Farewell Auckland
Today we cast off the mooring lines and set sail for Gisborne. As we left port, the non sea-faring section of the Auckland Greenpeace office lined the wharf to wave us off. The 13-month old son of the ship’s bosun was even dressed for the occasion with a little t-shirt bearing the words “good bye”. There were hugs and farewell words whispered. As we cast off, everyone cheered and laughed. Spirits were high. I can’t say mine stayed that way for long. In fact I have little to report of the transit so far. I began to feel queasy while we were still in the Hauraki Gulf (fortunately I had already had my safety briefing, so I knew, among other things, that if I was pregnant I should not be on the ship, and that in the event of an emergency I was to save myself before even thinking of others). Through necessity I took to my bunk for a few hours and have only just surfaced.
But there is no rest for the wicked. It’s all go on deck. Everyone seems to have multiple tools and tasks; launching inflatable boats to test the engines, chipping rust (almost a full time job I’m told), washing the deck. Meanwhile, the campaigners with built-in sea legs continue work on their master plans for slowing climate change and the cook whips up the next Michelin star banquet.
In other news, dolphins were spotted at the bow just before noon! The Rainbow Warrior shares a special affiliation with dolphins. As well as real ones when we’re lucky, we have a wooden sculpture of a dolphin at the bow. His name’s Dave. I’ll tell you the story, as told to me by a member of the crew (he’s from Russia, so excuse my pronunciation):
“Dolphins always coming to Rainbow Warrior. They coming in “families. One day one family comes and one of the dolphins in the family is very small. The crew names him Davey. Davey really liked the Rainbow Warrior, so he asked the captain “can I stay? I would very much like to stay and be part of the crew”. And the captain said, “how can I do this? I cannot do this because you are not like us.” So Davey the dolphin goes to King Neptune and says to him “help me, help me”. Neptune replied: “I can help but I can only do one thing. I can make you only wooden. And Davey said okay. ”
And so it was that Davey was immortalised onboard. Rumour has it his story was told during the open days and one man cried. I don’t blame him. Davey doing a sort of Kate Winslet at the front of the ship is very poignant.
It will take us until Wednesday morning to reach Gisborne. Let’s hope my bunk-to-office ratio improves.
- Kathy
Related posts
Email This Post
Hey! I can’t wait till you get to gissie… I was part of a canvassing operation in gisborne last time the rainbow warrior sailed in (1990?). The Watties factory was still here then which was quite an icon at the portside. I had travelled up from our base at wellington with a team of canvassers… The ship was heading to lyttleton to join the Gondwana for an Antartic Expedition. Lucky for me the ships chef decided to bail and I got asked to jump on board the Rainbow warrior and join the gondwana! I had spent some time on board RW in Australia previous to that for maintenance and sailed to NZ on it.
I’m excited for you and a little jealous… the wind in your hair, dolphins at the bow, stars in the night sky. Funny, I know i felt seasick for quite a while but you don’t remember that stuff!
My shop GreenLeaves Greengrocers stocks Locally grown “Early Bird” organic produce where possible and sells a range of “Earthwise” products for around the home. It is a challenge everyday to make “every day” choices and be aware of the impact you have on the planet. By making circles of production smaller we can reduce the huge impact of big companies and globalisation on our planet. K>I>S>S is my motto. KEEP IT SIMPLE SWEETIE. if you can buy local do so, you reduce the miles it has to travel! Support and encourage small, diverse, business and projects; keep away from mass produced anything! Just the scale this takes to supply has got to be damaging to the planet! Now I know i am preaching to the converted but educating people to THINK in simple terms i feel is important as the mainstream media and companies are jumping on the bandwagon of environmental concern. Organic produce imported from america does not make it good for the environment! Paper bags instead of plastic… same deal. We supported a company ECO STORE for a long time and now they have “gone global” started packaging their products (soaps) etc and don’t reply to our concerns because the have got into the profitable supermarket chains..
Ethical company? Not in my mind. Sometimes smaller is better.
I wish you all well on your adventure. Keep up the good fight. SaL