live here. The two schools are the biggest camps in Lamno.

MSF set up the clinic in one of the school rooms. They divide the room into 5 (cant say enough of this, but: using the gear we transport!) It was time to head back to the landing spot and say goodbye to the MSF guys. When we got there. Some people were trying to pull a boat from the other side of the road using a jeep… there doesn’t seem to enough strange things happening today… Phil gave them a hand and gave them some ropes that we have. They actually manage to pull the boat up to the road level. I wont be surprised, when we get here next time, the boat will be floating in the river or even help us unload :-) One thing’s for sure: Phil made many friends here!

from Phil:

After sitting in the Hammock at the stern watching the light disappear and the moon dogs appearing on a nice temperate evening, I discovered the computer free and Rob had asked me to write about my day, so here it is.

After unloading what we had transported for MSF I jumped aboard the last slow boat to Sumatera. The backdrop to the boatride, the bow rising and falling in slighty murky river fed water, to a great right hand surf break and lush green tropical rainforest in irregular lines of landscape with wet cloud helping to highlight the contours andthe bottom part of a rainbow reflecting the light.

Joking with the boatcrew of a local boat that I have come to know and work with over many long hot hours, loading drums of solar (diesel) , plastic sheeting, hammers, nails, mattresses, blankets, medicine, generators, water containers, the list goes on and on, oh and don't let me forget cement.

As you come through the inlet, the devastation is before you. You pass under where a bridge used to be and head upriver. Everything has been flattened, the water has picked up everything and surged forward untill it has met an obstacle,like a very large hill and it has eddied like a river, back on its self while the main flow has continued up the river delta, about 15kms.

We unload and I board an MSF truck bound for the town of Lamno. Sitting high on the back, one local points to another flattened delta where a hill used to be, it wasnt there anymore. Everything is brown and twisted with few remains of buildings anywhere. In fact three buildings you could consider landscape breaking, that is all.

They had whole palm trees imbedded in them and walls blown out. Everything else is a jumbled mess, colour from odd bits of cloth, decadent tiles at the front of a foundation, where houses had once stood. Trees broken off, big trees, at the stump. A huge river of trees, boats, cars, houses, bridges has totalled the town and low-lying landscape.

We arrived at the MSF recently rented and rebuilt offices/accomadation/warehouse. Here I helped unload the truck filled with the supplies we had deliveredand it was great to see some of the stuff from our last trip being put to good use. I felt proud for the crew. I went for a walk once the camera crew had headed inbound documenting MSFs great work.

One thing that I noted on the way into town that people were always quick with a wave and a smile when you gave one yourself. So by saying hello to everyone I ended up sitting with old men, young children and older woman at different times sharing our relevant and whatever we could get a cross stories. The older men said thank you to New Zealand when i told them where I was from.

I caught up with the camera crew and then walked to the airfield and entertained dozens of children inbetween helicopter landings. they were coming thick and fast, the Australians, the British, the Americans, the Malaysians and the Indonesians. I only saw journalists and the odd box of stuff comming out of these choppers. But the children would all run out onto the landing field and stand leaning into the downdraft arms out trying to stay upright. The many different colours of cloth flapping in the wind made for quite a sight. As they blew over they would enthusiastically run back into position the helicopter pilots and crews trying to wave the children off as they came to earth, generally one chopper down and then the other is left circling, some kind of protocol.

I talked to a woman from MSF Natalie, who told me she had come from Ivory Coast and more recently the Congo to this. Some people complain there is no good movies on. We left the MSF base in Trucks again in the afternoon to an IDP camp and I went for a walk with MSF to establish how and where to run the hoses to full up a 15ton water bladder close to the camp. I felt like the pied piper with so many children in tow, certainly made for an entertaining walk up a bank, through hand tilled rice paddie fields, fruit trees and jungle. Saw one snake, some strange fungus, many butterflies and many laughing children.

We laid out the bladder after clearing a flat place. The piping would have to wait till the next day as it had to be machettied clear for around 700meters and would secured to most of it to stop the water buffalo puncturing it. The water, well MSF likes to use chlorine normally in this situation but the locals wont drink it so they wait anxiously for the many cookers they have ordered to arrive. Maybe we can deliver it next trip?

On the ride back with two pallets, Dr Clive myself the driver and an old Vespa Sprint sidecar, rain falling in big drops in the heavy air, people yell out,"thank you" . Very humbling, can only smile and wave. There is new growth all around appearing through the bedlam, new hope.

Tsunami relief: MSF base camp

The Rainbow Warrior is helping the charity MSF distribute aid to tsunami hit areas of Indonesia. Rob onboard is sending updates on how the ship and crew are helping the MSF operation.

We are now moving into the third week of the relief operation with MSF. It is only two weeks since we left Singapore and it seems like a lot longer ago than that.

Apologies for no update yesterday. After we got Pete Morris on the boat for a full briefing on the situation in Banda Aceh and also working with MSF on the ground there, we thought it was actually a good idea if I went back into town with him and had a chat to a few of the MSF folks. This meant no update.

It also gave me a chance to look at their operation and see for myself what I had only heard as the circus that was Banda Aceh.

