Hurriedly I put my boots on and battened down the porthole, then
rushed up to the bridge to find a glowing green stripe on the radar
screen, that of a line squall about a mile ahead of us. The ship speed
was eight knots. Stomping crews' feet came up the stairs and onto the
bridge. Crew slipped into their banana-yellow oilskins, then out of
the bridge wing door and onto the deck. I put on my blue raincoat and
followed them - the wind was bracing.

Upon returning to the shelter of the bridge the wind had become quite
fierce. It was also backing, changing direction. The first large
rain drops where starting to hit the deck. The reefed jib and mizzen
were all that remained out, both the fore and main sail were
completely home. Lightening bolts came down all around us, casting
mysterious shadows of masts onto the lit-up sails. It started
pouring.

All the desert sand washed down from the tops of the masts and the
sides of the accommodation superstructure; it ran onto the decks
forming tributaries that ran to the ship side merging into muddy
rivers before whirl-pooling into creamy-coffee spirals down the
scupper pipes. It looked good and felt cleansing. There had been no
forecast for squalls for the Crusade. The storm was heaven sent.

Tuesday 27 March

But the wind never returned and by sunrise we were forced to start up
the main engine again. The Israeli navy called us up over the VHF
when we reached fifty miles off the coast of Israel. Then Haifa radio
asked us to check their DSC transmission on 2187 kHz. We followed
this up with a radio check on MF.

I thought back to a time, must have been fifteen years ago, certainly
it was before the end of Apartheid. I was the second mate on a large
'cape size' bulk carrier, three football fields in length; nine
hatches filled with coal. The cargo had been loaded in Richards Bay
and we had traveled all the way around the bulge of Africa, through
the straits of Gibraltar and across the Mediterranean. We were
destined for the Hadera coal-fired power station in Israel. The
journey took four weeks.

On passing the island of Malta, a hawk and a dozen small finch-like
birds (all land birds) got blown off the island to find refuge on the
bulk carrier. The officers-of-the-watch witnessed the final days of
the voyage filled with flights to the death as the hawk pursued the
little ones around towering mushroom ventilators, each ending in an
explosion of feathers. Yet, as the air battles raged on deck, so did
two navies battle on the sea. Well, they weren't real battles, just
the Israeli and South African navies practicing war maneuvers in the
Crusade. I remember listening in to their communications over the
marine-band radio. South Africa and Israel were allies during the
Apartheid era. They shared military technology and perhaps even
developed South Africa's atomic bomb together.

I was shocked to find out, at the turn of the millennium, that South
Africa had a secret nuclear weapons program. I was even more shocked
to discover that atmospheric testing of a nuclear bomb had been
conducted off Cape Town. But I was relieved to learn that it was all
in the past, that the new democratic government had dismantled our
nuclear arsenal and destroyed it. South Africa is now Nuclear Weapons
free.

Wednesday 28 March

Rainbow Warrior is alongside in Haifa, Israel. A Dolphin class diesel-
powered submarine, capable of firing cruise missiles tipped with
nuclear war heads, is dry-docked across the way from us. It is German
built - the best come from Kiel. Somewhere there must be two others,
for Israel has three of them.

It is widely believed that Israel has in the region of 200 nuclear
warheads, the only country to have its own nuclear weapons arsenal in
the Middle East. But Israel has a policy of "ambiguity" - a neither-
confirm-nor-deny policy regarding its nuclear capability. Israel
refuses to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to
inspect its nuclear facilities.

The Israeli nuclear program is military by nature, it has no energy
program. The Dimona reactor provides irradiated fuel from which
plutonium is extracted in the co-located reprocessing facility and
then turned into plutonium metal required to make the pit components
for a nuclear weapon. The facilities are capable of an average weekly
production of 1.2 kilograms of pure plutonium, enough for 4-12 nuclear
weapons per year. Production started in the 1960's.

