MV Greenpeace / PC 8023
Position: Noon Pos: Mooring Bouy, Hong Kong Harbour
June 19th, 1996
Day 34

Wow what a day! We had our first public open day and the response was wonderful.Over 800 people arrived,all Cantonese apart from maybe 10 westeners, and considering some of them waited for up to 3 hours on the wharf before they were ferried out to us,I'd say the day was very very successful. The media coverage of our visit to China was high profile in Hong Kong and sparked a real following amongst people here.

It seems like we're regarded more as `eco stars' rather than `eco warriors'.Cameras were clicking everywhere as crew were invited to pose with our visitors. Their excitment was contagious and I found I was on a real high by the end of the day.

A Chinese T.V. crew even came to interview me while I was cooking! They wanted me to extoll the virtues of vegetables. I found it difficult to maintain my composure while the interviewer stood there with a large bunch of celery in one hand, microphone in the other and asked me questions in Chinese. I was trying desperately not to burn the onions, had tears running down my face because their juice was so strong-a real picture of galley glamour-and doing my best to give intelligent/coherent answers in English.

Later on in the day a group of students from Sha Tin college came and presented Ulf - our captain - with a cheque for $1600 Hong Kong that they had raised for Greenpeace.They had been collecting since the French resumed testing at Moruroa last year,and when they sent a letter of concern to the French representatives here, the respnse was to ridicule them publicly in the newspaper. The energy and enthusiasm of the students was very inspiring and bode well for the beginnings of an official Greenpeace Office in Hong Kong when it happens.

Bye for now...

Love Lynda.