The drive into Banda Aceh was relatively uneventful, it was interesting seeing the contrasts in the devastaion. Some sections of coast were totally untouched and then two minutes down the road it scene resembled something similar to pictures I have seen of Hiroshima. I guess there were points that were more protected as the Tsumani hit, in the lee if you like, before it swamped and smashed the bays in its path.

Some areas were so badly hit, and so massive in size it seems very plausable to me now that there are still 2000 bodies being pulled out of the rubble every day. Small Indonesian flags mark the spots where bodies that have been found were still lying in the mess. The operation to shift the rubble will take years. The final death toll will never be known, there is no doubt about this.

The MSF office is a hive of activity and people are constantly coming and going. There seems to be a continual management meeting in progress and the one thing that strikes me more than anything is how tired people are. Some of them have been here since day 1 or 2 and it shows. Yet everyone is still staying focussed and there is not really any evidence I see of frayed tempers.

We also visit the warehouse which is 15 minutes by car from the office. Pete points out a mass grave to me just around the corner, the stench of decay is very strong here (as it still is in many places). The warehouse has a completely different vibe and very well sorted with a small MSF staff of three on the ground and about a dozen local guys with trucks. Their supply lines into Banda Aceh have mostly been moved and I am assured there is much less in stock now than there has been in the last two weeks. In that time they have taken possession of 30 cargo planes of supplies and most of this are now in the field. We check the cargo for the RW on Sunday to make sure there are no nasty surprises like unpalletised bags of cement.

Everything looks in order.

It seems that now that Meulaboh can be accessed by road (although still untried by MSF and prone to flooding which is regularly closing it, it is the rainy season), along with Sigli and Banda Aceh, that the main hub for distribution will move to Medan. This leaves Lamno as the only inaccessable spot for the MSF operations where sea is the only option. So we meet with Sabine, Head of Mission in Indonesia, Alex, HoM in Banda Aceh, Guy, one of the main logistics guys and most importantly, Meinie (sp), who is the MSF Operations Director. They are all extremely grateful for the work we have done for them up until now, and are happy with the organisational relationship.

But one thing they do not have much experience of, is how to use ships, and in a situation like this where the disaster has resulted from a catastrophic sea movement in a remote area, ships are essential in aid relief and humanitarian effort. So this is all quite new to them. I think it was good to go in and talk to them, and the decision will be made in the next two days, maximum about our further workplan. We hope it is in the positive, it is good to support their work, and we are working well together.

So after a night at one of their houses in Banda Aceh getting bitten by mosquitoes its back to the ship at 0600. Usual story at Krueng Raya, kind of crazy negotiations about who can go to the quayside first and load or unload, with a bunch of guys who all have different stories. Now there seem to be five Harbourmasters, it started off with one when we first used this port. It is becoming much busier here now than we we first arrived. But we slip in at 9.30 after an unexpected car carrier (88 cars for Banda Aceh), unload the contents of the three trucks on board and we are out of there by around 1200.

While we were finishing unloading, who should roll in but Sumber Rejeki, the IDEP boat who have been helping out delivering mostly food aid in Calang, so I finally get to meet Sam Shultz, who I've been trying to track down for about ten days. He's also one very tired man. We give him a couple of UHFs we bought from Singapore and get off the wharf so that he can get in and get loaded again, then get back to Calang.

Also get a call from Madeleine over in Malaysia and she informs me that Sean Paquetto, the yacht just South of Kruengraba, currently looking after 2000IDPs on their own, desperately need mosquito nets, malaria medication, water and a Sat Phone. It's too late for us to help with a drop off because we are just pulling away from the wharf, but with a bit of luck Pete can, either through Sumber Rejeki or even by road....almost

We will be in Lamno first light and ready to unload. The MSF base there has hopefully sorted the fishing boats to start early.....we shall see, the first couple of hours always seem to be where we have to secure them properly.

Cheers,
Rob

Tsunami relief: Lammo day 2

The Rainbow Warrior is helping the charity MSF distribute aid to tsunami hit areas of Indonesia. Rob onboard is sending updates on how the ship and crew are helping the MSF operation.

Hello Again,

For the first time on this trip the day started with our local fishing boats arriving to the RW and ready to work by about 0830, so we were able to commence the last of the unloading earlier than we have at any stage of this voyage. This is good, because we would like to be gone and heading to our next mission.

Things run pretty smoothly with these guys and this was due to how well we worked with them yesterday. It was a large cargo for MSF, in the most remote place we have been yet, so it is essential we build up a good rapport with these guys in case we need to get back here.

Lamno sub district is a good place to be working, it has suffered heavily, and it appears there is little other aid getting through. Because of other difficulties, there is speculation that aid may not get through to these parts.

The unloading is finished by 1230, and we are on the way North again by 1300. I've talked to Pete in Banda Aceh and there is little progress with deciding where we will be headed next. We have to go back to load though, so we head North once more.

Some on board have heard of another town over the last few weeks that apparently saw the biggest and most powerful waves reported in the Tsunami as it hit the Northern tip of Sumatra, some mention waves that peaked at 30metres. We are not that hopeful, considering everything we have seen in terms of destruction in the last two weeks, that we will find a usable port.

