It's the final day of the tour. As I start to ready the Witness for her journey back to Washington D.C., I can't help but think back over her many stops throughout this tour. As first mate, I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a part of such a beautiful vessel and such a successful tour. The Witness is the newest and smallest addition to the Greenpeace fleet. She is also the only vessel under the American flag, which I believe has carved out a very unique niche for her within the organization.

Greenpeace vessels are no strangers to the waters of the Eastern seaboard, however, the shallow draft of the Witness allowed the campaign to come into smaller ports of call, ones that previously would have been less accessible with a ship drawing 16ft. By being able to tie up at local town docks it allowed the campaign to establish a more direct dialogue with the local communities that are most effected by projects such as Cape Wind.

The opportunity to use the Witness as a platform to conduct grassroots campaigns and public education outreach was very evident throughout this tour. Also evident was the need for such tours. I must have given close to one hundred tours of the ship everyday and while not everyone was in agreement on the project itself, all were eager to learn more and anxious to open dialogue that more often than not led to the dispelling of myths and missinformation about the turbines. Provincetown, was a great place to end this tour, the people here are socially responsible, progressive, and understand the immediate threat global warming posses to their precious Nantucket sound.

I am confident that I will sail the Witness through the sound once again, however, next time I know it will be to give the citizens of the Cape a first hand look at their beautiful and productive wind farm, the true keeper of the sound.

- Heath
First Mate
Witness

We have made it to the last stop on the tour, lovely P-town.  Witness has a nice parking spot on the pier and we definitely find ourselves in friendlier waters. Alas the weather is not cooperating with us too well.  It is cold and very windy; they have even stopped the ferry from running back and forth from Boston because of the wind and waves.  But the staff and volunteers continue to be out on the street spreading the word about Cape Wind and yesterday we had over 100 people tour Witness.

On Thursday we said good bye to our Danish friend, Jens Larsen.  Jens is an offshore wind expert that came over for part of the tour to help educate people on the reality of offshore wind success in Denmark. Jens presented to the Massachusetts State legislators, the Massachusetts wind working group and sat on a panel at Cape Cod Community College.  The panel, which consisted of a retired Nantucket Sound ferryboat captain and the public policy director for Mass Audubon Society, got pretty heated with the local NIMBY opposition out in full force. Over 90 people were in attendance and got to hear from the panelists and visit the Rolling Sunlight on their way to and from the parking lot.

This weekend we were also joined by some of the frontline canvassers form the Boston office, they worked the streets of P-town signing on supporters and collecting postcards in support of Cape Wind.

Two more days of open boats in P-town and then the tour ends and we make our way home.  
Cheers,
Kate
Energy Campaigner
Greenpeace USA

Hello from Boston,

It is day 11 on the Witness Yes to Wind Tour.  I find myself in Boston and missing the Cape and Witness.  To recap the last few days, August 25th on Nantucket, we had what the local TV station called the ‘battle of the boats’ as we were at the marina with the group opposing the wind project, The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.  They chartered the Spirit of Massachusetts, a beautiful 125-ft. schooner modeled after a 19th century fishing vessel, to have open boats tours.  Things were fairly copasetic and we had a steady stream of people though the Witness, even though upon arrival we were moved to a different location then was advertised. Little wonder since the Dockmaster sits on the board of the opposition.

After a beautiful sail from Nantucket to Hyannis (no really, we are working hard) the weather turned cool and rainy.  We had three open boats in Hyannis, running the RIBS from a remote dock, another last minute change from a Harbormaster opposed to the project.  But our supporters since managed to find us for tours.

Sunday marked the arrival of Chris Miller and my departure to Boston to met a Danish offshore wind expert, Jens Larsen.  Yesterday Jens’s presented to a receptive group of Massachusetts State legislators at an event hosted by state Representative Matt Patrick.  Today is another day in Boston with Jens’s presenting to the MA Wind Working Group and then back to the Cape to hold an offshore wind symposium and take Provincetown by storm.

Cheers,
Kate
Energy Campaigner
Greenpeace USA 

The following post is from Kate who is onboard the S/Y Witness in Cape Cod...

Thursday, August 24
Greetings from Nantucket,

It is day 7 on the Witness and we arrived on the island of Nantucket yesterday afternoon where the boats at the marina are about equal to the gross national product of six developing counties.

Our tour started over the weekend on Martha’s Vineyard where we had two beautiful days and 200 hundred people tour the Witness and learn about our clean energy work on the Cape. Sunday afternoon Chris, one of the volunteers, discovered that President Clinton was having lunch at the Black Dog Tavern right at the end of the pier where we were docked. We quickly assembled a group of us in our ‘Yes’ shirts which he would see as he came out and tried to deliver him a postcard to sign in the support of Cape Wind via secret service agents. I got to meet him and while he did not sign the card, at least he saw our message.

Woods Hole brought more days of good weather and tours of Witness accompanied by the Rolling Sunlight parked right on Main Street. While there is some local opposition, we also have residents who support our work. A NOAA employee told us she turned all the deck chairs on their vessel to face the Witness with our Yes to Wind banners because Senator Mikulski was taking a tour with them that day. Today and tomorrow we have two more open boats and then we sail to Hyannis.

Cheers,
Kate Smolski