Safety and seasickness

Posted by at 11:17 AM, June 15, 2004

Hello everyone,

Today I was scheduled to help out on watch from noon to 4:00 with an interruption of about an hour for a safety tour with Donald from Scotland. During watch Mike spotted with bare eyes a boat on the horizon that took me five minutes to find with binoculars. During the safety tour Donald described to us the emergency procedures for fire, collision, and man over board. Then at the end of the safety tour I experienced my first bout of motion sickness. Woozy and light-headed, I sat down to hurl. Alas, I had skipped lunch and there was nothing to project! At this point I was really hoping to power it out, but I caved and put the patch behind my ear.

General meeting this morning to discuss the campaign. Erika did a very good presentation- explained the strategy of the campaign and laid out the schedule a bit. Our goal is to further a dialog with the Icelandic people- to clear up misconceptions held by some about whaling and about Greenpeace. Erika also announced that Iceland has revised its plans for killing 25 minke whales this year, down from the previous estimate of 500 whales over two years including sei and fin whales. Excellent news, but they still have not ended their whaling program.

Recall that the premise of the campaign is economic: we would promote eco-tourism to Iceland if they stopped their whaling program permanently. We have a list of 60,000 people who have pledged to consider Iceland as a travel destination, and that translates to about US$63 million, far more than the US$3-4 million Iceland took in during its most profitable whaling years.

Back on board the Esperanza, a few of the crew have inquired about a necklace I'm wearing. It's made of clear blue and green beads with small silver beads and small beads of wood. It features a sterling silver whale tail at the center. It was made for me by my good friend Laura Zirelli just before I left Reno. Not only is it a beautiful necklace that was obviously made with care, it is also one of the few things I have from home since my bag was lost.

Had a really good conversation with Marc, an American ex-pat living in Denmark for the past 20 years. We discussed U.S. politics and the general state of the world for quite a while. He has managed to stay more informed about the U.S. than many Americans and welcomed the chance to compare notes with someone living there.

Today I was scheduled to help out on watch from noon to 4:00 with an interruption of about an hour for a safety tour with Donald from Scotland. During watch Mike spotted with bare eyes a boat on the horizon that took me five minutes to find with binoculars. During the safety tour Donald described to us the emergency procedures for fire, collision, and man over board. Then at the end of the safety tour I experienced my first bout of motion sickness. Woozy and light-headed, I sat down to hurl. Alas, I had skipped lunch and there was nothing to project! At this point I was really hoping to power it out, but I caved and put the patch behind my ear. A couple of hours rest listening through my headphones to Arrested Development and the Afro Cuban All-Stars seemed to help a lot, and I was able to finish some chores and enjoy the rest of the evening. But stay tuned- there's sure to be more if the seas get rough.

Marta my cabinmate is not only generous (she has lent me numerous things to compensate for having nothing of my own), she is also very considerate and has a marvelous voice. She took care of me during the abovementioned bout of sea-sickness, and if you say something that reminds her of a song, she will belt out some lyrics. She is also an aspiring rock climber and tried on her new shoes for me.

Hung out in the lounge for a while this evening talking to Frank from Denmark. Frank is tall and built like a Nordic guard at the gate to heaven. His voice is deep and grabs your attention. His manner is relaxed and thoughtful. We talked about sports and injuries and Greenpeace actions he has been a part of. He showed me some photographs of an action against illegal timber from Brazil and some from an action against genetically modified crops. These are the same type of Greenpeace images I have seen since I was nine or ten years old. Frank is one of the heroes.

Tomakint, my partner for this journey, is not here. He's not on the ship for the transit because of the difficulty in getting a travel visa from Nigeria to France on such short notice. I think about him every day and look forward to meeting him in Iceland just a few days from now.

-Marnee