From: --Activists Off duty, and sailing back to Amsterdam.

Date:Friday June14th 1995

After four weeks of cruising on the North Sea, the Moby Dick sailed back to Amsterdam, allowing the larger Altair to continue following the movements of Shell and the Spar, with its fresh supplies and crew.

62KB GIF or 23KB JPG. ©Greenpeace/Sims.

Throughout our time at the Spar sight, the eight-man crew worked six-hour shifts, around the clock. We were dedicated, and worked well together.

We cruised three or four miles out and around the rig. While on watch, we would monitor the movements of Shell's boats, navigate, answer press calls, chat with each other and, if there was a spare moment, watch the sea.

When we were off duty we would sleep, or go and relax in the mess. We did have a radio and television, but we hardly ever had them on because the reception was so bad. In saying this, we were unaware of the amount of media coverage the Spar action was continuing to recieve.

64KB GIF or 23KB JPG. ©Greenpeace/Sims.

Life on the Moby could be very uncomfortable when the weather was bad. Ranging from slight gales to wind force 8, it was difficult to deal with. We had to move around very carefully. If we took a wrong step, we could be thrown under the stairs. It really was a case of doing the most basic things while waiting for the storm to pass.

Now sailing back, speaking for all the crew, I would say the general feeling was emptiness. We were all still raring to go, but, the Altair is bigger and has more crew so it made sense to swap over.

Although Shell was given the go ahead to dump the Brent Spar, we fought very hard, and did everything we possibly could to stop the dumping. I just hope the crew on the Altair can follow with the protesting, and give it a good end.

I enjoyed being a part of the Brent Spar action. It's a great feeling being involved with something like this, and knowing that what you are doing is for such a worthwhile cause. We just cannot condone Shell's actions. Money and profit are just academic, but they seem to cloud rational judgement in too many people.

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The crew on Shell's boat, Rembas, behaved appaulingly. When we were hanging the banners on the side of the installation, and they turned on their fire hoses, the few of us standing, watching on the Moby Dick, couldn't believe it. It was a chance to show off their strength, and I couldn't do anything about it.

After failed efforts of trying to contact the captain of the Rembas, I was so angry and frustrated. All I kept saying to myself was, 'I wish we were on the GP Solo', so we could do the same to them as they were doing to us. I wanted them to know how it felt.

In another incident, they nearly decapitated members of the crew. Our life raft was chained to one of the Spar chains. Rembas lowered their rescue boats and tried to run over it. Luckily they stopped, but it was frightening.

Both those incidents were so unneccessary. We were not threatening those men, we were threatening Shell, because of their actions.

Last Sunday, the Rembas communicated with us, and said they were sorry for their behaviour, claiming it was due to 'irrational thinking', but thats rubbish, they knew what they were doing.