Arrival in Alang

Late last night we heard from Marietta, campaigner in the Netherlands, that a UK ship just arrived in Alang for scrap. When it left the UK the owner said that it was not leaving for Alang. We discussed what to do and decided to have a look with our inflatables.

Since it is obligated to have both a fire drill and a man over board (MOB)-training with new crew on board, we had one this morning. These are international maritime regulations. You have to do this within 24 hours after entering open sea. After these trainings I wrote a news story about our presence in Alang. We're going to do 'toxic patrols' on ships to see if the ships still contain toxic chemicals just before scrapping.

Around two o'clock we arrived at Alang and got ready to search for the UK ship. As soon as we launched the inflatables we got a call from customs. They wanted to know who we are, what we were doing, how many people are on board and what nationalities. We got some good footage of the "Genova Bridge" already lying on the beach, ready for scrap. This footage was sent to Amsterdam and hopefully will be in the news tonight. Hurray for all digital equipment!