04 Sep Golden Rule progressing up California Coast

by Gerry Condon, Shore Support, Golden Rule

We are in Santa Barbara, getting ready for David Krieger of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation speak with the crew of the Golden Rule.

Our press conference in front of the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum yesterday was well attended, featuring David Krieger, Mary Johnston of the Santa Barbara VFP chapter, and the Golden Rule crew.  VFP Santa Barbara presented us with a check for $500. 

David Krieger and Rick Wayman talk with Helen Jaccard and Gerry Condon after the press conference.

We thank all of you for your generous donation and Joy and Gil Robledo for their hospitality during our stay!

On Monday Sept 7 at 6 am we will set sail for Morro Bay / San Luis Obisbo, expecting our most difficult transit so far going around Pt. Conception.

We have had wonderful events in recent days. In Long Beach, Jessica Reynolds Renshaw spoke movingly about her family’s decision to take the baton from the Golden Rule and sail into the Marshall Islands nuclear test zone on the Phoenix of Hiroshima. Jessica was 14 years old at the time.

She was joined in the Long Beach program by Leo “Bud” Feort, an “atomic veteran” who was on an aircraft carrier in the Marshall Islands and actually saw the Phoenix of Hiroshima being escorted out by the Coast Guard.

The Navy intentionally exposed Bud and his fellow sailors to 28 nuclear blasts. Almost all of them have had related cancers and only 5% remain alive. Bud Feort is now California Commander of the National Association of Atomic Veterans, who are still fighting for compensation.

We raised almost $1,000 in Long Beach, and made many new friends.

On Sunday, Aug. 30, the Golden Rule sailed near the Santa Monica Pier, in a salute to the Arlington West memorial to U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Los Angeles VFP has set up this huge display every Sunday for over 11 years, and it has been viewed by literally millions of people from all over the world.

Later on Sunday evening, about 40 VFP members and friends joined us for a wonderful potluck picnic right next to where the Golden Rule was docked at Marina del Rey.

The following day, in Santa Monica, we had a moving press event at the Chain Reaction peace sculpture, a 26-foot high nuclear bomb mushroom cloud made out of chains.

We now have photos and video of all these events, and we will be posting them on www.vfpgoldenruleproject.org as well as our Facebook page within the next 24 hours.

If we are to get updates out faster, we will need a dedicated media person. The five of us are doing the best we can, while also dealing with the logistics of sailing the Golden Rule from one place to the next, organizing (and showing up for) events, etc.

I am the “shore support” guy. Among many responsibilities, I see the Golden Rule and her crew off on each new journey, and I am waiting on the dock when they arrive in their next port. Helen’s and my little mobile home is the shore support vehicle

Sailing for a Nuclear Free World!

Gerry

206-499-1220