We headed out of Whangaparoa at Cape Runaway under a gloomy sky at sunset on Sunday. The wind was building and as were our nerves as the next phase of the flotilla to stop deep sea drilling began. After such a powerful welcome on Saturday by te Whanau a Apanui we felt that we carried with us the hopes and aspirations not only of the local iwi but also people across the country who are opposed to this kind of reckless pursuit of the last few drops of oil.
Spending time with te Whanau a Apanui really brought home how close this issue is to them and the hearts of so many New Zealanders – that so much is at stake here; our beautiful coastlines, essential food sources and the wider marine environment not to mention the havoc that unchecked runaway climate change would deliver to the world if we don’t find a smarter way to meet our energy needs and bring our economy to more sustainable footing.
Sailing through the night on Infinity we entered the seismic survey zone late Sunday night and began the search for Petrobras’ exploration vessel the Orient Explorer.
There was a brief moment of excitement in the early hours of Monday morning when we thought that we had found it. At 4am we clocked two vessels with a confusing array of lights across the horizon, like strobe lights. Could this be the survey vessel with the seismic testing gear and its support vessel? We kept in contact with the two mystery ships through to dawn but then lost visual contact once the sun rose. Eventually though our deep sea oil vessels turned out to be fishing boats. We bid farewell to our fishing vessels and continued to sail through the survey area on Monday. The hours slipped by and the reality of the challenge we had undertaken began to dawn on us. The area in the Raukumara Basin where the Government has allowed Petrobras access for prospecting is 12,000 square kilometres. This truly is looking for needle in a haystack. It’s a big ocean out here!
The optimism of Sunday’s departure from Cape Runaway began to ebb and spirits started to sink. But then came that most beautiful moment when another vessel turned up on our radar. Dead ahead and heading straight for us was the Orient Explorer. We had found her!
I hailed the Captain of the Orient Explorer on VHF saying that we represented all New Zealanders who are opposed to deep sea oil drilling, that New Zealanders did not want a Gulf of Mexico type oil spill in our waters and so demanded that they immediately cease their operations and leave the area. After a moment’s pause the Captain of the Orient Explorer replied “ok”. Could it really be that easy? We just ask them to go and they leave? Apparently not as they continued their work as we kept them in range throughout the night.
There were a few dramatic moments when the seismic testing ‘support vessel’ Ocean Pioneer came in extremely close to Infinity and tried to push us off course and steer us away from the survey vessel. However our captain was on the VHF to the Ocean Pioneer and had some stern words leaving them in no doubt that we were observing the rules of the road at sea and that accordingly they needed to give way to us as we were under sail.
Bearing Witness
On Tuesday the weather deteriorated and the wind and swell picked up as we sailed into a gale with winds gusting up to 40 knots and a swell of 3-4 metres. As conditions worsened many of the crew began to suffer from the misery of seasickness. There were many green faces and several crew disappeared to their cabins. The ship was rolling relentlessly and sometimes dramatically which brought some spectacular but unintentional power slides across the mess and back again for those still standing.
There was not a lot of sleeping or much in the way of eating as most onboard just focused on keeping the ship running or trying to manage feeling ill. The constant motion is also really exhausting as you have to constantly adjust to the movements. When you do get to your bunk you have to spend most of the night bracing yourself from falling out with the roll of each wave. So the tiredness started to hit home.
We were also finding it extremely difficult to communicate with the outside world as our satellite phones didn’t seem to be working and when they did we couldn’t hear above the gale force winds.
To make matters worse, we tore a great hole in our main sail at dawn due to the conditions.
Needless to say, spirits again were taking a nose dive. It is at times like these that you can start to question what on earth we are doing out here. Why are we going through this exhausting and uncomfortable experience out here in the middle of the ocean? Are we changing anything by bobbing about miles from anywhere just watching a ship?
The history of social change tells us, that yes, we are making a difference out here. We are bearing witness – a form of peaceful protest with a strong tradition particularly here in New Zealand. The campaign to stop French nuclear testing in the Pacific is probably the best known example. There are not many New Zealanders for whom the words “Moruroa” and “flotilla” don’t conjure up powerful images and associations of people resisting a greater power in a remote place.
By simply being here we are sending a direct and unignorable message to Petrobras and the Government that we do not want deep sea oil exploration in our waters, that smarter and cleaner options are needed to protect our coastline, international brand and to prevent climate change.
Not many people can make a journey miles out to sea in this way, so we know that we bring with us the sentiment of many others on land. Bearing witness means going to the place where environmental damage is occurring - be it nuclear testing or deep sea oil exploration – and making the unseen seen.
As we are drawing attention to this issue and John Key, Petrobras and the petroleum industry are being forced to come out and try to defend their positions. They wouldn’t be forced to do this if we were not out here and bringing it to the attention of the public and decision makers on land.
Learn more about the activists aboard the flotilla opposing deep sea oil drilling off the coast of New Zealand.