The World Goes by My Office

One of the nice things about working in downtown Washington, is that I get to see a lot of interesting things right out the window of my office.

The past week has been particularly good. Last Thursday while sitting at my desk, I heard the sound of helicopters hovering overhead. As I looked down on the intersection of 7th and H Streets, NW I noticed a police officer standing at the corner. Helicopters overhead and cops on the street corner can only mean one thing. The President is coming. I ran down to the street to take my position. Within about 3 or 4 min the street had been cleared and moving north up 7th street came the President’s motorcade. Standing on the sidewalk I prepared myself. First the officers on motorcycles came whizzing by. Then the Suburbans with blacked out windows. Then I saw it, the Presidential Limo. Stepping right up to the curb, I got myself into position – standing straight and tall, legs spread shoulder length apart, both arms held high above my head, middle fingers extended on each hand. "Fuck you" I yelled at the President's bomb proof Cadilac. As his car drove by, I saw the President on the phone looking directly at me. Ha ha - take that!

I can’t tell you how gratifying this was. A feeling of genuine accomplishment rushed over my body. In fact, I believe that it was one of the most productive things I had done all week, and was tempted to take the rest of the day off.

A couple hours later, I was chatting with our Executive Director. It turns out he was about 4 blocks away from the office when the motorcade went by him, and he did the exact same thing. He too agreed it was one of the most fulfilling experiences of his week.

However, as Newton’s third law of physics states, “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”, today Rosa Park’s funeral procession drove slowly by my office. From the roof deck above the street, I watched as a much more powerful symbol of our country slowly made her way to the AME Church in NW Washington for a memorial service. Instead of Suburbans with blacked out windows, following the hearse with her coffin was a vintage bus draped in black bunting. At a time when the leader of the free world is surrounded by controversy and indictments, the power of one woman’s ability to change the course of history through activism is inspiring.

It’s amazing what you see on the corners of 7th and H Streets, NW. Who knows what next week will bring.

Back on Dry Land!

Land Ho … after nearly four days of the coast of Miami, FL, I am happy to announce that we were given permission to drop anchor and move the staff and crew off the ship onto dry land.

Check out media coverage from the Miami debacle here.

I returned to Washington, DC on Monday night. It is really good to be home and I am trying to catch up on my sleep.

I have a lot more stories to tell from month long journey on the Arctic Sunrise. It was an amazing experience, and I will roll out some of the tales over the next several days. So I encourage you to check back soon.

Thanks for following along.

Stand by for more…

Where is Chris?

This is Kate writing, to give a brief update on Chris's behalf. You can read about most of what's been going on here, http://members.greenpeace.org/gpblog/index.php?blog=662, at the blog maintained by Greenpeace's web person aboard the ship, Maureen (I don't know how to imbed the link in this post, so you'll have to copy and paste). She gives an account of what has happened since the ship arrived in Fort Lauderdale, and indicates that the Arctic Sunrise was supposed to drop anchor one mile offshore and disembark passengers today at 11:45 a.m. But the Coast Guard continues to hassle them, has boarded the ship and, as far as I know, Chris is still stuck on board (having changed his flight home for the fourth time today, is now scheduled to arrive at 9:00 tonight: I have my fingers crossed but am not getting my hopes up). Do read Maureen's blog - it includes a nice indictment of Satan's boyfriend, George W. Bush, and their love nest, the Department of Homeland Security.

Or maybe the Coast Guard just got a hold of this picture of my better half, and decided they had to investigate further. His love of KISS and experimental haircuts have attracted attention in the past, both from the ladies and the law. (Seriously, though - who IS that guy?)

Where is Miami?

So here we are ... day 5 at sea ... of what should have been a four day trip. Our progress has been hampered by tropical storm Tammy. For about 24 hours, the seas got so large and the wind so strong, we had to "heave to" - come off course and put the bow of the ship directly into the oncoming waves. This meant that for about 24 hours we were heading east towards Africa, not west towards Miami. The winds were blowing a steady 50 knots, and the seas were at 20 feet or more. And because this fine vessel is an ice breaker, it has been miserably uncomfortable. We are rolling regularly up to 35 degrees, and have made more than a few rolls that reached over 60 degrees. I was on the bridge last night when then happened. It is really something.

All the talk about the great food we have had on board ... not now ... the seas are too rough to be in the galley. In fact, I took a good slide all the way across the galley yesterday and slammed the side of my knee into the open dishwasher door. Ouch. The brand name of the dishwasher was imprinted on the side of my knee. But I am not the only one going down. The dozen or so staff and two contest winners onboard for the transit are down for the count. I have not seen several of them in days. I think they are just staying in their bunks asking themselves why on earth they came.

It is Friday morning, and we are now heading directly south towards the Bahamas, and will cut to the west when we get further south. I think we are probably about 100 miles or so offshore from northern Florida. The worst of the weather is now behind us, but the ship is still like being on a roller-coaster ride. The crew is currently trying to clean the galley and mess ... now I know why they call it the mess. The place is trashed, refrigerators spilling open in the night sending food and milk and god knows what careening across the room. The deep fat fryer in the galley has spilled its oil all over the place. After laughing about bringing all my cliff and granola bars onboard, I am now glad I did.