Pete also wants us to check out the river that runs past the town and into the bay to assess whether there is any possibility of getting a barge or a landing craft up there for supplies from Banda Aceh, that MSF are wanting to use in future weeks.

We arrive at about 1700 and launch the Avon with Phil L, Moritz and Christian on board to find the river, document it and do the soundings. An 80 metre cargo vessel that was tied to the dock there when the Tsunami hit is completely overturned and upside down. There is no chance for the RW to use this facility. Nothing or no one would have survived here four or five stories up, trucks are scattered, and flags litter beach where once there was a thriving community. The flags mark the spots where dead bodies have been identified for burial.

We cannot find the river mouth either. The place where it lies on the chart is nothing but a sand bank and there is no chance to get the Avon in let alone a landing craft. This is also confirmed on the radar. We also cannot find Pete who was supposed to meet us here, mobile coverage is not good and he does not have a VHF. Not surprising really.

So we decide to leave and keep heading north.

In other news, we passed a couple of vessels today involved with other NGO relief work, a yacht called the Sean Paquitto, working with Waves of Mercy and coordinated by our Greenpeace colleague Madeleine in Malaysia, we tried radio contact on our way past but not joy. We did hear them on the radio a couple of hours later talking to the US Navy in an effort to get over some Malarial medicine, they had taken on board a sick local and were treating him.

And also what we suspected was the Sumber Rejeki working with IDEP coordination assisted by another Greenpeace colleague Alex, and out of Padang. they had been loading up in Krueng Raya. We tried phone, HF and VHF but again could make no contact to 100% ascertain. They are on their way back to Calang where there is a big need for aid. They have delivered something like 80 tons there already of food, clothing and water bore drilling equipment for fresh water.

It would have been good to talk to them both, but I believe we will come in contact over the next weeks anyway, everyone is busy and focussed in their efforts.

So I have just got off the phone to Pete and although the meeting has yet to happen tonight, it could well be that we will be asked to go back down that way with another load. I would like that, they need it badly.

That's it from me then. I asked Christian to write up something for tonight's report as well, he spent a lot of time ashore today at the unloading point on the river to Lamno and had some interesting conversations.

Cheers,
Rob

14 Jan 2005

I went in with the first cargo vessel to the drop of point where the MSF personnel were waiting. The place is called Pulau Limpan and it's literary nothing there, except two concrete houses that are half standing.

Pierre, MSF´s logistician, walks down from the rented trucks to meet us: "Bonjour, ca va? " and he continues in French for a while before I have to stop him. Unfortunately, I choose German as my third language in school and I don't understand any French. I reply with one of the two sentences I know, the other one is not appropriate in this kind of situation: "Bonjour Monsiur, pardon no parle vo Francais." He looks at me and smiles. Then he kicks away in English, a bit limited but fully understandable.

It turns out that Pierre is a really nice guy, and between the shipments we receive on the keyside -we talk about MSF as an organization and he also tells me about his 14 years in the field. He told me that his assignments are normally between 1-3 years; Honduras, Mozambique, Congo etc.

I can't really understand how he could cope with that for 14 years but I'm impressed by his engagement. After talking about Greenpeace and MSF for a while he asks me if know the history of the village we are in. I look around, seeing the two concrete buildings again. Further away on the brown, muddy field is a small ship and some buffalo cows.

Then I realize that I'm standing in the middle of what used to be the village. It's nothing left. Pierre continues telling the story about when the earthquake happened. The river Krueng Lambeusoe withdrew from the riverbed leaving the curious villages, who walked down to the river. The earthquake itself didn't do much damage to the people or building here.

According to locals who survived it took 50 minutes after the earthquake when the Tsunami hit the village, which is located around 1 km from the river mouth and ocean. The horizon was suddenly full of water, everywhere. 6000 people used to live in Pulau Limpan. Today, 90 percent of them are reported missing or dead. The rest are now relocated in Lamno in an IDP camp. IDP stands for Internally Displaced People and the name is used instead of refugee when it's within a country.

Sometimes I forget to reflect over the situation here. You can't walk around the whole day long just thinking about what happened; the people's loss and pain. But it's good to be reminded now and then why we do this. Pierre tells me that MSF intends to stay for as long as they can and he is honestly really thankful for our help.

--Christian

Lamno town

The Rainbow Warrior is helping the charity MSF distribute aid to tsunami hit areas of Indonesia. Rob onboard is sending updates on how the ship and crew are helping the MSF operation.

Hi All,

We arrived this morning in the bay off Lamno town. Lamno town itself sits about 5km up the river from where we currently are and has missed bearing the brunt of the Tsunami due to its slightly higher elevation, and this is where MSF has set up a hospital to cater for people in the district who have been badly affected, they are also trying to run mobile clinics. Their work in the refugee camps concentrates on water sanitation (no one else is doing this around here), building toilets and showers and they have responsibility for much of the vaccination (measles) and anti malarial work and general medical work that needs to be done here.

