Photo by Will Rose
Injunction
October 30, 2008 at 12:18 pm (1)
Tags: E.ON UK, Higham Bight, injunction, Kingsnorth, Supreme court of judicature chancery chambers
At one o’clock in the morning, a note with a round red rubber stamp marked ‘SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE – CHANCERY CHAMBERS’, was served to the Rainbow Warrior – the injunction. But, because of the enormous victory already bagged against E.ON UK (climbers found not-guilty of damage to Kingsnorth Power Station), we chose to end our protest – to move on to the next. I called for a pilot, Tapio started the engines and crew let go the ropes. An easterly wind was freshening, blowing up the Medway, up the Thames. I dropped the anchor when we reached Yantlet and went to bed – exhausted. But the wind stayed up. We had so many boats; two tied up alongside the Rainbow Warrior, one hanging from the crane wire – pulled up against the side of the ship – and six on deck. I tried to sleep in the dark of my cabin but lay on my back listening to the two boats rubbing against the side. I imagined their rigid fibreglass hulls splintering and their frames buckling against Rainbow Warrior’s hardened steel. Then at six am, I lifted the deadlight from my porthole one last time and in the twilight I saw Paul. He was leaning over the railing, a long boat hook in his hands, he was in trouble. I hastily pulled on some warm clothes and rushed out onto the freezing deck. One of the lines holding the small boats to the ship had parted. Paul was trying to bring them back alongside. The wind was steadily increasing and the lee that the boats had shared till now was about to be lost as we neared low-water. Within the hour we’d swing to face both the easterly wind and a flooding tide – together. The RHIBs would wreck. I awoke Tapio to start the engine. It was time to weigh anchor and head further up the River Thames in search of shelter. I chose Higham Bight. It’s opposite the Tilbury coal-fired Power Station.
Flags
October 29, 2008 at 11:01 pm (1)
Tags: E.on, least polluting country
The security – the men in orange coats – lined the jetty, facing Rainbow Warrior. Paul leaned a little wooden ladder onto the port-side gunwale and Penny stood before the accommodation door handing National flags out to environmental activists as they stepped from the accommodation (where they’d been hiding from view). Each activist took a flag in hand, walked up the ladder and stepped onto the coaling jetty. The orange coasts stopped the first one, and the second, the third and fourth, but by the time the twentieth activist was walking up the ladder onto the jetty holding a bright National flag, there were too many to catch – they let them all go. 30 activists walked off the Rainbow Warrior holding onto the flags of the worlds 30 least polluting countries. I was delighted by the bright and beautiful colours that flapped and the peace that emanated from the action. E.on’s proposed new coal-power plant at Kingsnorth would emit as much carbon dioxide as these 30 least polluting countries combined. DISASTER set sail on a dark and grim cloud.
Medway Morning Mooring
October 29, 2008 at 2:21 pm (1)
Tags: Kingsnorth Power Station, Medway Channel
“Rainbow Warrior you are entering the Medway compulsory pilotage area without a pilot. You must stop your vessel and leave the area. You are breaking maritime law.” That’s what the Medway Vessel Traffic Service told me this morning. But, I kept the throttle down and Rainbow Warrior (flanked by eight zodiacs) pointing at an antiquated technology that is consuming the planet. I did inform the VTS when we passed Grain Edge navigation buoy, that we’d entered the Medway channel. I chose not to take a pilot this morning for fear of implicating my fellow mariners in a civilly disobedient activity. In the past week I have done two trips down the Medway, past Kingsnorth, to Chatham Ness – both trips under pilotage with me paying utmost attention to the local navigation.
“Medway VTS, Rainbow Warrior bound for Kingsnorth Power Station.” I reported at all the calling points and I slowed as we passed the heavy lift crane working at the LNG terminal. A police RHIB rushed passed (the men in black), they looked jolly professional. Then, with less than a mile to Kingsnorth Jetty, I brought the engines to a stop and let the tide take us the rest of the way in. There were two large police boats in the water, blue lights flashing – in addition to the men in black – and the quay was lined with security wearing reflective orange working jackets and hard hats. I put Chris on the helm, gave him a course to steer.
With engines going astern we reached the tip of the jetty and launched the canoes from the pilot door. Then with a few ahead/astern movements I had Rainbow Warrior turned around, stemming the tide and whilst the zodiacs and canoes entertained the police, I brought the old girl to rest upon Kingsnorth Jetty fenders. Ropes ran out with the zodiacs and were tied to the pilings beneath the jetty. The police rushed in, they cut the ropes with their knives. More ropes were run out – beneath the jetty by the canoes – which the police could not reach. We hauled them tight and brought Rainbow Warrior alongside. In position and finished with engines at Kingsnorth Power Station.
