18 March 2006
Mike - Chief Mate
Cape Town (South Africa)
In 1986; the year of Hailey's comet, the explosion of the Challenger Space Shuttle and the Chernobyl meltdown, I crossed the line - one of twelve navigation cadets to do so onboard an old general cargo 'training' ship bound for Hong Kong. We met Neptune in the South China Sea in sight of Borneo, and now I've just crossed it again for the fifty-second time. For ten years I carried valuable cargoes around the planet from one continent to another. At home I have a wall map of the world onto which I've inked in every route I've sailed. One of my longest voyages never crossed the equator, it took me on an easterly heading from Japan right around the world to Taiwan.
I embarked on my first Greenpeace voyage ten years ago, when I joined the Moby Dick, at Granville island, Vancouver. The Phyllis Cormack, the first Greenpeace ship, had sailed from the same berth twenty five years before. I was the newest recruit, meeting the oldest founders - the perfect time and place.
There's nowhere in the world I'd rather be then at sea 'Defending our Oceans'. On this trip we're looking for pirates - I've run into them before in the Southern Ocean - a long-liner called 'Salvora', with an illegal catch of 20 million dollars worth of Patagonian toothfish in its holds. It was like finding the needle in a haystack; but we found them, chased them, and had them arrested in the pirate port of Mauritius. Now we're looking again, in the Atlantic Ocean.
Some sailors spend time with knot-work, others take up needle point, I've taken to writing stories, I publish them on a 'Google Group' called 'Mike's Week'. You are welcome to subscribe and please write to me, more than this beautiful earth we play upon, I love people and cherish friendship.
- Mike
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Comments
I remember Erkut, previous Boat mechanic and engineer. I sailed with him last year in the ARctic Sunrise and was VERY happy when i saw his name on the cabin plan. At least one familiar face to sail with_ thought I. which always helps. But the stroy is about this pipe he got rom now where, made the holes and in but a coule of days he was arranging concerts on the heli deck!
What about one on board with all the musicians around? Check that with the rest of the crew, I'm sure it can be fun.
P.S. Can I borrow some ear plugs for teh ocassion?
Posted by: M1 at March 26, 2006 1:40 PM
The flute I'm playing in the picture is one I was given before joining the Arctic Sunrise in 1999 on a Pirate Fishing campaign down to the Southern Ocean. Back then I practised for twenty minutes on each bridge watch, I couldn't do more as I'd hyperventilate without hitting a single note. I've come a Long Way since then. Erkurt is a very creative man - you should see his fine wood carving. He used to help an old man repair antique turkish doors in Istanbul, whilst taking breaks from Art school.
Posted by: Mikemate at March 30, 2006 8:00 AM
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