The hills that rise out of the sea here have borne the brunt of a huge force when the Tsunami did hit. All vegetation has been wiped off them from ten metres down to the sea. The river flats look like a moonscape, nothing has survived that wasn't on a hill, all the palm trees are gone, totally ripped out of the ground which bears testament to the brute strength of the turbulent water that churned through here. Of course there were many small villages on these flats and on the sea shore, and bridges which have completely disappeared. The village next to the bridge at the river mouth was the home for 1000 people of which there are now only 400 survivors. You would never know a village had been there.

The water from the waves washed up the river valleys about 10km and have destroyed everything in their path. Everyone I met today seemed to have lost someone in their family. One of the guys I rode into the river with today lost everyone in his family, he was washed several kilometres up the river by the Tsunami and managed to survive by holding onto a tree. He told me he was simply working on the boat to forget that all this had happened in his life, he was normally a handyman.

Our job is difficult here. We have a large load and much of it is heavy and difficult to handle. We need to negotiate local boats again to help us get the equipment and materials off the boat, it has not been arranged prior to our arrival, so yet again we need to sort this out for ourselves.

A shore party is sent in to find the MSF guys on the ground and to find boats who will work for us. Moritz, Phil D. and Abby are the crew who go in, and upon their return the news is not as good as we were hoping for. There are possibilities they have found for one boat to start at 1200, and maybe one or two others. The MSF guys had tried to organise a couple for 0800 but they seem to have fallen through, they are a bit embarrassed by this. They think they can get one for 1400. We did actually see one local boat exit the river with an MSF flag on but with about 20 passengers as well, they turned away from us and headed North, we have not seen them since. It's good not to pay the whole fee up front, I think that is the lesson there.

This is going to be long stop by comparison to the others.

Not to worry though the first boat our crew has found arrives at 1200 and the next one by 1330, so we have two going from this point on for the rest of the day.

We are making sure that we keep the boat drivers and the crews happy. We need these guys to work as late as possible and tomorrow as well, so we have to make sure we feed them, keep them watered, make sure the diesel stocks are up and that they are getting paid a good rate on shore. This can mean some tricky negotiations, but things are looking good for a completion of this job tomorrow.

Not sure what the next mission is from here, but I'm sure we will find out soon enough.

Cheers,
Rob

Tsunami relief: Banda Aceh

The Rainbow Warrior is helping the charity MSF distribute aid to tsunami hit areas of Indonesia. Rob onboard is sending updates on how the ship and crew are helping the MSF operation.

Hi there,

Today started with the arrival of the Rainbow Warrior in a bay about 50km to the South of Banda Aceh. We had steamed here overnight from our departure from Meulaboh where we had dropped our second consignment to the MSF hospital there.

MSF have asked us to assess the possiblities of getting supplies into a small town which lies about 5 km up the river that empties into the bay.

We have nothing much to go on except the GPS coordinate of the town and we have to find the river ourselves.

After the Avon is launched with the shore party which includes Moritz, Phil D, Agus, Lesley and Chistian, we see a fishing boat in the bay so we instuct the guys to go to them and ask discretely where the river mouth is. They do this and are directed to the entrance.

Here, they find an operational truck and the road that leads to the town. The road is in good condition and on the river on the way to town there are fishing boats, dug out canoes and women doing their washing in the river. From the looks of it apart from the devastation in the low lying areas, people are getting on with their lives.

Once we arrived in the town (which is relatively unscathed due to being a little more elevated) the shore party finds the hospital and the MSF coordinator there. They are in desperate need of supplies and are grateful that we can get them in. They are completely cutoff by road. Although the coast here is exposed to the swell, Derek adjudges that unloading will be possible, though we may drift and not anchor, local boats are the best way to get the stores ashore and to the truck which can access the town.

I relay all this back to Pete in Banda Aceh. The calculations are done on the bridge and on two engines it looks like we can get back to Krueng Raya by about 1630 or so. If we can be met there by the trucks from the MSF warehouse and the quay-side is unoccupied we'll be able to get loaded and on our way again to be in situ off for tomorrow morning.

Unfortunately we hit a bit of wind against current through the top of Sumatra and things get a bit lumpy, we are slowed as a result meaning we come alongside at 1730, a little on the late side but we are ready to work into the evening. Main problem will be the weather, because it is completely crap with rain making things a bit slippery, as well as adding to the problems a couple of people have on board who are carrying colds. We need to watch this carefully.

Loading is underway as I write this, everyone is soaked and at 2200 we've still got two trucks to go. It was supposed to be three but it turned out to be five trucks, some very heavy stuff and subsequently some very heavy going, this is going to be interesting at the other end.

With luck we may be able to get out of here at midnight which will put us in to the next port around 0800, whew.

Back to it then, below is a report from yesterday by Abby and her trip to an MSF mobile clinic while we were in Meulaboh.

Cheers Rob

Tsunami relief: Meulaboh

The Rainbow Warrior is helping the charity MSF distribute aid to tsunami hit areas of Indonesia. Rob onboard is sending updates on how the ship and crew are helping the MSF operation.

We arrived in Meulaboh around noon today and a few minutes after
we reached the pier, an MSF car was ready to take us to their office.
After a bit of a confusion with the mobile clinic schedule, we were
assigned to join a team that was going out to a village about an hour
and a half out of Meulaboh.

