As soon as there is a possibility for action and the decision has been made to seize it, over the phones comes the message "we are going into action, we are going into action. Everyone drops what they are doing and disperses throughout the ship to collect what they need (spare batteries for radios, snacks, cameras, life jackets, boat suits, banners, magnets, boots, protective head gear) and then the crane starts lifting up the inflatables one by one and launching them into the water. Four people are needed to hold onto 'tag lines' which hold a boast in position as it gets lowered over the side. The driver and a crew person need to be in the boat when it gets lifted and lowered into the water. The Espy needs to be doing some speed (usually 6 knots), which makes launching easier and sometimes she needs to be in a certain position to give the
small boats a lee (shelter from the waves).

Once the inflatable detaches itself from the crane, it comes against the side of the ship by the pilot door and collects the extra crew (campaigners, photographers and action people now all dressed in thick orange suits and life jackets) from the wet room. This is hardest part if the weather or swells are bad. Boarding passengers need to be quick when climbing down the ladder and only when the driver says "go". They also need to to hold onto the sides of the pilot door and look down towards the boat to make sure it doesn't get pushed out by the waves as they try to stand on it otherwise they could drop right into the water! There are always extra people at the pilot door to help crew get into the boat. The captain can watch the pilot door on a television screen on the bridge and he communicates with the inflatable by radio. This communication can also be heard in the radio room.

Once everyone is on board the captain gives the inflatable the signal to go and then they stay in contact on the radio. The driver of the inflatable needs to know where he is going since it's been foggy and impossible to see where the fishing vessel is. He asks the captain for a bearing and away they go. If the weather is too rough the captain may decide to abort the action at anytime.

After the action, everything happens exactly in reverse. The inflatables come back to the pilot door. Most of the crew get off, very carefully. The crane pulls the boats out of the water. People pull the tag lines in. Everyone takes off their boat suits and washes them and then hangs them up to dry. The radios are returned to the radio room. The photographers go straight to their tiny offices and look at what they've got. There is time for a shower and some left over food in the mess and then we all have a discussion about what happened.

This meeting is mainly celebratory and there are lots of good vibes flying around along with the serious discussion of the events although it becomes obvious that not everyone is completely happy about not taking things further. Everyone is different on board and although we all care about the same things and want to take action for a better environment we don't always see eye to eye about the way it should be done. Some would perhaps like to do something a little more radical but what unites us is that we all want to do something to stop the destruction, and the conviction that whatever we do has to be non-violent. So everyone does their best even if they are not completely in agreement with the plan. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing. We want a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling and there is not a single person on this ship who doesn't.

When another trawler is discovered on the radar the entire process starts again, even if it's Sunday and the crew are expecting to be in bed for a little longer (just like yesterday).

-Lisa.

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Pictured: Eddie, the bosun, launches an inflatable using one of the cranes on the main deck © Greenpeace