As my time aboard the Arctic Sunrise comes to an end, the opportunity to return to Faslane once more seems irresistible. With 4 Greenpeace RIB’s on the ship, with 5 canoe teams and 4 more RIB’s joining us from other destinations there are a lot of talented activists on the Clyde.
As canoes are loaded aboard the RIB’s there is a short straw to be drawn. After all the RIB’s have been to the base, after all the canoes have made it to the boon or been busted, as a last joker one more canoe team is to jump out the ships pilot door and paddle like crazy as fast as possible into a hungry circle of a dozen or more police and marine RIB’s and launches. That would be us.
As the Sunrise slides through the Rhun narrows, into the Gare Loch proper things become unravelled. The RIB’s get split up and the canoe teams get nailed in seconds. The plan goes out the window, our last canoe gets dumped and we jump for the Ocean Witness.
The footage looks dramatic, the picture mirrors the conflict between peaceful demonstrators and the forces of militarism, but in reality the police are lovely. They admire our actions as much as the arsenal of nuclear weapons at Faslane scares the hell out of them and their families. They have kids too.
You Tube footage is here
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