Logi - Deckhand | Home | Frank - Captain

Hi, my name is Helena. I usually have a hard time with profiles, especially when having to fill out forms that ask me things like my address - when I've been travelling for four years - my occupation, which varies - for now I am a deckhand/sailor/activist) and nationality - born in Brazil, Kiwi mother, Spanish father and grew up in Rio de Janeiro and Sydney, three passports. So I feel right at home on a Greenpeace ship.

I have been involved with Greenpeace on and off over the last six years - both in offices as a "webby" and on the ships as a "deckie". The first time I set foot on a Greenpeace ship was the Arctic Sunrise when it returned to Melbourne after the whaling campaign in 2000/2001. Someone had donated a huge pink whale to the Sydney office - we used it as our mascot to display the message "end Japanese whaling" - and took it on its first ten-hour road trip from Sydney, receiving many curious looks and hoots in the process. We arrived at the Sunrise at sunrise and I did my first watch. I walked around the ship and imagined myself sailing with Greenpeace someday, somewhere, somehow. I really am gobsmacked that six years later, I am now in the Southern Ocean, on board a Greenpeace ship.

In April 2004 I joined the Esperanza as a volunteer deckhand, at the end of that trip we went to Iceland to push the point that whale watching was more viable than a return to whaling. It was a spectacular place - we went to a town that once used to be a whaling town but had converted the whaling boats to whale watching boats. Way to go! It was there I saw my first blue whale. Wow! I have said a lot of wows over the last four years but I think the last few days I have said wow with every second breath!

I have sailed many miles (both on Greenpeace ships and sailing yachts) experiencing some incredible beauty, but also some devastation - the worst is that which is imposed unnecessarily by greed and short-sightedness. The sea will forever seduce me, it is such an integral part of, not only my life, but of all of us.

One last thing.

Death is a powerful force, and we never know how it will affect us - but all of us at some point, if not already, will be faced with it.

It is a difficult and sad process but it can also be a gift - to make us realise the importance of living and to appreciate what we have. This time last year I was carrying my fathers ashes from Chile to Sydney. He had died when a storm hit while trying to summit a volcano called Lanin, straddling the border between Argentina and Chile, at the beginning of the Patagonia region. After a grueling ten days we found his body, and were able to find a peace - a peace that came knowing he had died following his passion and at the hand of Nature.

The location was breathtaking - when I stood at the base of the volcano I was overwhelmed with gratitude for having had a father that had been so enthralled by, and engaged with the natural world. A father who not only brought the world into our living room but also took us to it... I vividly remember our camping trips (every holiday we would go), him showing me the stars, studying atlases and the world map on the wall, speaking four languages and reading national geographic articles together, and watching David Attenborough religiously.

He was obsessed with the forces that shaped our planet and especially volcanos. It's sad I can't share this with him but I realised when I saw my first iceberg that he is with me on this journey. Its also kinda special that my grandmother is called Esperanza - so I have a definite attachment to this ship. She also loved the sea and mountains. I owe it to both of them to try to protect what they taught me to love.

If you have kids - then don't forget to take then outside, climb trees with them, show then the stars, and take then sailing or hiking.

It is one thing is for nature to take away life - the other is for someone to chose to take it away. I want this to place to be a sanctuary where whales are left to fend for themselves and not hunted.

We need to preserve our natural heritage - and not allow commercial interests to be so blind and selfish. We need to look around once in a while, appreciate what we have, but also what we are allowing, by inaction, to be take away from us.

- Helena