More than 3,000 supporters have visited the Greenpeace ship in Hamburg over the weekend as we held an open boat to say "thank you" to the donors who have made the world's first crowd-funded, purpose-built, hyper-efficient activist sailing vessel possible.
Our New Hands on Deck Pablo and Harmony have been showing off the our amazing Radio Room, where Gianluca can hail destructive fishing ships and let them know the activists approaching them are there to non-violently take action against their illegal bycatch of turtles and dolphins. He can also control the ships webcams -- which supporters could use to monitor the size of the queue this weekend.
Our Bridge, where Captain Joel Stewart can track ships with illegal logs from the amazon or set a course for a radioactive contamination zone.
Our campaign office, with video conferencing capability, broadband internet, a video editing suite, a loud-hailing system for broadcasting to ships or shore, and easy access to the wheelhouse -- for when we get tips about nearby transports of nuclear waste or oil companies sending drilling rigs to the arctic.
But most amazing are the five sails as big as four tennis courts and the unique 53 meter A-Frame sailing masts.
We sent Harmony up in the crow's nest to place a small GoPro camera early in the morning on Saturday, before the crowds started arriving. While the camera today was only taking pictures of the crowds visiting the ship, we gained valuable experience in installing, positioning, and using these tough little cameras -- they'll be seeing action in the future and we want to be ready.
Captain Stewart supervised the effort.
Harmony is a trained climber who has hung a few banners for us; this effort didn't require any technical skills and was more like an elevator ride. Had the crow's nest got stuck however, Harmony had a climbing harness and would be able to rappel down the mast.
Here's the view from the crow's nest of what the line looked like at 9:30 in the morning. By the end of the day, 1500 people had snaked through our Photo Exhibition and taken a tour of the ship -- and more than that stopped by on Sunday.
If you're one of the 100,000+ supporters who donated to building the Rainbow Warrior, thank you! You bought that camera. You bought that mast. You bought the headset the Captain's talking on and the harness that keeps Harmony safe. Show off what you've done to a friend: every tweet of our content, every "like" on Facebook, every share of a link is an action for a green and peaceful planet.
And if you haven't donated, please help us keep this ship staffed, safe, and in action.
Catch our web video series "Stories from the Rainbow Warrior" and see the maiden voyage of our newest ship through the eyes of our newest activists, the New Hands on Deck: http://act.gp/oI4nPx
Follow their updates on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/newhandsondeck
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Greenpeace/new-hands-on-deck
Flickr: http://act.gp/mQp5ar