A reader named Joshua asked, on the 'email the crew' page, what we do when we're at sea. It all depends on the campaign. Just this year, the Esperanza has been involved in campaigns everywhere from Scandinavia to Lebanon, dealing with GM shipments, nuclear shipments, whaling, and deep sea destruction.
Right now, we're out in the wild northeast atlantic, about half way between Scotland and Iceland. We're monitoring, documenting, and trying to stop bottom trawlers from wrecking the environment.
This isn't as easy as it sounds. For a start, the wind is howling around outside, at about 60km/h, and we have to drive small inflatable craft in rough seas, with fragile camera equipment on board. We often spend long hours in these boats - maybe an entire day. Some of us have learned to sleep in the corner of an inflatable.
There's a crew of more than 30 on the Esperanza - captain, mates, engineers, electrician, fitter, bosun, boat mechanic medic, deckhands, cooks, campaigners, logistics coordinators, radio operators, computer experts, videographer, photographer, press officer, helicopter pilot, and even a web editor. Some of us are mainly concerned with running the ship - looking after the engines, the boats, and the navigation. Others deal with the campaign - coordinating with land, working on policy and strategy. And some of us concentrate on media - creating good video, photographs, press releases, web stories, and making sure they make to the outside world.
There's no demarcation on a ship though - everyone has their primary role, but everyone does a bit of everything else. We have breakfast at 7:30, then, unless we're in the middle of some urgent activity (like trying to stop bottom trawlers) we get busy with the cleaning - the alleyways, toilets, showers, mess and lounge are all scrubbed. The garbage is taken to the garbology room, and separated for recycling. Food stores are carried up to the Galley. Emails are downloaded, phone calls made (via satellite) to land, meetings are held to decide on activity for the day.
We have lunch at 1200, dinner at 1800. Depending on what's happening, or what we're working on, many of the crew can take it relatively easy after 1700, and maybe watch a movie. If there's something major happening, then we work into the night...
From conversations with friends, as well as emails from weblog readers, it seems that everyone wonders 'what we do all day', as if we have a lot of time on our hands. The days pass incredibly quickly out here - even when we're just transiting somewhere - like from Dublin to the open ocean - everyone has something they need to get done. It might be directly related to work - having meetings, editing photographs, training new crew members, painting, fixing broken stuff... or it can be personal - writing emails to friends and family, sewing buttons, trying to catch up on reading, grabbing a well-needed nap, or just taking time out to look at the infinite patterns of the waves, as they lash the bow of the Esperanza.
Joshua also asks how long we're at sea doing out duties - that's a question that there's no really simple answer to, and I can only give an example of this trip. As I write this, it's November 5th. We left Falmouth, in Cornwall, England, on October 9th. Since then, we spent an afternoon just off Killybegs in Ireland, an afternoon docked in Lochinver, Scotland, and a two-night stopover in Dublin, Ireland. Apart from that, we've been at sea all the time, mostly hundreds of miles north west of Ireland and Britain. And we'll be out here for a few weeks yet...
