Mike Mate

Manila is media mad. I conducted three separate news and television features on Friday. To each one I told the story of Greenpeace and the Rainbow Warrior. There is so much history to this boat and the organisation that I can tell stories all day long without repeating myself. But today I gave the same ending to them all. I said that all the history of the environmental movement has been a dress rehearsal for climate change.

“Finished with engines for the last time” I told Hans, the chief engineer. This has been his last trip to sea – he retires now at the age of 65, having been involved with Greenpeace for thirty years. Last night we toasted, with a glass of wine, his great contribution to the environment. But work was far from over for Hans. There is so much plastic in Manila Bay that it keeps getting sucked into our cooling water and air-conditioning intakes. Even our fire line got blocked when we washed the anchor chain. Hans has been pulling out the few remaining hairs he has on his old head. Crew have dived twice already to unblock the intakes and the dive gear is now remaining permanently on standby. Great rafts of the stuff comes drifting past us, I’m sure you could walk on it.

The senator and I, both wearing yellow Greenpeace T-shirts (mine saying QUIT COAL and his RENEWABLE ENERGY), gave thumbs up and the cameras flashed in a battle of lenses. The backdrop to the picture was Rainbow Warrior anchored patiently in Manila Bay. Senator Zubiri told the press that the renewable energy bill has been languishing in Congress for a number of years already. I talked to them of warriors rising from all nations. And the next day we were in the major papers again. Senator Pia Cayetano has joined the final battle. She has just filed a resolution calling on the Executive Department to adopt a program promoting less dependence on coal and encouraging the shift towards renewable energy. We’ve got to keep the pressure up, we’ve got to change.

I found a quiet anchorage for my birthday. Varadero Bay, on the south side of Port Galera, is a horse-shoe bay and is completely protected from all prevailing winds. It is fringed with beaches and coconut palms and has been a good place to rest, following the intensity of action in Pagbilao. The press is still churning out the story; we have been in the Philippine Daily Inquirer for five days in a row – it’s the most circulated national newspaper – and we’re also in several others (Philippine Star, Manila Standard Today, Business Mirror, Manila Times), many pointing fingers at Michael James Ian Fincken for breaking the law. I hope that I don’t get arrested when we arrive in Manila as there is so much more to do.

I could not have asked for a more tranquil location, my birthday has been wonderful. Crew made a card – with silly photographs of me – Ronnie, the new cook from Philippines, baked a chocolate cake. All is well on the Rainbow Warrior.

Blocking the coal carrier

Painting our message

Rainbow Warrior sails by

We receive a statement from Senator Zuribi. He will file a resolution in the Senate calling for a moratorium on the construction of new, and expansion of old, coal-power stations. He will include a strong renewable energy bill. The Republic of Philippines makes a shift towards a low carbon economy. Anchors come home and Rainbow Warrior leaves Pagbilao Power Station, but not before one final POSITIVE message. A south west wind enables us to hoist sails and pass close by the Sam John Spirit, she’s still at anchor waiting to offload – delayed by our blockade. We sail by her starboard side (the side painted again and again with QUIT COAL). Three long days of intense action and very little sleep are behind us. I breathe deeply the wind coming off the sea – I feel freedom, and momentum towards a positive future for the planet steps up.

Today our activists painted the ‘Sam John Spirit’, a second coal carrier waiting to come in and offload its polluting cargo. They painted QUIT COAL QUIT COAL QUIT COAL QUIT COAL, in large white letters, all the way down the 223 metre long starboard side. I was able to read it from our anchor position, where we are still blockading the ‘Medi Firenze’, 3 miles away. But the most amazing thing happened some hours later.

I had just finished lunch when Kristin looked up through the porthole and exclaimed “we’re moving”. Sure enough, the stern of the Rainbow Warrior was swinging rapidly towards the Medi Firenze. I left my dirty plate on the mess-room table and ran up to the bridge, the rest of the crew close on my heels. The Power Station launch was pushing as hard as it could on our port bow, trying to displace our anchor array – this was causing us to swing. As luck would have the wind was on our side and I called out to Dan, who was sighting the lie of the anchor chain on the bow, “set the jib”. Whilst Dan made the preventer rope fast, Sarah took the yellow remote controls and unfurled the sail, and the wind filled it. The security launch had no chance. And then, an angel must have passed us by, everyone on deck was looking up at the jib, at its design of green wind turbines. “There we go Sarah”, I called out, “positive energy”, and the entire ship broke into spontaneous applause. The Power Station launch was being pushed backwards by wind filling the sail.

Both anchors hold the Rainbow Warrior in position just fifty meters off the Medi Firenze, a 223 metre long ship, unloading coal at Pagbilao Power Station in Luzon province. We are here protesting against the proposed expansion of the coal-fired power station. The manager came over to visit us. He was angry, said we were barking up the wrong tree – his power station was meeting all pollution regulations. But coal is the greatest contributor of carbon emissions that lead to climate change. On 24 May, environment ministers from the G8 countries are meeting. Climate change is the top of their agenda. I hope they take real action.

There was little room to maneuver in Legaspi harbour, and very little space to come alongside – between two rust-bucket cargo ships with chickens running free on their monkey islands. So we swung the boat off the berth on the starboard anchor. Then, with a little push from the zodiac, we came alongside. Banners went up “Quit Coal”. The Vice Governor of the Province of Albay, Hon. Brando Sael, arrived at ten. Albay is the worst effected province of the Republic of Philippines by super-typhoons and they are starting earlier and ending later each year. He is dead against the building of nine new coal-fired power-stations in the Philippines. So am I.

I awoke, turned onto my side and looked out through my porthole. There was a volcano with steam rising from a perfect cone. I became disoriented – where am I – there was panic in my body as I lay there, propped on my elbow, waiting for my brain to engage. It’ll come to me, I thought. And so it did.

We’re not sailing anymore, the voyage is complete. It has taken us 792 hours to sail 4800 nautical miles from Wellington to anchor off Lagaspi in the Philippines. I awoke this morning looking out at Mayon Volcano. The Lets-go-Philippines guide book describes it as ‘the world’s most perfect cone’. The sun was splashing it with colour.