Posted by melanie_d on 01/29/2007 09:53 am

Yesterday was Sunday, and traditionally, someone offers to cook dinner so the cooks can have at least half a day off.

Last night the campaigners on board (me from the US office, Karli from Greenpeace International and Sakyo from Greenpeace Japan) cooked a Japanese dinner for the crew. We started at 1pm and it took the entire five hours to get all of the food ready for the crew by six pm. We had a pretty ambitious menu: nori maki (seaweed wrapped rolls of sushi rice and vegetables), onigiri (triangule-shaped rice balls with a pickled umeboshi plum in the middle and a seaweed wrapper), miso soup and two kinds of shiratame (sticky rice balls) for dessert: one with sweet adzuki beans called oshiruko, the second served with soybean powder called kinako. We had a lot of fun, and of course the best was learning from Sakyo how to make rice, the nori maki sushi rolls, miso soup and shiratame. I love Japanese food, and at home I frequently make nori maki and miso soup, but I learned last night that I've been using a lot of non-traditional (read: wrong!) ways of cooking Japanese food. Sakyo was very polite and diplomatic about my and Karli's non-traditional ways of cooking Japanese food, calling it "interesting."

But there was another reason we wanted to make a Japanese dinner for the crew, and that's because the campaign to stop high seas whaling is more than just this ship's expedition to the Southern Ocean. At the same time, our Greenpeace colleagues in Japan are running a targeted campaign to unravel the misconceptions being told to the Japanese public by their government. For years, Greenpeace and the pro-whale/anti-whaling movement has been characterized by the Japanese government as "anti-Japanese," playing to the nationalistic sentiment of the Japanese public. This is flat out false, our campaign is and has always targeted those responsible for high seas whaling: the Fisheries Agency of Japan and companies with a financial interest in high seas whaling, NOT the Japanese public.

In fact, our campaign is on-side with the majority of the Japanese public. Greenpeace Japan conducted an independent opinion poll and found out that two-thirds of the Japanese public are against high seas whaling. The poll also found that 95 percent of the Japanese public has never or rarely eaten whale meat. Contrary to what the Japanese government may say, whaling and eating whale meat are not a traditional part of Japanese culture. It was introduced by General MacArthur after World War II to deal with the starvation ravaging the country. As Sakyo tells us, older Japanese in their 50s, 60s and 70s may have eaten whale meat, but younger generations of Japanese don't touch the stuff.

The most important message we are trying to get across to the Japanese public is that we love Japan, but we don't love Japanese high seas whaling. So last night's dinner, besides being a nice thing to do for the cooks on a Sunday, was a way to bring a part of Japanese culture that we love to the messroom of the Esperanza.

- Melanie

Posted by melanie_d on 01/29/2007 09:45 am

We've now been at sea for a little over 24 hours. We departed Auckland yesterday and it was quite emotional. My eyes welled up with tears and I was a bit embarrassed by it, but then I looked around and realized I wasn't the only one without dry eyes. We had quite the nice crowd on the dock to wave us off, including the folks from the Greenpeace office in Auckland and some folks from the land-based campaign team who have been working hard to get the on-board campaign team prepared and ready for the expedition.

I had one quick flash of terror as the stern of the ship started to push away from the dock. I realized I would not be able to get off the ship for the next long while, which is different from other expeditions I've been on. Even on Greenpeace ships in remote parts of Alaska or Greenland, I always knew I had a way to get off the ship since there was always a small community within a few days' sailing. That's not the case in Antarctica. It's not that I've ever wanted or needed to get off a GP ship, it's just that psychologically, it's comforting to know that I have a way out and can push the emergency escape button, just in case. In case of what, I have no idea. It's just a security blanket type of thing. I always like to know that I have a way out of the situation I'm in, regardless of what or where it is.

We are still sailing under sunny skies and warm temperatures. It's cooled down a bit since we left Auckland, mainly because there is a refreshing sea breeze circulating through the ship. It was sweltering hot and muggy in Auckland so it's a nice change. Uh oh, was that me complaining about the heat? Given it was 20 below zero Fahrenheit when I left Anchorage, I should shut my mouth and not complain about the hot summer weather in Auckland.

A comet was visible in the western sky last night. The last time I saw a comet was Hale-Bopp about 12 years ago, so I take last night's comet sighting as an omen.

We are still hugging the coast of New Zealand so the seas are not bad at all. Things are starting to pick up gradually but it's not gotten to the point where I have to retreat to my bunk. From what I have heard, we will have another night of decent sleep before getting to the Southern Ocean, and that's when things will really start to move. I've decided that I'm going to go for as long as I can without taking seasickness medicine. I'm hoping my body can adjust to the gradual increase in the ship's movement. If I drop out of sight for some time then you can assume that my strategy didn't work.

With that, I'm going to end for today and quit staring at this computer screen. It's a beautiful, sunny Saturday at sea and I'm willing to bet we won't have another Saturday afternoon like this one for quite some time.

Melanie