I am the 2nd Mate on board, which means that I take the midnight to 0400am and midday to 0400pm navigation watches, plus all the activities in between, and get to bed pretty early when I can. A 2nd Mate also looks after all the navigation equipment and charts, and safety gear. That is normal for all ships, and what makes a Greenpeace ship different is that you can also be up in the middle of the night or day to launch an inflatable and set off on an action. When we do this we take a lot of care about safety - some of the things we end up doing are pretty challenging.

I first went to sea on an old sailing ship called 'Fri'. In 1973, we sailed to Moruroa atoll from New Zealand to try to stop French atmospheric testing in the Eastern Pacific, near Tahiti. For those who know their Greenpeace history, this was the year that former Greenpeace chairman David McTaggart sailed back to Moruroa for the second time, and the year that the Prime Minister of New Zealand sent a frigate to oppose the testing, which in effect became a support vessel for us. Both McTaggart's and our sailing vessels were boarded by French marines and foreign legionnaires on the high seas. David McTaggart was badly beaten and lost partial sight in one eye. We were put under arrest ashore, avoided being deported as planned, because we had hidden all passports, went on hunger strike, and were returned to the vessel after the last test was detonated.

The crew of the 'Fri', on return to New Zealand, were instrumental in setting up Greenpeace New Zealand in 1974, and some of those crew are still very actively involved (for the record, Martini Gotje, Rien Achterberg). Greenpeace returned repeatedly to Moruroa in the following decades, and the old Rainbow Warrior was on its way to Moruroa in 1985 when it was bombed and sunk in New Zealand by what NZ police and observant public rapidly realized were carelessly obvious French espionage agents. The captain of the Rainbow Warrior then was Pete Willcox, who is also our captain now. The new Rainbow Warrior returned to Moruroa in 1995, but the battle to stop French nuclear testing in the Pacific turned out to be one of the longest and most difficult Greenpeace campaigns.

The sailing ship 'Fri' was the start of a career at sea for me, which has continued until now, although not always with Greenpeace. At times I came close to being on the wrong side of a Greenpeace campaign, like when I met my partner, a fishing skipper, deep sea longlining for high value large Southern Bluefin tuna which are flown fresh to Japan for the sashimi market. During a short stint on NZ's fisheries research vessel, (I was gaining sea time for my 2nd Mate's Foreign Going qualification), I took part in deep sea bottom trawling as the scientists on board surveyed life as deep as 1800 metres, and I started to get an inkling of the richness of deep sea bottom life around seamounts, from what came up in the trawl. The skill involved at trawling at such depths and difficult terrain was impressive, and the destruction of habitat was not yet obvious (mid 1990s) although the destruction of the fishery certainly was. It is only the recent footage of the destruction of deep sea coral reefs - so far just to 300m depth - (I look forward to seeing deeper footage), taken by remotely operated diving vessels, that has made me realize that serious protection of the sea bottom is necessary.

I finally achieved my goal to be a ship's officer, and worked for 6 years on a container cargo ship, before returning now to the new Rainbow Warrior where I spent 20 months at the beginning of her life in 1989, and the early 1990's. I haven't sailed on her for 12 years, so there has been a lot of catching up to do, but so many details are exactly as I remember them (except the sailing rig which has been radically changed), that she is rapidly becoming familiar again. It is an excellent crew on board, and I look forward to the coming campaign.

Regards, Naomi