Not far from Haifa are Eilabun and Yodefat. Eilabun is a tactical
nuclear weapon storage facility and Yodefat is a nuclear weapons
assemblage facility. There is a consensus in Israel, among decision
makers and the public, that nuclear arsenal is essential if Israel is
to survive as an independent nation. It seems that Israel will not
disarm until there is peace in the Middle East and the surrounding
countries will not make peace until Israel disarms.

Thursday 29 March

The Rainbow Warrior dropped her anchor close to Tel Aviv, outside the
old port of Jaffa, the port from which Jonah set sail to meet his
whale. We had steamed through the night to arrive in time for a
morning press conference being held on the beach. The Rainbow
Warrior - symbol of peace - formed the backdrop.

Yonatan, from Greenpeace Israel, held out a map for the cameras to
zoom in on - a map pinpointing Israel's nuclear sites. Though this
information is publicly available on the Internet (and from sources
such as the US Intelligence Community), it is not publicly discussed
in Israel. At the press conference today our two speakers broached
the policy of ambiguity and the stated a need to shift away from
security and secrecy, towards confidence building and transparency.

The public has a right to know about risks to health and environment
that surround them. Israel has two 'research' reactors, but no
nuclear power production. Not far from Tel Aviv is the Kfar Zekharya
nuclear missile base and gravity bomb storage facility. Israel is not
ready to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The map and our message were covered by all three major TV stations
and published in, among others, the Hebrew daily newspaper "Yediot
Achronot". The minister for Defense of the Environment cancelled his
visit to the ship.

Back on board the Rainbow Warrior, before lifting up the anchor, we
were visited by Israel's most famous world music performer, Yair
Dalal. Yair played his string-instrument and the Israeli volunteers
sang along. Although I did not know the meanings to the Hebrew words,
I sang along too - just sounding them tasted like honey.

Friday 30 March

'Greenpeace started in 1971 with a boat that sailed from Vancouver to
Alaska in protest of America testing a nuclear BOMB. The following
year a little yacht, flying the Greenpeace flag, protested against
nuclear testing off the island of Muroroa. It was rammed by a French
navy war ship. The year after that, the same little boat went back to
protest again. Its crew was beaten up by French marines. Four years
later Greenpeace bought a boat and called it the Rainbow Warrior. It
sailed for eight years before it was bombed in 1985 - by the French
secret service - for bearing witness to their nuclear weapons
testing.' I spoke slowly to the members and supporters of Greenpeace
as I told them our story - there where children amongst them whose
mothers where translating my words.

'Another boat replaced the sunken Rainbow Warrior four years after the
bombing. It was called the Rainbow Warrior too. And she has been
flying the Greenpeace flag for eighteen years. She is on a Nuclear
Free Middle East campaign and you are standing on her decks.' I
paused here before going on to say, 'She is your boat and I am your
captain.'

We were in Haifa and the ship's crew and Greenpeace volunteers shared
a barbeque together - people meeting people.

Saturday 31 March

A thousand stairs lead up to the top of the Bahai temple in Haifa. I
ran all the way. On reaching the top I rested - my eyes in a garden
of tranquil symmetry; green trees, beds of blue flowers and beds of
yellow flowers. I could have remained there all day, a lifetime
even.

In the afternoon - guided tours to the public on board the ship. I
welcomed everyone to the yacht and told the Greenpeace story again.
Musicians played on the forecastle and in the theatre there was a
double billing of Raymond Briggs' "Where the wind blows" coupled with
Al Gore's 'An inconvenient truth'.

We left the harbor two hours before midnight, and motor sailed across
to Cyprus.

Sunday 01 April

Larnaca port welcomed us to Cyprus - we came straight in without
taking a pilot or needing the aid of linesmen. It was like arriving
home. The agent kissed me on both cheeks when I stepped down off the
gangway. Daniel, the Mexican chef, packed away his puppets and I
signed his seaman book, discharging him from the ship. Marko, from
Finland, arrived to take his place.

The song I am singing as I close - 'We can bomb the world to pieces,
but we can't bomb it into peace'.

I close with love and peace.

Mike