The Rongdhonu

August 20, 2011 at 12:30 am (Uncategorized)
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In the log book I enter the remaining on board fuel figures and sign beneath as the last captain of the Rainbow Warrior. Alain Connan stands beside me at the chart table, making a similar entry onto the first page of a new logbook, that of the Rongdhonu – he signs on as captain and I as his chief mate.

Alain was one of the first captains of Rainbow Warrior II in 1989. He positioned ‘Dave the Dolphin’ on the bow. At 78 years of age he is a grand master story teller and I am the lucky one to have the opportunity to hear those stories as we cross the Bay of Bengal.

The Rainbow Warrior has been handed over to the organisation Friendship, a Bangladesh based NGO. She has been renamed “Rongdhonu”, Bengali for Rainbow, and will be refitted as a hospital ship serving the coastal belt of Bangladesh, delivering primary and secondary medical assistance to some of the most vulnerable communities of the world.

Greenpeace has acted responsibly in the donation of the boat. In the contract with Friendship there is provision that when the time comes for the Rongdhonu to be scrapped, that it will be done to the highest environmental standards and that Greenpeace will provide financial assistance to make sure this happens. Greenpeace also have the right of approval of any potential future owners to ensure that the commitment to these standards will be kept and that the ship will end her life in the manner she has advocated for so many years.

We are all set to sail. The crew remains essentially the same for the delivery voyage to Chittagong. The weather is looking good with a steady SW monsoon and we should be able to get the rags out for one last glorious sail. We will have no internet or email or telephone for this crossing – only radio and telex. We will disappear and pop up on the other side.

I close now, with love and peace.
mike

First mate of the Rongdhunu

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Rainbow Warrior spirit set free

August 16, 2011 at 8:25 pm (Uncategorized)
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The name Rainbow Warrior settled in the imaginations of the crew on the first Greenpeace protest in 1971 – 40 years ago. There was a story book passed around the boat. One story talked of a Cree Indian grandmother named Eyes of Fire who predicted: “There will come a time when the Earth grows sick and when it does a tribe will gather from all the cultures of the world to heal it….they will be known as Warriors of the Rainbow.”

7 years later Greenpeace bought their first boat and named it Rainbow Warrior. But that was bombed in its 7th year of action – whilst protesting against Nuclear Weapons – in 1985. After the sinking of the first Rainbow Warrior the phrase ‘You can’t sink a rainbow’ was coined to explain that even though the ship had been sunk, the spirit sailed on.

The spirit has sailed on this boat for 22 years. This boat has carried people from around the world and has stood as an icon of hope over pessimism and as an emblem of action over complacency. I and my crew share a special bond with this ship that has been our home, that has helped to shape our lives. 

This Rainbow Warrior has traveled the world over. The 88 national flags on board indicate the places she has been. She has stopped the Russian whaling fleet in the straits of Gibraltar, protested in Mururoa like her predecessor, blockaded ships carrying coal, and ships carrying palm oil. She has confiscated illegal fishing nets and assisted in oil spill clean ups. She brought humanitarian aid in the wake of the Asian Tsunami of 2004 and most recently monitored radiation levels off the coast of Fukushima, Japan.

For me the Rainbow Warrior has been my finishing school. On my first night of command, five years ago, we rescued the crew of a sinking yacht. On my third day on board I transmitted a mayday distress when Rainbow Warrior was boarded by angry French fishermen with knives threatening to massacre the crew in Marseilles. The pace never slowed.

Rainbow Warrior has won the hearts of communities around the world and inspired hope. The bunting we’ve hung on the ship is decorated with memories from crew, supporters and well-wishers from Alaska to Argentina, Belarus to Bombay. People who have been touched by the Rainbow Warrior, and who are grateful that a ship like this exists.

Now it is time to say goodbye and so we lower the Greenpeace flag of this old Rainbow Warrior and let her spirit free.