In the past week, they usually have two mobile teams out but today
they are sending three teams. In the team that we joined, there was
two doctors and two nurses.

We went out in a 9-seater commuter van, heading about 15 minutes
out of town to buy gasoline at a small stall by the road. Fuel is very
hard to come by here. Soon after we fill the car with about 20 litres
of gas, we went to the other direction to the village.

The village is about an hour and half out of Meulaboh. Roads are
bad as can be expected in most district roads, with potholes and
made worse in parts by muddy roadsides. We apparently were
driving quite close to the beach as we can see, at least half the trip,
traces of the wrath of the tsunami on the villages and farmlands
along the way. The other half there we saw paddy fields and
farmlands on either side of the road, and occasionally passed
villages with houses destroyed by the earthquake and not so much
of the tsunami wave.

When we arrive at the village, a group of people have been waiting
for the med team. They were late today, and some people have
been waiting since morning.

There were about 50 people, men, women and children, their faces
lit up when they see the doctors coming. Doctor Dorian and Endang
swiftly prepare their examine rooms and the two male nurses, Tohir
and Gobet prepare their makeshift drugstore and take names for
registration. The team is able to serve up to 200 people but they say
that the optimum number is 100 patients a day. So they usually
keep the number under 100.

They have to close the clinic at about 4pm, since we have to get
back before dark. We stopped by a refugee camp along the way to
assess their medical and sanitary needs. About 200 people are
living in the old village mosque. Of 1500 people in their old
villages, only 200 remain. They still hope to meet some family
members that might have fled to some other camps.

Rainbow Warrior Update 10 January

Hi there,

For us, the day starts slowly. There are still communication hassles getting in touch with Pete over in Banda Aceh, and in frustration I had to call Alexis the Field Manager of MSF over there. There are still problems with the cargo planes coming in unexpectedly for MSF, as well as not coming when expected. Telecommunications here are very unreliable and I suppose will remain so for some time. MSF can not use radios in Aceh.

Due to lack of information on our cargo movements we decided to go in alongside anyway, just in case they are on the way and we can get things into the hold early. The two patrol boats tied up turn out to be Malaysian Police and I go and meet the Captain to see what their intentions are. They have bought boxes of food across the Malacca Straights and are waiting for trucks from Banda Aceh to come and pick it up. They are quite happy to negotiate moving if our trucks arrive first, I explain I do not want to hinder the ferry when it arrives at 1100, so we agreed to standby and see what transpires.

There are also a lot of food boxes piled up on the quayside which look to have been dropped off by the third Malaysian vessel which left last night. A steady crowd of people come down to the wharf and load up their bicycles, motorbikes or just carry them away.

The harbour master comes down and does confirm the reason no one is on the fishing boats (as I mentioned in my update of yesterday) is simply because they have been washed away. There are about 40 empty fishing vessels in the bay, it is very sad to see.

Unfortunately the ferry does arrive before our trucks so we need to go back out and anchor again.

When I do finally get through to Pete, I discover we have five trucks getting loaded at the warehouse and we ought to expect them at the wharf by around 1530. The arrive at that time, and as we have moved the RW alongside (the Ferry departed at 1400) it's possible to start loading straight away and this is complete by 1800.

This load comprises of mattresses for the hospital at our next stop, more water sanitation equipment, tools, mosquito nets and a number of other miscellaneous items.

Pete did come down as well and I finally had a good meeting with him. Banda Aceh sounds like it is chaotic, he's of course helping us with our logistics at that end, but is also coordinating Helicopter operations to the field and incoming Cargo for the office there. A lot of the MSF staff who have come in have been dispatched to the field, so they are little short handed. He can fill these gaps nicely because he's done it all before in many other parts of the world.

One of the other problems the MSF crew are facing in Banda Aceh is the availability of truck hires. With so much aid pouring in they are at a premium, so they have decided to bring their own in shortly. They are also going to attempt the road out of Medan in the next couple of days with a truck convoy, as the warehouse in Medan is quickly filling up.

Well we departed at 1800 tonight, and we will expect to arrive in the morning tomorrow. It's good to be underway again, and yet another efficient display from the crew during the loading operations, only 2.5 hours for in excess of 10tons this time.

I am also starting to get a lot more information about other yachts coordinating relief work around here, I am just continuing to keep them all in touch with one another and keeping them in touch with one another.

That's about it from here, trust all is well

cheers Rob

Tsunami: Rainbow Warrior Update 9 January

The Rainbow Warrior is helping the charity MSF distribute aid to tsunami hit areas of Indonesia. Rob onboard is sending updates on how the ship and crew are helping the MSF operation.

After the hectic schedule of yesterday and steaming all night on two engines (yet again) to get back to Krueng Raya as fast as we could, we got a phone call from the MSF folks on the ground informing us of a couple of problems in Banda Aceh. MSF were expecting three cargo planes in today so it was always going to be a huge day for them there. One of them managed to arrive (unannounced when it did), however the others were re routed for reasons I am unsure of, meaning huge logistics nightmares for them.

