Mike Mate

We have been through very high seas, the boat rolling and then flying off the tops of waves, then being dwarfed below rolling towers of water before riding up again. The sails roared and rigging screamed each time we reached the top and then when we got there we’d heel over to the wind. Still it is better to have the sails as they stabilize the boat tremendously. Two nights ago we lost the wind and only had the left-over swell – that infamous beast of Biscay. We motored through that and the rolling was worse than ever. Nobody has slept this past week at sea. Rolling so bad we lost our satellite connection and no emails or internet to the world. That was good in its own way. To be at a screen is difficult – having to grasp the edge of the desk and hold the computer down whilst wedging ones legs against table legs and typing. In these conditions, if I am not on watch or having a meal, then I’m lying down in my bunk with a book and grabbing those fits of sleep as they come before the next dip in the ocean steels it away again. And dipping is what we do. The port holes in my cabin go completely under water – I watch when that happens in the hopes that one day I may see a fish passing.

We entered the channel yesterday and with that came another storm, from a favourable direction again. Its a force 10 from the East, ‘up the chuff’, as the chief mate says. It poops us (lifts the stern up into the air then propels us forward) but we have all the sails out, heavily reefed but all there in little handkerchief sizes. They keep us from broaching. We’re doing 14 knots and will arrive to anchor down in Margate this afternoon, there should be shelter up there from the sea. Then tomorrow we’ll catch the tide up the Thames to Gravesend Reach to anchor at Higham Bight for the night. On Friday a pilot will come out and take us up to West India Dock, to be alongside in London on Friday afternoon.

We weighed anchor whilst the boats (Avon and Novi that went missing in action) came up alongside ready to be hoisted on board. They and the crew have been released (having spent just a day and night in jail). Sunshine spilled through the bridge windows as we steered out of Gibraltar Bay, crew stowed away lines, readying the ship for sea – a ten day transit to London. Weather is good as we leave Spain, but we enter a time and ocean of storms. Maybe we’ll be lucky – to be sure we pray for fair winds. The climate is changing rapidly.

The first to go is the Avon – the call comes in ‘we’ve been seized’. ‘Hello Avon, Avon?’  That was their last transmission. Shortly thereafter it is the Hurricane that calls – we’ve lost the ladder, we call the blocker who was on the pilot ladder – there is no reply. One of our crew calls us from the fore-mast of the coal-ship; ‘the Guardia Civil are arresting the activists on the fore-deck’ and then her radio goes silent too. The Novis call in next, they are being chased. ‘Come back to the ship’ I say – I don’t want to loose every boat and from the look of things the action is over, we have not been able to stop this coal-ship. One Novi is taken when its engine stalls and the other is chased all the way back to the Rainbow Warrior, anchored off the break water to Algeciras Harbour. From the bridge I have a good view of all the action, and watch as the Novi is caught up in the classic dog-chase all the way back home.

They make it back, we open the side-door and haul on-board two very-scared action-swimmers. The Novi, pulls away again just as the police boat catches up. She darts around our bow with police on her tail, and then around the stern of the boat, back up the starboard side where the crane hook waits. Novi nips under, the boatswain lowers, they hook on and are hoisted out of harms way – out of the clutch of police. They have been shot at – rubber bullets have been bouncing off their sponsons -that’s why the activists look so frightened. Altogether we have lost 11 people (including the cook and assistant cook) and two boats. The Frederico 2 is coming alongside the power plant with her cargo of coal from Colombia will be discharged and climate will be changed.

We are being battered. A force seven on the bow has thrown up a steep but short wave, it smashes into the hull sending salt-spray flying across the deck. This morning a pan-pan from the maritime rescue co-ordination center alerts us to a boat adrift, only three meters long with 13 people on board; ‘keep a sharp lookout’ they say. They are found in the afternoon, having spent last night in this wretched storm. This was not forecast when we left Barcelona – weather changes rapidly these days.

