Down, Not Out

Posted by Dave at 07:07 AM, January 25, 2005

© Greenpeace/Cobbing

It's early in the morning. There's a bunch of us spread between two inflatables, 100 miles or so off the coast of Portugal, trailing along behind the Greenpeace ship Esperanza. To the west, the Atlantic shimmers below a nearly full moon. To the east, the first dusty purple promises of dawn are appearing. A couple of miles away a massive bulk container ship - The Golden Lion ploughs through the waves, laden down with genetically engineered soya animal feed from Argentina, destined for French farms...

On board the inflatable runabout Grey Whale are Alain and Florian, with climbers Mikey and Jens. In the African Queen there's French farmer José Bové of Via Campesina (the world union of small farmers), and Arnaud, GE campaigner for Greenpeace France. Crewing the boat are Ed and Serkan, and there's the media team - Gav on video, Nick on stills, and me.

There's a wicked swell - the last few days had brought flat calm seas, but overnight, the sea had kicked up. Now we were driving up and down the peaks and valleys of the Atlantic, the salt spray stinging our faces. We had intercepted The Golden Lion late yesterday, and had shadowed her through the night, as she made for the port of Lorient, in France.

The call comes - the boats turn, and we're off towards the shipment of GE soya, leaving the Esperanza behind us. Ahead, The Golden Lion's tangle of gantries are silhouetted against the blue-black moonlight sky, vanishing every few moments behind the waves. We approach the ship, and then swing around to the port side. The plan is to get four climbers - including Jos´ and Arnaud - on board the GE ship.

The Grey Whale goes first - Alain takes the boat up alongside the bulk carrier, while Florian and the climbers hook a climbing ladder high up on the ship's railings. The swell isn't too bad alongside, making their job pretty straightforward. Mikey's on the ladder first - we can see his climbing helmet standing out against the dark hull of the ship. As he swings away from the Grey Whale, I can see The Golden Lion's crew starting to get wise to our intentions - a few of them are already out on deck.

Mikey makes his way up the ladder, while Jens hangs on the ladder from below. Then it all goes awry. A huge wave come from nowhere, lifting the Grey Whale high out of the water. It bumps into Mikey as it rises, sending him spinning and tangling the ladder. I swear out loud, immediately hoping that Gav's video camera hasn't recorded me. Our plan clearly isn't working out. Mikey, hanging from the side of the ship, decides to abort the mission. He signals to his boat, and inflates his life jacket in case he has to ditch in the water. Alain steers the Grey Whale in underneath Mikey again, and Jens and Florian grab him and get him free of the ladder. Alain swings the boat away from the The Golden Lion and towards us. Mikey's lying up forward, catching his breath. He signals that he's ok. Turns out he's received some nasty bruising to his knee - nothing too serious, but not the kind of thing you want to have to deal with while climbing on board a moving ship.

We plough back across the waves towards the Esperanza - a little disappointed, a little chastened. Our deeds may be well intentioned, but we still have to be prepared for the unpredictable power of the ocean. Still, it's made for a dramatic morning... and we've got plenty of energy left for more activities in the coming days. We're also inviting cyberactivists to warn the authorities in France that this shipment is on the way, and there's an awful lot of us who don't want to see any genetically engineered cargo unload.

On the way home, the sun erupts above the horizon, a blazing ball of orange.

- Dave

| TrackBack