I walked up the alleyway, still damp and chilly after a couple of hours of boat training in an inflatable - the same one that will carry our photographer and videographer while we are out documenting bottom trawling vessels. Entering the galley, I found Carmen, lead campaigner on board, flushed and focused, in the midst of preparing dinner for a ship's crew 24. On Sundays, our cook Emilse, and assistant, Kate, get a day off from their usual work: preparing astoundingly tasty meals in a kitchen that is around the size of a large wardrobe, and constantly in motion. While Chris and Logi, logistics coordinator and boat driver respectively, had volunteered to be chefs for the evening; somehow they had managed to make themselves too busy to actually come up with the goods. So it was up to Carmen and I to get the job done, and on time.

However, Chris has insisted we mention that he did manage to holler crucial courgette cooking instructions to Carmen while he zipped by in an inflatable.

Washing my hands and rolling up my sleeves, I asked for a debrief and update on preparations and planning so far.

"We need 15 pizzas to feed everyone, 6 meat and 9 vegetarian," said Carmen referring to a set of arcane calculations scribbled in her notebook. I saw she had planned out each pizza, allocating and assigning ingredients under themed headings: ham, courgette, mushroom, spinach, and olives.

"Working back from dinner at 6pm, the potato chips will take 15 minutes, each pizza around 20 but we can only bake them in sets of four, so if we keep serving when people start eating we need to have them assembled by 5:15," said Carmen in rapid fire, while chopping mushrooms.

"You can start with the salad."

For the next 3 hours we worked hard, dicing, slicing and sweating in the increasingly hot galley. Carmen kept us to deadline; I focused on presentation, true to our professional roles. The crew and the pizzas kept coming, with apparent success AD The only negative comment came from the cameraman, Wooly, who remarked that a noise like cats fighting was coming from the galley. I think he was referring to the accompaniment I was providing to my favourite Dolly Parton cooking music.

For the final impressive event we whipped up some banana and cinnamon loaves AD completing a well-rounded team effort.

We are now waiting eagerly for next Sunday, when it will be over to Chris and Logi to make up for their excuses and deliver on their grand talk.

- Erin & Carmen