We have just sailed from Barcelona. As we turned out of the harbour a full moon rose and with it a force-six beaufort on the bow. Waves are thumping the starboard side sending heavy showers of sea at the accommodation of the Rainbow Warrior. We have halved our numbers to 16 people on board. These days in Spain have been flooded with people, too many for the accommodation that the extras slept in the hold. In the chaos of today, a dithering old man was found, lost in the mess-room. So many new faces mingling (including the German team) that he was able to slip up the gangway and into the accommodation un-noticed. Sometimes so much seems to be happening, everyone busy sorting climbing gear, painting banners, carrying provisions on board… But now we are clear and the next land we will make fast to will be England.

Went ashore to the Sagrada Familia and what did I see. I saw Greenpeace in action. There were climbers up the cranes, one-hundred-and seventy meters high. And there were banners – SAVE THE CLIMATE – coming down the sides. It was windy; guessing a force 6 at the top (too strong for the big banner). I spent a couple of hours there, looking up, wondering where we are all headed. Couldn’t recognise the crew – they were too small, so high in the sky. I’d have stayed longer but there was the Rainbow Warrior to tend to – and so I headed back home. In the late afternoon, as the sun was setting, the wind dropped enough to unfurl the main message – WORLD LEADERS MAKE THE CLIMATE CALL. I watched it unfurl on you-tube.

Construction on Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia began in 1882. It is expected to be complete in 2026 – in a very different world.

It was exciting coming into Port Forma, a super-yacht haven north of Barcelona. Rainbow Warrior with her single variable-pitch propeller (effectively left-handed screw when coming astern) thrusts her stern to starboard and swings her bow port. She’s a dancer; the 52-year-old North Sea trawler turned tall-ship – and reverse parking amongst the glitter and glam takes some doing. We’re in Barcelona this week where the last climate meeting before Copenhagen takes place. But, I am sure governments will spend more time on downplaying a successful outcome for the Copenhagen talks than they will in making sure it happens. They’re becoming a bit of a joke (costly joke). I have given up on their ability to take principled action and now firmly believe that everyone who is aware of climate change needs to get out there and show themselves – we have everything to loose if we don’t.

The sun was low on the western horizon, the direction in which the two zodiacs approached the Playa de Alcudia – a ship supplying the island of Mallorca with coal from Tarragona, mainland Spain. The activists in orange suits where on board as nimbly as monkeys. There were shouts from the collier captain. Ranbow Warrior kept her position 10 miles ahead, matching the colliers speed, white sails billowing in her effort – a five-hour race to the pilot station. We rounded the NE tip of the island and came into a lee, I called out to strike the sails – the collier began closing her distance.

At the pilot station off Alcudia harbour, I turned to face my opponent and lowered two more zodiacs to the water (the blockers). Playa de Alcudia arrived half-an-hour after we’d taken up positions – I informed her captain we were blocking the port, and requested he go to anchor. He was furious. A pilot went out to fetch the ship, there were zodiacs zigzagging in the darkness their little green/red combined lanterns casting pretty glows on the still and inky black sea. The pilot got past them all, boarded the collier and – in a fair game – guided the ship to the jetty. The little zodiacs darted between him and the jetty – but he did not falter, ran his lines and heaved in. Our boats pulled out before being crushed, this was not an activity to loose tools on – or activists. Before the Guardia-civil could board the cargo ship we retrieved the activists and stole away into that black night.

It was a fair activity – probably won’t make many waves – but maybe it will tipple one person over, that one more person needed to tip the scales away from coal and in favour of the earth. Copenhagen is not looking good – all that can stop the Earth beings sold from under our feet is mass civil protest, unlike anything that has ever been. People we need to take to the streets.

In Sunny Spain (shorts and T-shirt stuff), with the wind we had last week, a milestone was reached. Renewable electricity supplied more than 50% of daily demand on Friday: 346GWh out of 683GWh. But there is an economic cloud that casts shadow on this. Spain now has an ‘overcapacity’ that has been brought about by a lower energy demand – through the economic crisis. Over recent years more renewable capacity has been built but no conventional capacity has been decommissioned. The government has thus created a registry for new renewable projects as a tool to cap the capacity that will be eligible for the feed-in tariff. They are servants to coal.