Well, that's all for now. Things are fine ... if a little less than comfortable. I am looking forward to arriving in Miami tomorrow, and getting back to my lovely wife and life. This has been a great experience, and I have new found respect for the people who do this everyday. Better them than me.

Stand by for more...

Somewhere off Cape Fear

So I am currently in the midst of what is my longest transit on the Sunrise. We left NYC at 8:30 on Monday morning, and are now about 45 miles due east of Cape Fear. We slowed down for a while last evening as we entered the northeasterly currents of the gulf stream, but as of this morning are back up to a break neck pace of 10 knots.

Yesterday was a fairly mundane day. It was an opportunity for a bit more of relaxed pace for myself, although the crew was really busy. In the afternoon we saw a group of pilot whales as we were off Oregon Inlet on the Outer Banks of NC, and then a bit later we had dolphins swimming right off the bow of the ship.

Beginning at about 2:00am this morning, the seas began to get a little rougher. Already, several of my colleagues from our DC office who had joined the ship for the transit from New York to Miami had been feeling sick. But this morning they were dropping like flies. At one point, I was sitting in the campaigner's office when a large wave hit the side of the ship, sending us all flying from our chairs, computers flying off desks - it was really something. But I am feeling great.

I spent a little time on deck this morning, which is amazing in heavy seas. The ship is pitching and rolling like crazy. There is a device on the bridge that records the rolling of the ship in degrees, and several times this morning the ship rolled to 45 degrees - which is half way to rolling sideways. It would never roll all the way over, but it is something when this huge ship rolls from 45 degrees to port all the way over to 45 degrees to starboard. I am loving it. I had hoped we would get a little rough seas, just so I would know what it is like. All this movement of the ship is happening in seas of about 8 - 10 feet, which is not that big. I can't imagine what 30 - 40 - or even 50 foot swells in the Southern Ocean would be like on this ship. And the Southern Ocean is where the ship is headed from Miami.

The ocean color out here is amazing. It is a deep rich icy kind of blue. I have never seen the water this color in the U.S. before. It is really beautiful. Also while on deck this morning, we saw flying fish. What a crazy idea. These fish jump out of the water and start flapping wings. At first I thought they were small birds, but then they would dive back into the sea. How does Darwin explain flying fish?

Well ... almost lunch time, which I hear will be ramen noodles because it is too rough to cook a big meal.

5 more days on the ship ... then back to DC. Looking forward to getting home to my wife and little Abe Lincoln.

More to come...

NYC to Miami - Day 2

So after having left Pier 59 in NYC yesterday morning at 8:30, I currently write from about 40 miles due east of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. It is amazing to me that as slow as this ship travels, about 10.5 knots, that we are able to make as much progress as we do. We currently have the wind blowing from behind, which is allowing us to make better speed.

Once we come around Cape Hatteras on the outer banks of North Carolina we will encounter the Gulf Stream, which will probably slow us down. We will try and duck in closer towards the shore to avoid the strongest part of the current.

After doing some work after we left NYC, I was able to lie down for a nap. I needed it. Slept for about 2.5 hours, and felt better after waking up.

After a delicious dinner, I joined the Captain on the bridge for his 8-midnight watch. At about 10:00, he asked if I wanted to steer the ship. That's what I was waiting for. I spent the next two hours keeping us on a heading of 190 degrees, almost directly south. It was fairly uneventful until about 11:30, when we came upon a big fleet of fishing boats and a large container ship speeding up on us from the rear. The Captain gave me orders on where to move the ship, and we turned a big circle to let the container ship overtake us and then navigate through the fishing fleet. It was excellent.

Several staff members from the DC office have joined for the transit to Miami, and a couple of them are not fairing so well. Our staff attorney and someone from our development department have spent the last 24 hours really sea sick.

I woke up this morning and the sea is a bit bigger than when I went to sleep. I'd say 5 to 6 foot seas - which is not much - but it is crazy how much this ship moves in the water.

I am off to paint a banner for our press conference in Miami.

More to come - and 6 more days till I fly home.

Out of NYC

Well … after a crazy five days in NYC, we have just sailed passed the Statue of Liberty and are on our way back to sea. I apologize for my sloppy writing and grammar, I am always rushing to get these posted before we lose cell phone service.

New York was good – but exhausting. I can’t remember ever feeling so tired. It has now been more than three weeks since I have had a day off. Each day consists of a wake up at 7:30, and morning chores and then the work of the day. I have been giving my clean energy presentation dozens of times a day. I could literally do it in my sleep. While giving my presentation yesterday, I noticed I was thinking about something completely different while in the middle of my presentation.

In New York, we did a prospecting evening Thursday night, a donor event on Friday, and open boats on Saturday and Sunday. The Thursday and Friday presentations I gave were a little nerve racking because all of my bosses and the GP board of directors were present. It is nice to have those behind us.

Mom and Kate were able to join in NYC for the weekend, which was really nice. They both got to come to our high donor event, although I don’t believe either became high donors. But it was really nice to see them both. Kate and Mom stayed in a hotel in Chelsea on Friday and Saturday nights, and then Kate came aboard and stayed with us last night. She will confirm that it is impossible to sleep well on the ship.

We now set sail for four days at sea, and then a final weekend of open boats and then I am done. I am really looking forward to the transit. No tours, no presentations, just the hum of the engine and Charles’s really delicious food.

I am not sure if I will be able to update during the transit, but will as often as I can.