Hello and goodbye

Posted by at 5:00 PM, June 28, 2004

This morning, as the crew prepared for our arrival in Reykjavik, I savored my last minutes sailing on the Esperanza, out on the deck watching our approach. I hated it actually. I felt like screaming the whole time: “WAIT! PLEASE WAIT! PLEASE SLOW DOWN! I DON’T WANT IT TO END!” I had tears in my eyes when I probably should have been looking forward to our time in Reykjavik. It makes me so desperately sad to think of the end.

- Marnee

We hung the banner, or the f---ing banner as Helena has nicknamed it. It was on the side of the ship as we pulled into the harbor. It was misspelled of course. We found that out from the first Icelander who looked at it. It was supposed to say: "CHOOSE THE FUTURE NOT WHALING," but apparently it had an extra letter at the end that turned it into: "CHOOSE THE FUTURE NOT WAFFLES," or so Brian jokingly suggested. So we had to take it down and try to fix it. If I live to be a hundred I will still cringe at the sound of the word "banner." I will say for the record however, that I am willing to be flown in for emergency banner situations should they arise in the future. For a price of course.

Tomakint arrived today! Can you believe it? What a struggle he had to get here. I think he is both relieved and invigorated. He’s got a lot to say and a lot to do while we’re here, and I can tell he’s anxious to get started. We were planning to go on a whale watching tour at 5:00, but the weather was uncooperative and we will have to try again tomorrow.

We visited the Greenpeace office in town and received a campaign update from Erika and Frode. There’s a press conference on the ship tomorrow morning, and Tomakint and I will be making a statement. I enjoyed the briefing. It afforded me another glimpse of Greenpeace at work, behind the scenes. There I was, behind the scenes, loving every minute.

Lots of us went into town tonight and ended up at a pub. It was a lot of fun, and I got to work behind the bar for a while. I’ve never tended bar before, so I had to make up most of the recipes. Nobody seemed to mind actually. Or maybe they minded, and I just didn’t mind that they minded. I don’t know, it was really late.

-Marnee