Victor, one of our activists on board the Esperanza, writes his second update... 

Friends, we’ve now been at sea for a week. The waves have come and gone. Sometimes big, sometimes small. Right now it’s calm. But just a couple of days ago it was worse. Curfew during the night, and recommendations to stay away from deck even during daytime. The waves burst over the bow and sprayed the windows as high up as the bridge. When laying in my bunk I got that feeling of weightlessness as the ship moved down the ridge of the waves, only to weigh double as much as normal as we came up again. Hallelujah. Better than Disneyland.

The atmosphere on board is on top. Friendly faces everywhere. People back each other, help where it’s needed. And I’ve realised that I’m on board a professional ship. Very much Greenpeace. We’re working with the focus and professionalism only passionate people can. The only thing disturbing our concentration is when the officer on duty calls, using the ships intercom, from the bridge: Whales on starboard!!! That’s when the entire ship turns into a floating Greenpeace hippie camp, where everyone abandons what they are doing, run out on deck where they go: OHHH, AHHH, TIHIHI!!!! You are reminded of who you are and why you are doing what you do.

Now it’s about oil. This liquid glue (from a birds perspective) that we are confronted with so many times in our daily life. We can’t live without this stuff. Or can we? OK, many good things are derived from it. Just think about all our plastic (floating about everywhere, taking ages to degrade). Or the combustibles, fueling our engines, still based on the same principles as a hundred years ago.

But I reckon it's possible for us to have an energy revolution! We can do it by investing in things like - making solar panels efficient enough to energize my future car, surpassing The Flintstones fossil car, fueled by fossil principles. I want a clean world and a clean conscience.

Why are we investing in new oil wells instead of renewable energy sources? If we ditched oil - we wouldn't have to suffer the accidents like what just happened in the Gulf of Mexico.

Enough!!! Let's go beyond oil.

Love love love

Victor

Image: ©Greenpeace/ Will Rose