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Painting out the rainbow

August 12, 2011 at 10:49 pm (Uncategorized)
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The first stroke of white paint rolls off the roller, it is a vertical stroke across the ecology and peace symbols set inside the Kwakiutl totem. The second runs horizontally in the middle and wipes out the Greenpeace logo. I am leaning over the crane controls, a roller in one hand and paint tray in the other. Maite and Katie are watching from the main deck.

I pause, reminded of a childhood difficulty I used to face with chocolate bunnies at easter: what was less painful: first biting off the ears or the legs? I did not wish to do either. I close my eyes and wish the Rainbow Warrior god speed on its journey to a new vessel. I reach down to touch the furthest corner of the totem.

Maite is on the stern, the colour in her pot is stone. She dips her roller into it whilst wiping away tears with the back of her hand. The top left corner of the Kwakiutl totem disappears with the first sweep of her long arm and roller. I watch from the jetty as the second totem disappears off the surface of the Rainbow Warrior.

The sun bakes the old riveted hull in Singapore and the paint dries quickly. The rest of the crew have green in their pots. Stripes of it cut swathes into the seven colours of the rainbow.

I have tears in my eyes. I have loved this ship. She has been my first command and my home for five years. Now it is time to say: Goodbye Rainbow Warrior.

Painting out the rainbow


Painting out the Kwakiutl totem

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Treasure discovered

August 4, 2011 at 10:19 pm (Uncategorized)
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Grace and Katie pry the framed photographs from the alleyway bulkheads. Glues and screws have restrained them from leaping off their perches in past rough seas. I look at the photos afresh and note how faded they have become. They are taken through to Lesley who wraps them individually in pages from The Straits Times.

It is Katie who finds the treasure. It slips from behind a silkscreen outside the radio room door. Maite – designated Rainbow Warrior II historian – is the first person to be told. An excited babble comes down the alleyway growing louder until it bursts into my cabin: ‘Miiiiiike! Look what we found.’

A muster list from 1995. Ten years after the bombing of the first boat, Rainbow Warrior II sailed into the territorial waters off Mururoa. The French were about to conduct another nuclear test. Marines stormed, they spray painted the bridge windows, cut through the steel doors and seized the ship.

In those moments of grinding and sparks, someone must have hid the emergency muster list from view. In the closing days of Rainbow Warrior II the names of old crew are revealed and we are reminded of our roots – to end nuclear weapons testing.

1995 muster list

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Jemima in Changi

August 2, 2011 at 11:25 pm (Uncategorized)
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A plate glass wall separates the baggage reclaim area from the arrivals hall at Changi airport. Standing at the carrousel is Jemima, her hair is short – I love it like that. She sees me and we blow kisses. There is familiarity in her movements – are they gangly? They are only Jem and my heart leaps and bounds on the other side of the plate glass wall. The carousel goes around and around.

I recognize my old suitcase and the familiarity deepens when Jem lifts it off the belt. She strides towards the green zone trundling it behind her, then disappears from view. The shipping agent is leaning against a marble pillar, seemingly disinterested.

Whoosh! The doors slide open and she is in my arms. People are trying to get past – I edge us over to the side. My betrothed has arrived in Singapore. She is worried about her unbrushed teeth, I am worried about the waiting agent. There is nervous energy. He takes her suitcase and we turn to follow, hand in hand as we have longed for.

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Unplugged

August 1, 2011 at 11:32 pm (Uncategorized)
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There is a feeling of release as I unplug the mouse and then the keyboard. I am beaming a great big grin on my face as I make separate journeys from my cabin with each component of the desktop computer. I present them to Mong in the radio room, who jerks his head back in an alarmed fashion and raises one eyebrow.

The vacuum cleaner comes out, along with a bucket, sponges and a green cleaning detergent. A feeling of satisfaction rises out of wiping it all away; the dust and the years of jumbled files in the mainframe. I polish my bare wooden desk and place upon its fresh surface my moleskine and fountain pen.

Captain's log

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