This simply meant that there was no one available to make decisions on the RW next steps or the logistics around supplying the boat in Krueng Raya from Banda Aceh, a one hour drive and probably involving 4 or 5 10-15 ton trucks.

We could not have got in when we arrived anyway as three Indonesian patrol boats arrived just before us, as well as the interisland ferry, so the wharf was locked up until 1400 at the earliest.

This means the crew got a day off, quite a good thing really as there are many aching muscles that need to be rested wherever possible. Currently we are at anchor just off Krueng Raya awaiting instructions.

I've been trying to talk to Pete Morris all day about the situation, the whats and whens for us, but as everytime I get through to him it sounds like he has his head in a jet engine, it is difficult to see many decisions getting made until later tonight about our movemnts. Everyone on the ground in Banda Aceh for MSF is dealing with this cargo problem, including Pete so we just have to wait for him to get through to us.

In other news though and to make myself feel like we are doing something proactive in the situation we have been putting yachts we have either run into on our voyege of the last day, or people we know supplying yachts for the relief effort in touch with Indonesian NGOs to assist with their assessed areas of need where yachts may be a good tool. Its something at least. We talked to two yachts just off Banda Aceh and also to one in Phuket Thailand just about to leave. Some of you may know Madeleine Habib, GP 1st Mate, well she is on that one, she is also ex MSF logistics. I got them in touch with Estee at Wahli so perhaps these guys will be working together soon. IDEP could also be interested so I passed the details onto them as well.

At the crew meeting today we debriefed on the loading and unloading operations thus far. Basically I think everyone is pretty pleased with how it is all going, but we are missing one vital element. We are weak on being entirely operational with getting large volumes off the boat when we are at anchor. It will be a case that in most places we are operating we will be at anchor due to wharfs being demolished in the Tsunami or earthquake, or indeed smaller isolated communities with no facitities. Moving cargo by inflatable is possbile but time consuming. In all reality we need a landing craft on board, something with a flat bottom drawing very little in the water. We are looking into this.

If we can find local fishing boats in these places, then of course it is great to use them and pay with diesel, food or a bit of money, whatever they need. We cannot always count on these guys being around though, for instance here in Krueng Raya, there are plenty of fishing boats (those that have not been sunk) in the bay, but there is noone on them or using them, which would normally be the case in the Indonesian fishing community. They are either dead or helping out somehow on land, with family, whatever, they are simply not here, I find it quite eerie.

Well that's about it from this computer, I think I'm going to have a beer and watch a movie or something. Waiting for the call from Pete, very frustrating at these points, but we need to be flexible, it's our job and it's what we are going to be.

Good Night,
Rob

Tsunami: Rainbow Warrior Update 8 January

The Rainbow Warrior is helping the charity MSF distribute aid to tsunami hit areas of Indonesia. Rob onboard is sending updates on how the ship and crew are helping the MSF operation.

Today is the day we figure out how we are going to get the 20tons or so of Medical and surgical equipment, food aid, water sanitation equipment and various other bits and pieces, that MSF have supplied us with, to set themselves up a base here in Meulaboh ashore.

Local fishermen who have survived the Tsunami, helped us to to unload and this is exactly how the day starts.

A small team goes ashore and we meet up with Budi who has been here for a week helping the victims and who we have worked with before on other campaigns. He has arranged a fishing boat and this ties up alongside the RW for the first of many loads on a long hot day. The currency is diesel and we gladly oblige for the assistance. Problem is the diesel is given away too soon, like on the first load and after dropping the stuff ashore they guy doesn't bother to come back, but goes to get other business elsewhere.

I am not happy with this. We have a lot to get off and we want to be on our way as soon as possible to resupply and head wherever MSF needs us to go. Budi goes back ashore to see what he can do, but appears that all the likely candidates are working elsewhere and cannot come to us.

So we go back to the plan B which is inflatable boat, this is the three day plan and not a good one. Budi has managed to get a small Indonesian flat bottomed boat and we start to hail passing boats like taxis and it actually starts to work! Before we know it we have several small boats lining up and getting stuff ashore for us, they are mostly after diesel, I guess the word got out and things from here go pretty smoothly until; about 1400 when the boats seem to dry up again, lunchtime.

Abby and Christian have gone ashore once more and have visited the hospital which has escaped the devastation and where MSF have set up working with their doctor and nursing staff, as well as a refugee camp which has sprung up in the local council offices, more about that in the following report.

Somehow Abby manages to find four boats that were tied up alongside all standing by and waiting for us to load them.

This all means that pretty much everything that was in the hold is now out and in the hands of the MSF logistics team. The last of the 220l drums of AVgas and JetA1 fuel is now being towed ashore by the inflatables, and once this is complete we will pull up the anchor and head straight back to resupply and head wherever it is we are needed under the instruction of our partner NGO MSF.

All in all a big day and quite incredible that amongst all the devastation that surrounds us we were able to do the job, it was looking dodgy at midday that we would be successful and have to do another day here, but we got there in the end. I am certain our next visit is going to be a lot easier, the first time is always the most difficult when you have no logistical knowledge. The teamwork is really coming together.

