And then we’re off… erm…. Well sort of.

After leaving the port for about 20 minutes the engine broke down. The masts were down as we had hopefully prepared for a Nile paperwork miracle. There were 2-3 metre waves. Overall prognosis: not good.

Possible solution: Tow with inflatable. Mmmm…. Not much movement occurring except the Anna rolling from side to side.

Adventure over? Uwe managed to get the engine up and running.

Not quite the line towing the inflatable broke and quicker than you can say “Thank-goodness-we-never-have-to-go-back-to-the-stinky
-port-in-Alexandria” the rope wrapped itself merrily around the propeller. After a bit of nifty maneuvering, Leo was able to get into the abandoned inflatable and we could again. Imagine my delight when Captain Heiner announced that we would return once again to the commercial port.

So here we sit on anchor just outside the port. Tonight Uwe will work his magic on the engine, Leo will sort the propeller and we will all put up the masts. At first light tomorrow we will really be off……… not his time I mean it.
What’s going on in Cairo guys?

Donna Mattfield

4th October 2005

3 days later here we sit in the same dirty port in Alexandria. Not much toreport. Dust, stray dogs, officials, rates, flies and more dust are pretty much the order of the day here. The team here has worked so hard to get us the paperwork to go up the river Nile, but it seems that all the doors are closing around us and every time one problem is solved another one
instantaneously appears.

Apparently Egypt is beautiful, bustling and interesting, although it is hard to imagine so, where I am sitting at the moment. Here is one of Heiner and Christane’s photos from a market in Alexandria. I wish there were some poultry running around here on the quayside, as they are innately amusing.

Hooray – we are moving to the marina around the corner (we got permission to dot his at least). Showers here we come.

Donna Mattfield

28th September 2005

The other pressing issue of the day, besides the obvious mobile phone
disaster, is of course the meeting with the Energy Ministry after
yesterday’s peaceful activities in Hedera.

Our team, Nili Grossman (our unrelenting, Israeli Energy campaigner),
Ahmet Bektas (Executive Director of Greenpeace Mediterranean) and Paul Horsman (International Energy Campaigner), went to the ministry armed with all the information and heaps of determination.

The Energy Minister himself was unable to speak to us, but we got a
Meeting with Eli Ronen, Secretary General of Israel’s Ministry of national Infrastructures. Ronen has been working in the energy ministry since the plans were first approved, whilst the Israeli Energy ministers play musical chairs, changing every 6 months or so.

People working in the ministry were all talking about our protest against the Hedera plant, as it had been all over the television news here yesterday. Is Ronen living in a hazy but comfortable bubble?

Nili clearly articulated the strong environmental and economic case for the solar thermal plant and presented him with our report outlining the advantages. Ronen provided us with a timeline for when the plant would be built and what a disappointment. Oblivious to the urgent issue of climate change the ministry continues to take too little action with all the urgency of a sleepy sloth. The plans have been scaled down to100MW 3 years from now, then if it's operating well an extension to 500MW.

This is not acceptable. Ronen and the Energy Ministry, expect your bubble to be burst. We will not give up until action is taken for clean renewable energy.

Donna Mattfield

September 28th 2005

Well, today we are waiting for the weather to change to leave Israel and head to Alexandria, Egypt. The day started out as a day of chores and tasks on the Anna. That was until… the great faulty flush incident of 2005.

I headed purposefully through the windy streets of Jaffa to the local
hostel where I hoped to pick up email on their wireless connection.. While I was there I also had to use their “facilities”. So off I went, unaware of the drastic turn of events that was about to occur.

In the loo I placed my mobile carefully and safely on the back of the
flush. When I pulled the flush handle down, some sort of mechanism in the cistern sprung unexpectedly upwards knocking off the lid of the cistern.At this moment my mobile flew spectacularly through the air and landed right in the centre of the toilet bowl. The phone disappeared past the U bend and beyond.

So, there I stood mobile less in front of that fateful porcelain bowl Before breaking into hysterical laughter.

Note: Although I do carry my mobile with me to the lavatory, unfortunately the same cannot be said for a digital camera. Thanks to the “Scientific and Award Winning” website “Toilets of the World” for supplying the photo here. This particular example is a seat less Greek offering. (Where would we be without the Internet –eh!)

Donna Mattfield

It's a beautiful, fresh Tuesday evening and we are sailing fossil fuel free back to Jaffa harbor. I am a very happy soul here, as today we moved a small step towards a solar future for Israel. But where to start...