Pinned to the Piles
October 26, 2008 at 3:33 pm (1)
Tags: South End Pier
Thump, thump, the Rainbow Warrior let out a shudder, stilled for a moment and then thump again. The southerly gale had gathered the Thames into a marching line of whipping waves. As the wind pinned us up against the wooden piles of South End Pier, the waves let whip. Amrit, Fernando, Anthony and I ran out extra mooring lines and put every fender we had between the old girl’s hull and the pier. I thought of the recent wreck of the Fedra and considered letting go the ropes, going to anchor. But, would we have the strength to lift off the pier? The risk of being blown aground was too great. It was safer to take the beating were we where. I doubled the watches. At three o’clock on Sunday morning the wind subsided, the bashing abated and a disturbed sleep overcame us. At seven I went live (on skype) to a film festival in New Zealand and at nine our doors were opened to a thousand splendid supporters.
Kings North Power Station
October 24, 2008 at 5:03 pm (1)
Tags: climate change, Kingsnorth Power Station
This is a photo of Rainbow Warrior in front of Kingsnorth Power Station. Near the top of the chimney are six painted out blocks that held the letters GORDON. In October 2007, six climbers took nine hours to climb up the inside of the 200 metre smokestack (hauling 300kg of rope, paint and equipment with them). They were charged with 30 000 pounds worth of damage. They pleaded not guilty. A couple of weeks ago, the Crown court jury found them, indeed, not guilty – realizing that the action taken was indeed necessary to prevent a greater crime, that of Climate Change caused by the power station. It is time to give coal the boot.
Down river in the dark
October 24, 2008 at 4:36 am (1)
Tags: Tower Bridge
A strong westerly wind blew the rising tide back down the river. It was not going to reach its predicted height at Thames Upper and so we left early (there is a shallow patch we needed to pass off Greenwich). We came off our mid-river moorings and turned to face the fantasia-lit bridge. From the rivers edge; yells, whoops and ‘we love you Greenpeace’. I gave one very long blast on the horn and we passed, outward-bound, between the towers of Tower Bridge. Our thirty guests disembarked soon after (whilst underway) followed by the pilot at Gravesend Reach. Fernando and I were left in the darkened bridge to navigate the Thames at night. “It is so much easier doing this together,” I remarked, as we talked our thoughts and observations out aloud.
“I see the green, flashing two every ten, on the starboard bow,” Fernando said.
“We’re setting to port; I’m putting another five degrees on to starboard.” And so we progressed all the way down to reach Yantlet small-craft anchorage in the early hours of Friday morning. The boat snapped around on the ebb tide when Fernando let go the starboard anchor. Then she settled to face upriver, to wait out the night in anticipation of another big River Thames day.
Stage so Real
October 23, 2008 at 7:01 pm (1)
Tags: Add new tag, Fernando Pereira, Muroroa
The captain was discovered in the crows nest and the wires running up the mast to his remote controls were cut. Rainbow Warrior was seized. It was in 1995 (ten years after the bombing of the first Rainbow Warrior) when this boat – Rainbow Warrior too – was in ‘French’ waters surrounding the Pacific Island of Muroroa. She was protesting against nuclear bomb tests (bad for environment – not good for peace). The French smashed the bridge windows, threw in a canister of tear gas, behaved badly. The crew were roughed up, taken into custody and then questioned, “What is your name?” In turn each person answered, “My name is Fernando Pereira.” My audience breaks into applause.
It’s the third story I have told today. My guests on this occasion are creative people. They are authors and musicians. One lady, with day-glow red hair, introduces herself as the director of the Royal Shakespeare Society – she seems so young. “That was brilliant” she compliments me later, “it was just so real”.
Gordon Roddick
October 23, 2008 at 9:30 am (1)
Tags: Children on the Edge, Gordon Roddick
“Let me introduce you to the captain”, John, the executive director of GP UK, ushered an elderly gentleman into the wheelhouse, “Mike, this is Gordon Roddick.”
In the summer of 1996 I helped care for children with special needs in Albania – locals called it the Mental Asylum, they were cruel. It was a dilapidated building at the top of the hill in the mountain village of Korce. Most of the window panes were broken and boarded up to keep out the cold mountain winds. That same summer I played pas-ko-pas and other ball games with hundreds of orphans in Halucesti, Romania. The children taught me how to referee and count in their language (in Romanesch). They taught me more, the most, that laughter has no foreign accent. Both these experiences touched my heart and awoke within me humanitarian compassion. I took Gordon’s hand in mine and held it, I was finally able to say thank you to the man behind that experience with ‘Children on the Edge’, and welcome him to the Rainbow Warrior.