Well I hope we have helped MSF get underway here, the roads into Meulaboh from the North are still either destroyed or impassable effectively with trucks, using a boat is definitely the way at the moment to get equipment in. It looks like the Southern Corridor may be opening up again though and this will help land logistics.

All from me tonight, the shore party report to follow. It's 9.30 in the evening and I forgot to add into the update that everyone is shattered and have all gone to bed, no one will be getting a wake up call in the morning, we need to rest as this is all just about to happen again.

Cheers, Rob

Meulaboh, Saturday, 8 January 2005

Christian and I tried to go to the hospital today and film our MSF friends during their work. Thomas said that the best bet to reach the hospital is to hitch a ride with any car passing by. We went out and the streets were relatively quite compared to yesterday. There was a car parking but they were hired by a couple of journalists who unfortunately were going in the other direction.

We decided to walk in the direction of the hospital and along the main road a group of people were clearing the road. There was fire earlier in the day and the road was closed. We can see two thick plumes of smoke from the ship this morning. It wasn't clear whether the piles of rubble was burnt on purpose or it was an accident. Either way, they were clearing the road pretty quick. Wide tracks on road sides suggested that they had help of heavy machinery.

Finally a car passed, I waved frantically to get their attention. They stopped and I asked whether they were going the direction of the hospital, and indeed they were.

The area where the hospital stands was not affected by the tsunami. The building is intact. I don't even see a broken window. But many of its staff are either missing, dead or had to take care of their family. The hospital is now run by various medical missions. Korean Red Cross greets patients as they came in the front section. MSF provides surgical and pediatric care. We interviewed one of their nurses, Elaine, and she took us on a tour of patients there. We spoke to some of the patients too.

We were waiting to see if we could join one of their mobile clinics on their runs. But one of them just came back and they don't know when the next team will take off. So after enjoying their hospitality of rice, fried instant noodles, some vegetables, we left the hospital.

Life was bustling in that part of town. A traditional market was open. I didn't have any reference of what it was like before the disaster but it looks 'normal'. Tricycles offered their services. Less than a hundred metres from the hospital, the regent's office stood unharmed. Meulaboh is the capital of West Aceh Regency. The office is now virtually abandoned, and hundreds of refugees live there. In front of the office there were three big green tents. 'Social Department' was written on two of them and a big red cross was printed on the other.

In front of the office building I saw again more stockpiles of instant noodle packages. The person distributing it said that they hand out 2 packs per person everyday. If they have rice, then that will hand out that.

We walk further to the direction of the wharf. We hitched a ride again on some contractor's car.

Abby

Tsunami: Rainbow Warrior Update 7 January

The Rainbow Warrior is helping the charity MSF distribute aid to tsunami hit areas of Indonesia. Rob onboard is sending updates on how the ship and crew are helping the MSF operation.

After steaming all night and against the current down the west coast of Aceh we arrived in Meulaboh at around 1400.

Sitting offshore the town due to the destroyed port facilities.

MSF had by this stage established a team of 17 people on the ground here over the last day. Additionally Pete Morris is now in place in Banda Aceh as of this morning to work with the MSF team there.

The devastation we could see from the boat was enormous, much worse than yesterday.

After going to anchor and establishing contact with MSF we sent in a shore party. We needed to get clearance to dock and make direct contact with the MSF logistics team on shore to find out what was happening. As it looked like we had some hours to sort things out with unloading I decided it was a good idea to have Abby and Christian go ashore as well to look around and get some documentary, the MSF photographer also joined them.

The Avon team did a full scouting of potential unloading options and logistics of working around the shore in case we needed to work on our own with no assistance as well.

Once our shore team were in, they were also looking for other options and after meeting some old NGO friends from Jakarta, and the MSF team it now appears that there are a couple of local boats that we can utilise for the process of unloading. This is great news, this can perhaps start as early as 0730. tomorrow morning.

I did not go ashore today with all these discussions but I have asked Abby to write up something from her time ashore, it follows.

cheers Rob

Meulaboh, West Aceh --

As we close in to Meulaboh, devastation was visible from the boat. We can see almost no standing buildings along the shoreline.

We met with a volunteer that turns out to be an old friend who volunteered in last year's Forest Campaign, Budi. He volunteered with the Media Group (MetroTV, Media Indonesia newspaper) team.

As we arrived, Budi showed us the way to the military command post, that was coordinating the whole relief effort. Moritz and I go on shore to find the navy personnel in charge of the aid coordination. Everything seems to be in order, the navy commander was aware of our intentions and said that we are clear to do our download.

We split our team in two. Christian and I went to around with another volunteer, Mukhlis. While Budi went with Moritz et al.

We went to the direction of what must to be a pleasant seaside village before. Now all you can see by the shore is mostly gone. Some concrete houses still stand, but mostly their ground floor destroyed.

We met a group of boys playing with their soccer ball, some riding their bicycles. They had masks resting on their forehead. Being children, playing laughing, casually saying that they lost their home and now living at a refugee camp. Iqbal, 9, and Alpamas, 8, made their best pose for Christian's camera and more interested in prying in Christian's viewfinder than really chatting with me.

Everywhere we went, most people we talk to have lost family members. Some came from other towns, some have been searching for days with no luck finding their missing family.