Late this morning Greenpeace activists blocked the front gate to the largest coal power plant in Israel in Hedera. All activists were removed and arrested.Then Greenpeace moved in from the seaside of the plant and 3 Greenpeace activists climbed onto the achor chains of the Cape Mor, as she unloaded her dirty, coal cargo, to protest this polluting business and call for a meeting with the energy minister to push the plans for a solar thermal power plant.

I am sitting here with Ilai, one of the guys who climbed onto the anchor chain.Ilai a supporter,volunteer and activist for Greenpeace is motivated by a belief that environmental issues are some of the most burning of our day. He truly values the peaceful means Greenpeace uses to bring home environmental messages.
The guys working on the Cape Mor today did not initially share his views. Ilai explains that at first they taunted and shouted at him even saying that his friends had left him when the zodiac went off to do something else briefly, but Ilai not one to let bad feelings stick around, persevered in making them his friends, talking to them about why he was there, what he believed and explaining that this was peaceful protest. After a bit there were better relations between those chained to the anchors and those working on the ship
and one guy even told Ilai that he supported what we did, but wished it wasn't during his lunch break. Bon Apetit!

While the activists held on to the anchor chains we received news from the campaign that the energy minister had agreed to meet with a Greenpeace delegation. Woooo hooooo! Although this is only a first step this is a significant step. The plans for the solar thermal plant have been held up here, whilst elsewhere in Israel the Israeli Electric Company experience no such hold ups to build other fossil fuel powered plants. What would Ilai say, if he spoke to the energy minister tomorrow... he would urge them to take in the real picture, solar thermal power is viable and makes economic
sense, he would ask for the Israeli government to not be swayed for political reasons. This has to stop and the solar future has to begin.

Good luck to the team tomorrow!

Today, I had the chance to speak with one of those individuals who have inspired and lead change- Yosy Flug. Yosy immediately won everyone over by sharing some delicious local pastry with us. Hmmmm mmmm. All crew were very appreciative.

Yosy is described by folk in the area as a “local hero”. Hero, for some ofhis past diving exploits, in ’76 he completed the deepest dive in the world at the time and he was one of the first local divers at
Sharem-El-Sheik. Unfortunately in 91 Yosy was paralysed in a diving
accident and one of the hardest things he ever did was getting his toes to wiggle - a feat that took two weeks of sheer concentration. Yosy is up and about on his feet these day, although not as sprightly as he used to be and less able to dive.

This is not the only reason Yosy is considered a local hero.

A LOCAL VICTORY STORY:
In the early 90s there were government plans to sell off Jaffo port - to change a charming ancient port that has survived from the bible, survived Napoleon, a Turkish and a British occupation into a sterile commercialized zone. For Yosy, Jaffo port is special as somewhere that Arabs and Jews alike sit together as equals, something he attributes to fishermen and sailors all being equal against the elements at sea. Not to be beaten Yosy worked to pull together a local movement with Environmental and other organisations to demonstrate against the plans.

And boy, did they succeed.

A decision was taken to preserve and renovate the port. In addition
legislation was changed for all to ensure that citizens are made aware of plans in advance.

The fight goes on to make the municipality rather than the government
responsible for the port and to bring back some of the life to the area, as many residents and restaurants left when the earlier plans were announced.

Yosy acknowledges that bringing about change take years and needs all
people to work together. Yosy has a vision of all the different
organizations working together to bring about real holistic change. He thinks that people in Israel (and the rest of the world) need to work together to support the weak and the poor to make a healthier environment and at the same time the environment has to be protected as it is the poor and the week that suffer when we exploit our environment.

And how does he think this will happen? There are already signs of
movement. With the hurricanes Katrina and Rita people have started to wake up to the dangers and urgency of climate change and again it is the poor that are suffering. Yosy strongly supports the work of Greenpeace activists in taking a stand to wake people to the realities that we are causing in exploiting our environment.

Donna Mattfield

We are at Tel Aviv Port in the morning to prepare the exhibition and the bar for the solar shakes. Solar shakes are a nice way to show people how solar energy can be used. The exhibition is being set up to inform people about renewable energy. There is also another stand for the fundraising activities. Many volunteers are working so hard to prepare everything, informing people. People are able to relax, chat, lounge on cushions and eat some extremely tasty food prepared by bedevi people under a bedevi tent. A man comes near the stand and after seeing the banners, says enthusiastically: "Oh, it's Greenpeace!" This sentence explains the feeling of people, the kind success of Greenpeace's long history... Small kids come to drink solar shake under sun and asks how we use solar energy. Meanwhile Greenpeace videos are being broadcast in the exhibition tent and people are watching it attentively. And all these signs show us that these open days will work! First open day is quite peaceful and successful!

