The ICRC office is still hectic with increasing numbers of delegates arriving. I am told we will be moving to a larger building soon. The big news of the day is the arrival of a Red Cross ship to Beirut from Cyprus. In its hold are much needed relief items. I ask Thomas Riess, the ICRC regional logistics coordinator, when it is due to arrive.

"We expected it at 3.00 p.m. but now it's been delayed until 4.00 pm," he informs me.

Now the waiting begins. I catch up on some work and go back to the hotel to send some more photos via the internet. The internet connection at the office ranges from slow to extremely slow making it useless for sending large files.

By 3.00 pm I am back at the office and am told we have to leave right away. Arriving at the port we try to locate the ship. There are two cruise ships docked, one is the Serenade, the Canadian ship that brought me to Beirut. The Canadians are still evacuating people by the look of it.

We wait, and we wait some more. The media are starting to show up. I spot a couple of photojournalists and strike up a conversation.

Both are from Iran, one works for a newspaper and the other is freelancing. Only the freelancer speaks English. It's his first experience doing photojournalism, with the exception of the Bam earthquake.

"I normally work as a fashion photographer," he tells me.

We begin to see helicopters patrolling in the distance: the telltale sign that a ship is approaching. I am not sure whose helicopters they are but I am told they are part of a small international force ensuring the arrival and departure of ships to and from the port, mainly for evacuees.

The ship unmistakably belongs to the Red Cross. There are Red Crosses all over it and even a couple of ICRC flags waiving from the mast. It's all part of ensuring security and it makes for nice footage too!

On the deck I can count five land cruisers. I strike up a conversation with another photojournalist, from the Associated Press. I ask him how he knew the ship was coming. "We could see it from our office window," he chuckles.

The ship docks and the unloading begins. The contents of the ship are to be temporarily stored in a commercial warehouse.

I see Thomas and ask him about its cargo.

"There are 200,000 ready prepared meals – each enough to feed one person per day and enough blankets, kitchen sets and sleeping mats for 1,500 people," says Thomas, "This was the trial run. We hope to ship even more relief items soon, every three to four days".