While we were in Hobart we stumbled upon the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin. Jo was real pleased as checking out this exact thing was on her Bucket List, something she referred to sometimes & i never knew WTF she was on about til i got home & saw a trailer for the flick of the same name. Its something to do with a list of crap u want to do before u die, a course.
Anyway they were doing tours of the ship! Hey whatever ship it is, going on a ship is always fun. So we went & hung out there in the dusk with the wind coming up & it getting colder. The ship's painted black with skull & crossbones on the side, & flies a jolly roger. It comes with a grand set of huge scrape & gouge marks near the bow which it got from ramming a japanese whaling ship. It was very homey inside. People take on 12 month rides on it as volunteers. They get paid nothing & the food is entirely donated & its all vegan stuff. They go out & try to save sharks, seals & whales & whatever else they reckon is worth a try. The tour guide chap was a little pessimistic in that he fully expected sea life to be all dead in the southern oceans in a few years anyway. So doing a tour of duty on the ship was maybe a futile gesture. So on that cheery note i was kinda left alarmed but not the slightest bit alert cos when i asked Val later on what did he actually mean, she hadn't heard it & made something up that didn't help me at all.
They had parked the ship in Quarantine & he said in case we were wondering why, its cos they had been filming whales being killed & normally the whalers stop killing to avoid being filmed but they hadn't this time, they just kept killing & let them film. When the ship got in to Hobart they were directed to Quarantine & the Feds run on board & confiscated the film. But like they had made 80 copies or something (like you'd fully expect) so it was kinda just a show of force. It was filmed by some cable tv show in america, for a 2nd series of some show that rated wildly for the 1st series so this footage is going to get out there regardless.
The inside of the ship was self decorated by what seems like people with a litle time on their hands (like on a long sea voyage) and it was real cosy & nice. A massive DVD collection in the lounge room with comfy chairs & a bar & a Skullery to make food.
We left there all inspired to do a fund raising art show for them. Cos really if any of us were fit & young we'd be on there like a shot doing a 12 month stint or what! Awesome.
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