Nilli has just updated me that someone who works with the commission for future generations has popped by. Israel is one of the few countries in the world that has such a position in their government and they are responsible for looking at issues that will affect our children and their children etc. Climate change is an urgent issue that will have a huge long term impact on peoples lives all over the world and decisions taken today on dirty fossil fuel plants today will also stay with us for about 40 years. The lady will come and speak to us again tomorrow- this is hopefully a good sign for moving energy issues up the political agenda.

Donna Mattfield

So, after our small detour we travelled on along the coast towards Tel Aviv. We approached in Jaffa port in the early morning sun, disturbing a line of fishermen and a few stray cats hanging out on the quayside. Jaffa is a peaceful and ancient port. Wonderful.

A team of exhausted red-eyed Greenpeacers came to the port to welcome us and invite us for breakfast. They had been in the office preparing and wading through reams of local authority planning bureaucracy for the exhibition over the next days.

Tomorrow the events and exhibition begin. Today as we were moored in Jaffa, so many people approached us. All friendly asking questions and offering us support. It gives you a good feeling about the days to come. Hopefully, this is a good sign. Israel has a huge solar thermal energy potential and there are even agreed that seem to be stuck in the Energy Minister's in tray, whilst plans for a new coal power plant near the border go ahead. We really need as much public pressure here as possible to move the situation forward. So fingers crossed for the week!

Tonight I watched "Life of Brian" in German with Bulgarian subtitles. Unusual. I listened out for references to Jaffa, but alas there were none. It seems that Jaffa, being over 5000 years old, only features in the Bible and not in Monty Python films. Still, you can't have it all.

Donna Mattfield

Thursday 22nd September

Well, after a peaceful start to the morning and a beautiful sunrise, events seemed to take a suddenly dramatic turn.

We received a call around 10 from the coast guard asking us to stay exactly w here we were. There were some problems with immigration procedures and we had crossed into territorial waters. As such a navy boat brandishing some rather large guns paid us a visit. They circled us like a shark circling it's prey. Daniel, our captain requested that they do not point their weapons at us we are peaceful people and they did. They also removed their helmets. pheweee. Apparently this is their standard procedure, but still.

We were requested to go back to Haifa back to go through the immigration procedures there instead of in Tel Aviv. We invited them for a cup of tea on board. But our offer was declined. See, no need for guns at all. As I write this we following this detour back to Haifa. We will arrive a bit later in Tel Aviv than planned - but no worries, we will get there.

Donna Mattfield

Time is tight!

A small ship with a big message has arrived to and left more than 14 cities so far. People in each city had their share of the ship's precious time. Greenpeace volunteers, captain and crew, activists and staff and most notably, Greenpeace supporters have been on and off this ship for the last five months. Each has a story of a lifetime to tell, a memory to keep and a wonderful and positive spirit to spread.

The old and tiny “SV Anna” with the lovely crew on board has once again left another city (Beirut) this morning. And again, the Anna has done her job. A message has been delivered, a spirit has been refreshed and an ongoing and lovely memory has been created.

Here in Beirut, we witnessed how a small group of people, sailing on a 95 year old ship, sparkled a stunning debate on climate change and energy revolution. Most importantly, we witnessed these changes happening in this very short time. And again, the Anna has done her job. Time is what we make out of it even though it is tight.

Yet with people like Heiner, Daniel, Christiane, Greg, Frank, Dorothea, Mevlut, Donna, Dimi, Leo, Uwe, and Kina -the lovely and crazy crew of the Anna- our time spent together was really pleasant and extremely tight!

Hussein Fakih

Today, we will set sail for our next port. We took a day off yesterday so that all had more of a chance to explore the rapidly changing streets of Beirut a bit. Sad to go, it’s been a great city to visit. One of the objectives of our visit here was to move the urgent issue of climate change further up the agenda and on our last day here I think that there has been a noticeable increase in coverage of the issue on the radio and in newspapers and we have managed to hook up with some other groups who want to work together to move the fight to save the climate forward.

This morning as we waited for the immigration something highly unusual occurred. I don't mean to alarm, anyone, but there were reports of a crew member ironing his shirts on board. Kina was so shocked that she made sure that it was preserved forever on videotape. Uwe- is the heat getting to you?

