Preparing for toxic patrols

Finally it is Tuesday, 11th Nov. After hectic preparations during the morning I made it to the Rainbow Warrior 20 minutes before she was to depart from Bombay. This is my first time on the legendary flagship of Greenpeace, although the newer version. The original was blown up by the French Secret Services in Auckland harbour, after her crew witnessed and protested against the French nuclear tests at Muroroa atoll in the Pacific. It resulted in the death of the Spanish photographer Fernando Pereira, the only casualty at work in the organization.

Once at sea, work onboard carried on as usual, as we were preparing for our toxics patrol of polluting ships at Alang shipbreaking yard, the largest in the world. After finishing for the day and updating the crew of the day's proceedings, it was time for night watches for the crew. The rest of us shared a joke, sorted out nitty-gritties and some returned to some imminent work. The ship works 24 hours - there's always something to do, if you look carefully. The crew onboard is diverse and a great influence on one's understanding of people, their work, the rest of the world and their prevailing situations. When all was done, we curled up and slept like babies, well deserved and totally blissful.

Consider this - the first time I met anyone from Greenpeace was on the Rainbow Warrior when it was in the India campaigning on a Toxics Free Asia Tour. I had read and heard a lot about the organisation and their work. I was in awe of them for all that they do. At that time I used to teach scuba diving in the Lakshadweep islands, off the coast of Cochin and mentioned to the crew onboard of my diving qualifications, in the hope that I would get to work with them. Four years later, I am sailing onboard the Rainbow Warrior and the first job that I do is dive off the ship with Joe, a deckhand from Lebanon. We dived to clean the sea suction valves, which were clogged with plastic bags from the port in Bombay.