Rainbow Warrior in Dubai

Well its been a fairly eventful as well as uneventful few days since i last posted.

We are now back in Dubai after having completed our on board training, but the Port Authorities have refused to allow us to go alongside a pier at the port, and so we've been sitting at anchor in the middle of the harbour for the last few days. It seems that it's fairly routine for this to happen, but its certainly made life a little difficult. Our Genetic Engineering campaign was supposed to hold a press conference on board the Rainbow Warrior today, announcing GE contamination of food in supermarkets here in Dubai as well as our message which is to ban GE, or at least label it so that consumers can make an informed choice about what they are eating. However, in the absence of the ship they were forced to book a room in a hotel! Fortunately, it didn't impact on the media turning up and we had a good selection of the local newspapers and television stations attend. Tomorrow we head for Abu Dhabi where it seems that the Port Authority are much more friendly - the Captain has already been talking to them - and also our Ships Agent (the business that coordinates all our movements in and out of the Port) seem to have a better idea of what they are supposed to be doing.

It's 11 hours to Abu Dhabi from Dubai and hopefully i won't get sea sick! We went outside the port for 24 hours a couple of days ago and it was really windy - causing most of the campaign team to succumb to a level of sea sickness. Fortunately for me, i was fine if i stayed in the fresh air on deck. Sitting in the mess (dining room) which is right at the back of the ship or in the hold (meeting room) at the front of the ship was a different story however. Being at the extreme back and front of the ship means that you are in the extremes of movement of the ship in the swell - and i definitely couldn't stay there for long... Mind you it was NOTHING like Shane had to put up with in the Southern Ocean last year and i'm amazed anew that he managed to survive.

As i said in my previous post, everyone on board has to participate in the activities on board the ship and we all participate in the cleaning that takes place at 8am every morning. This evening i will be extending my experience and taking my turn at 'watch'. Fortunately i have the 20.00 - 24.00 watch (could be worse - i could have either 00.00 - 04.00 or 04.00 - 08.00). I'll get some 'on the job training' when i start my watch, but it seems to involve keeping an eye on the boat from the Bridge, with regular tours/checks of the ship every hour. Will tell more about it in my next post…

Nicky