Given that I am new to sailing, I have spent the majority of the day focussing on not feeling seasick. A complicated task when other crew members have not stashed some of the most smelly cheese imaginable in the fridge and then insist on exchanging smelly cheese anecdotes (YES, there are such things. If you have any you with us please don’t contact us!!)

Seasickness aside, I have also been in the lucky position of working on the 4-8 watches, which means I get to view the sunrise and sunset. I saw the sunset last night over Lebanese mountains and tomorrow I will see the sunrise in Lebanon. Perfect.

Donna Mattfield

My Arabic is unfortunately non existent, but I picked up the odd word like "Kyoto", climate change" etc etc

Besides, it was an eventful press conference with a minor microphone catastrophe (it worked again once we used the solar panels instead of mains, hmmm, the moral of the story is clear) a class load of high school students arriving to see the exhibition and a few moments where I thought the wind would completely sweep the tent away!

After the event, I asked Wael our energetic energy campaigner in Lebanon for an update. It seems we have a campaign victory here.

On the panel were Dr Anhar Hijazi, the director of sustainable development at ESCWA (a regional UN body-www.escwa.org.lb); Mr Wahid El Baba, the president of the Lebanese Solar Energy Society and Mr Ahmad Reslan, representative of the Ministry of Energy and water resources. However Dr Berj Hatjian, Director General of the Ministry of Environment, was maybe the most significant guest for Greenpeace. Greenpeace normally comes up against Dr Hatjian in a different relationship and it was very unusual for the team to sit down and discuss how they can work together on renewable energy. He brought with him an entourage of energy consultants who were all jumping up and down out of their chairs adding bits enthusiastically.

And here comes the victory bit....
Dr Hijazi announced, right there in front of all the media cameras, that renewable energy will be included in the new energy law. Hooray!

This is a really significant step for Lebanon and Greenpeace have agreed on further follow up meetings to move this forward. Dr Hatjian was concerned that it was bad for Greenpeace to be sitting here with him, but wael was quick to point out that we were happy to start out on a positive note - but we wont be sitting back with our feet up if they do not deliver on their promises! Dr Hatjian - you have been warned!!

The really positive and progressive feeling at the press conference was interrupted only by the wailing of many police sirens and news of another bomb in the city. A harsh reminder of some of the realities here. I think though the overall the feeling I will carry with me from Beirut is a feeling of hope for the future and a sense of new beginnings. That, and a few extra kilos due to all the excessive eating I seem to have done.

For the crew and boat life on the Anna, Heiner our skipper and his partner Christiane left yesterday for a well-deserved rest, Daniel the new captain arrived. Leo is ill but recovering and tomorrow we move on again.

Donna Mattfield

Greg was supposed to take off back to Hungary tonight, but at the airport at three o'clock in the morning they weren't willing to give him his flight so he had to come back to us and we are happy to have him another day.

There was a bombing tonight in the city. They told us about it in a Café in fluent arabic and as we don't have easy acess to the internet we are not very well informed so far. We are waiting for further information tomorrow morning.

Written by
Dorothea K.

Whoever manages to sleep the longest in the morning wins, as heat, noise, and mosquitos are still operating corporate business against us. But anyway the mood is good and everybody trys his best to get the work done.

It's another working day on ANNA. Leo and Dimi are taking out the whole floor in the mess to clean underneath. Uwe and Greg are fixing the bathroom door and grinding one of the hatch windows, Kina is preparing a picture presentation for the volunteer start off tonight, Christiane is taking things out off the fridge before they enter a second life stage, I am painting one of the ANNA signs anew, Franck is in the office again.

The laundry comes back from the washing service and now Uwe even wants to iron his shirt. Hussein promissed him to bring one tomorrow.
The statments for today are:
Kina: somebody wanted to marry her today (sorry, couldn't get any further details).
Greg: he was dissapointed because it took too long to set up the exhibition (usualy it's his personal goal to be a little bit faster each time than with the one before).
Heiner: hot day...
Christiane: did not leave bord exept for the shower at night.
Leo: it was beautiful!
Dimi: hooooooooooot!
Uwe: I was not lazy.

Written by
Dorothea K.

We are very warm wellcomed be the Lebanese Greenpeacers, who –after all of us having taken a shower– are taking us out to a real lebanese place to have a typical dinner. It was a fun night in a new country and I'm courious to see what's happening the next days in Beirut.

Written by
Dorothea