Budi mentioned that most of the areas in town were cleared of dead bodies, but some are still left under the rubbles.

Traffic is surprisingly busy. We can still walk in the middle of the streets without being run over by cars but it is definitely busier than I expected. A lot of motorcycles running about. Mukhlis also mentioned that the traditional market have been open for business.

Abby

Tsunami updates from the Rainbow Warrior

The Rainbow Warrior is helping the charity MSF distribute aid to tsunami hit areas of Indonesia. Rob onboard is sending updates on how the ship and crew are helping the MSF operation.

As anticipated we arrived off Krueng Raya this morning at around 0600 at dawn.

As the light grew stronger it became very apparent that the town of Krueng Raya too, had been badly damaged as a result of the Tsunami. We noticed several small fishing boats that had sunk, massive devastation of the shoreline, petrol storage tanks which had been ripped from their foundations shifted hundreds of metres and a massive barge which was stranded above the water. The port has three jettys and two of them were more or less destroyed and useless for us.

Large warehouses on the shoreline had had trucks swept through them and there was at least one vehicle sitting in the water not more than 50metres from our berth.

We could not establish radio contact with the pilots, not surprising really. Contact with MSF logistics was also difficult at this time of the morning so I woke Dave Curtis at MSF up in Jakarta and got him onto the case.

While we were waiting to establish contact we put the Avon in the water to assess the damage to the wharf area, try to find someone in authority and check the depths of the approaches due to sunk vessels and the fact we did not look to be able to get a pilot. We also observed other two ships approaching the port. We established radio contact with both of these to ascertain their intentions and find out who they were. One was an Indonesian police vessel and the other an Interisland ferry.

Reports back from the avon confirmed they had talked to the harbour master and managed to assess that one berth was possible to use and also had truck access. By this stage the police advised us that we had to wait for the ferry to go in as they had 300 people and cars on board and were to pick up more passengers and vehicles for a departure at 1400.

It was also a case that the police advised that until someone from MSF arrived to take receipt of us, we were not allowed to access the wharf with the RW. Contact with MSF had been established by this time and it became apparent that they had a few problems with their trucks, someone else had offered them more money for them, but the new ones were on the way.

They arrived pretty much at the same time the ferry came alongside with four trucks of medical supplies, food and various other items they desperately needed to get into Meulaboh.

We were of course desperate too, to get in and the wharf was simply not big enough to accommodate the three vessels, at least the way they were berthed. The shore team comprisiong of Moritz (First mate), Agus (deck and Bahasa Indonesian speaker) and myself negotiated as hard as we could with the Police boat and the ferry to try to make room for us but we could not manage it.

So we had to wait for the Ferry to leave, which was OK as they were running a free service since the Tsunami getting people to and from the islands. The police boat was another matter however they were simply there supplying their own guys and had no desire to move on or make room.

Once the ferry had left though, we got alongside straight away and commenced the unloading operation. We had several tons of equipment to come out of the hold and various other parts of the ship and of course all the new stuff to get on. The afternoon from this point on has concerned nothing more than this for us. We managed to get all the trucks back on the road to Banda Aceh just before dusk and as I write this we are currently finishing the stowage of all the equipment we have been left with.

Discussions with the harbourmaster confirmed the ferry comes in at the same time everyday and as far as he is concerned we can come alongside whenever we want if there is space. He lost his wife in the tidal wave, yet he was still there to do the paperwork meeting the boats and seeing to it we were OK.

It was kind of amazing how everyone really was getting about their business considering the devastation really, i couldn't really believe it. the harbour master told me only 73 people had died here, but when you looked around you had to wonder how this could be so low. They got hit with a 10m wave here, and the water is quite deep just offshore so it would have appeared in a flash and noone would have had a chance by the looks of it. Considering that we are actually a little around the corner here too, I am sure things can only get worse in terms of the damage wreaked on the West Coast which of course was directly exposed.

Anyway the engines are on, now we have the tricky part of navigating back out through the boat wrecks with no moon. I am sure we will be quite alright. Next stop Meulaboh, when we have to work out how to get all this gear ashore. We have a few ideas of course, don't worry about that.

If you'd asked me whether we could have made Meulaboh by Friday before we left Singapore I think I would have laughed but now there is no doubt we will.

Departure approx 2100, transit time 12 to 16 hours depending on currents at the tip of Sumatra, so we'll be there around lunchtime tommorrw.

cheers Rob
On the Rainbow Warrior

The office is slowly filling up after the holidays and most of the talk in of the terrible consequences of the Asian tsunami. Fortunately we have been able to offer our Rainbow Warrior ship in the region to help MSF distribute aid. Personally its been amazing to see the fact that the global public can still be moved to respond to the suffering of others thousands of miles away in times we are only told to be worried about threats to 'security' and our personal safety.

We have offices in India and Thailand and our staff there were not in the area where the waves struck but both WWF and Friends of the Earth both lost staff, as did many local organisations working on the ground.

Today here in Holland all the national commercial radio stations and several TV stations are devoting a whole day to raising money but other corporate donors have not been so generous if you compare donations to their profits.