Johannes - deckhand (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

Johannes grew up in Japan and Germany (his father is Japanese and his mother is French/German. I asked him what he had wanted to be when he grew up. He pauses. “A policeman.”

Despite that lofty aspiration, he ended up studying IT and came to New Zealand one and a half years ago- “I needed a break and needed to do something different.”

One day he walked into the Greenpeace office in Auckland and said “hi, can I help?” And now here he is, doing night watch and power hosing the deck of the Rainbow Warrior.

He didn’t know much about ships, so the last three weeks have been a steep learning curve. “It’s been very interesting.”

Pablo - Deckhand GRENPEACE / Sharomov

Pablo is a deckhand on board. He’s from Argentina, aged 29. This is his sixth trip to sea with Greenpeace.

“Greenpeace is part of my family. My father always supported Greenpeace and worked with Greenpeace Argentina on forests and GE. And he believes strongly in the climate campaign. With climate change, if we don’t sort it out, then we will have nothing in 50 years times. Climate change is natural, but in the last 250 years, humans have put in a lot more input and are making it go faster.”

Being a keen climber, Pablo is particularly concerned about the rate with which glaciers are disappearing around the globe.

As I was talking to him, Pablo wasn’t looking his best. Turns out he gets seasick. “Yes, but I do this anyway.” With that, he looks out the window and observes a sea bird cruising by. ” You see? You wouldn’t see that from land.”