Philippine Self-Help Foundation
An Opportunity of a Lifetime
I (Richard) have been alerted to the presence of the Greenpeace flagship being in the Philippines for the 10th anniversary of Typhoon Yolanda and a visit to Bohol is on the itinerary. I do not know when or where this will take place so on November 14th, I call the Greenpeace head office in Quezon city and speak with Karl Orit, their communications campaigner and he tells me that the rainbow Warrior is already in Tubigon and will be there for another 24 hours.
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I realise that we (Ireen and I) have a small window of opportunity to visit the Greenpeace flagship so the next day, we head out on my rented scooter for the 50 kilometre ride up the western coast of Bohol and reach Tubigon at noon. We go straight to the port to discover that the rainbow Warrior is anchored about 500 metres offshore. We proceed to the ticket counter and ask to meet anyone who can advise us as to how we can contact anyone from Greenpeace. The port operations officer, a young lady by the name of Lyn, comes out and greets us warmly. She gives me the phone number of Ben Muni, her contact person with Greenpeace. She mentions that he may be out of coverage as he is working on a solar project on the island of Inanoran* but he and the team are expected to be back at the port by 3pm. As expected, Ben’s phone goes unanswered so Ireen and I leave the port and head into town to look for a place to eat. By 2pm, we are able to get hold of Ben and he tells us that he or one of his colleagues will meet us at Gate 1 within the hour.
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Round about 3pm, we notice the arrival of three people who look like they may be Greenpeace personnel. I go up them and speak to the lady who appears to be in charge. She is friendly and after a brief exchange I discover that I am talking to Lea Guerrero, the director of Greenpeace for the Philippines. I am delighted to meet her in person as we met online during the pandemic when I wished to discuss the issue of engine idling (an advocacy of mine) with her.
Lea informs me that she and her two colleagues from Friends of the Earth will not be going on board the Rainbow Warrior as there is not enough time before sunset to go and come back and have a meeting on board. They will be having a zoom meeting onshore instead. She assures me that she will do her best to enable Ireen and me to go onboard and sends a text to Charmaine, their communications officer to let her know. Charmaine arrives a few minutes later along with a group of others who turn out to be local journalists. She announces the exciting news that Ireen and I can be included in the last boarding party of the day.
Half a dozen of us board the banca (a boat with stabilisers) and head out to the Rainbow Warrior. Our fellow passengers include a photographer, a couple of journalists and Greenpeace personnel including Karl whom I spoke to yesterday. We get to within 50 metres of the rainbow Warrior and then the engine is turned off. We wait in eager anticipation for the rubber dinghy onboard the Warrior to be lowered and sent out to fetch us. We are instructed to put on our life jackets.
To our surprise, when the rubber dinghy arrives, it is manned by two young women. We clamber on board for the short ride to the ship. We are given a helping hand to board and then walk to the afterdeck which I learn later can serve as a helicopter pad. There is a jar of water on a table with several glasses so I help myself. As I quench my thirst, I am excited to see Captain Hettie walk by; she will be interviewed by the photo journalist who was with us on the banca. I have done my homework and know that Hettie Geenen is one of the very rare women captains sailing the seas today.
Soon enough, crew members start dropping by to welcome us aboard. I detect a French accent in one of them. This same person, Clement is his name, comes back a few minutes later and asks me if I would like a tour of the ship with him and of course I am delighted. I mention that Ireen would surely like to join us so he leads the two of us to the bow of the ship where we find the famous wooden dolphin with its many goodwill messages inside.
Clement tells me about the Rainbow Warrior (this is the third) and its history. It was built in New Zealand and launched in 2011. The original Rainbow Warrior was sunk in Auckland in 1985 by French secret service agents. The French government were conducting nuclear tests in French Polynesia and Greenpeace were at the forefront of the anti-nuclear movement and their flagship was targeted as a result. Greenpeace received a large damages settlement from the French government which was used to build Rainbow Warrior 2. This ship was deemed to be overly fuel inefficient so it was eventually given to a South American country to be used as a floating hospital.
Aside from the history, Clement gives us some interesting facts about the current ship. It has a 55 metre high A-shaped mast which can carry more sail than a conventional mast; the ship can reach a speed of 13 knots. The afterdeck can serve as a helicopter pad by lowering all the rails. Clement however mentions that they mostly use drones these days as they can fly high for surveillance purposes such as when they are on the lookout for boats or ships conducting illegal fishing.
As we talk, I am delighted to see Captain Hettie arrive on deck and she comes up to introduce herself. I discover she is a Dutch citizen so I mention that I was born in Belgium, her neighbouring country. We have a pleasant chat and of course I ask to have a photo taken with her. We try alongside the dolphin but the sun is glaring so we opt for a space in front of the bridge.
Ireen and the captain take leave of us and Clement then invites me to see the bridge; by this time we are speaking French together, a rare chance for both us. He tells me that there is a crew of 17 comprising 13 nationalities and more or less equally divided between male and female. There is definitely a Wow factor as you enter the bridge; I am struck by the huge array of instrumentation and the very small size of the two helms - smaller than a car steering wheel. Clement tells me that the ship is highly automated, ie no more climbing up the masts and if there is a problem, a crew member can be carried up in a kind of metal basket at the push of a button.
Clement tells me that when the ship is at sea, he does the 12 to 4 (am and pm) shifts. There will always be at least two crew members on the bridge at any one time. He uses binoculars as well as computer instrumentation. The crew, with the exception of the captain, share twin-berth cabins though Clement himself is alone in his cabin by virtue of his being on the midnight to 4am watch and therefore especially needing undisturbed sleep.
Sundown is approaching so it will soon be time to head back onshore. Clement and I walk back to the afterdeck and I notice a number of young people; it transpires that they are Greenpeace volunteers who crossed over to Inanoran island this morning to help with the solar power project. I then meet Ana who is from the South Pacific island of Vanuatu; I discover that she boarded the Rainbow Warrior in Australia and she has been a kind of Greenpeace ambassador for the low-lying islands of the South Pacific that are threatened by rising sea levels.
By now the rubber dinghy with its Argentinian helmswoman has taken two passenger loads to the banca and I am in the third and final group. Life jackets are handed out to the few of us who are not staying onboard for the night. My turn to board the rubber dinghy comes up and I have a chance to say goodbye to Captain Hettie who wishes me well with all my adventures. It has been a memorable day for me and also for Ireen who had a chance to talk with crew members and get to know the young Greenpeace volunteers from her home city of Tagbilaran.
Richard Foster
December 1st, 2023.
* Inanoran is small island off the coast of Tubigon threatened by rising sea levels. There are 47 families living on the island. The crew of the Rainbow Warrior visited the island during their time in Tubigon to assist with the installation of solar panels to enable the islanders to have free electricity to recharge their cell phones.
