There was an Kiwi, a Tasmanian and an Irishman in a boat...
(C) Greenpeace / Walsh
When most people think about Greenpeace activists, they think of action: orange-clad climbers hanging banners from buildings, or of life-jacketed boat-handlers zooming around in that quintessential Greenpeace vehicle - the inflatable boat. In case you didn't know, these activists tend to be highly skilled people who train hard.
On board the Rainbow Warrior, we have several boat experts, some of whom have been using outboard and inflatables for years. I headed out with two of them, Stuart and Logi, to test communications equipment and procedures. In the middle of nowhere, in good conditions, we headed some eight nautical miles away from the ship to do the testing. Once out there, we stopped and had a snack. A Kiwi, A Tasmanian and an Irishman, sitting in a 6m-long boat, bobbing around with nothing around us for hundreds and hundreds of miles but sea, a few curious albatrosses and some petrels. It had the makings of a joke, and we're soliciting punchlines, if anyone's good at that kind of thing.
It's a very odd feeling sitting out there in the middle of nowhere, with infinite new valleys and hills appearing and disappearing on the ocean surface. There's a sudden realisation that the boat is merely suspended between two elements - liquid and gas, water and air, with a couple of kilometres down to the sea bed, and a few kilometres above to outer space.
So, with this in mind, I started quizzing Stuart about driving inflatables. He's a veteran of many a Greenpeace action - his first was 17 years ago in Tasmania. He's an expert boat handler and outboard mechanic, as well as being a sailor and an electrician.
So why inflatables? Why do you think Greenpeace use them so much?
Well, their manoeuvrable, safe, fast, hard-wearing, low to the water, and almost unsinkable. Also, with inflatable pontoons, it's possible to come alongside larger vessels at speed without damaging either craft. '
They've become iconic because people are used to seeing us with a banner flying off the back of the boat, or seeing us driving in front of a ship - like a whaler, for instance, as part of a protest or blockade. People love the idea of boats, its romantic, and it makes what we do look scary to anyone who is unaccustomed to driving an inflatable, but when you're trained for it, it becomes second nature. In my own case, I have many years of experience, both with Greenpeace, and with personal use.
What do rate as most important when using the Greenpeace inflatables?
Safety, safety, safety. Lots of training, and good communication amongst the crew of the inflatable - to avoid accidents. It's important to get the launching procedure right, to make sure it's fluid and that everyone knows what they're doing. It's quite tricky, coming alongside, while the ship is doing several knots, in a heavy swell. With the inflatable rising up and down, we have to get people on and off the boat safely.
Also, it's important to ensure that everything works as it should - we carry out checks of the communications equipment, as well as procedures for radio use between the inflatables and the ship.
Is there much difference between using an inflatable out here in the middle of the ocean, compared to the more normal use, in an inshore location?
Inshore, you've got sheltered waters, and help is close at hand - out here, its high seas, huge waves, and if something goes wrong, the nearest bit of land is several hundred miles away!
What's your longest trip in an inflatable?/
240 nautical miles! We were on our way to meet a yacht flotilla which was going to make a symbolic line to protest against the Pacific Pintail which was transporting plutonium between Japan and Britain.
Any last message for the weblog readers?
This particular campaign is something I've been passionate about for some time. The forests of the sea, that we can't see, need to be protected and understood instead of destroying them.
Dave Walsh, Rainbow Warrior web editor
Comments
Here's a nugget of history: the idea of using inflatable dinghies is something we stole from our opposition. Bob Hunter, one of Greenpeace's founders, saw video footage of the French Navy buzzing around the Greenpeace vessel Vega at Moruroa in inflatables called "Zodiacs." As Stuart notes, they were fast into the water, highly manoeuvrable, low to the horizon, safe, etc...
"We gotta have a few of those things..." was all Bob had to say, and it was so.
