From: AUDREY CARDWELL, SV MANUTEA OUTSIDE 12-MILE ZONE

Here it is 1800 and I am on watch. I just came down from the cockpit where under a cloudy evening sky, we are racing to our special destination for tonight, the glow of Moruroa off to starboard and far behind us, not often seen but felt, we are followed by a French warship. Funny, how you get used to things...being followed, circled, and harassed by warships, jets and helicopters are so commonplace now, we simply note the times of flyovers and chart the position in our log. All of us feel the constant menace that stepping over the unseen line, or even being related to something stepping over an unseen line, will probably bring soldiers aboard our ships.

At least our purpose here is clear to us. When asked by reporters after the first test if we were all going home now that we had lost we replied that we are not here just to stop a test. We are here to end nuclear testing. A simple, even simplistic, answer, but the truth for those of us here. And it still holds.

When we first arrived, delayed by weather, we were in as much shock as the other boats over the taking of the Rainbow Warrior and the MV Greenpeace. We got busy setting up sort of base -- contacting all the boaters and providing space, communications, information, and a sense of security -- ensuring them that Greenpeace was definitely still here! David McTaggart's presence inspired the boaters -- he is someone who had been here before in a small boat taking on the military machine with whom they could identify.

The action with the two Greenpeace inflatables going into Moruroa the next morning told everyone that we were going to keep up the pressure even with two of our vessels seized by the French.

The Boat meetings became a gathering of partners with Greenpeace -- people who had struggled to get here to make a statement about the kind of future they want for themselves and their children. They came together with creative ideas, sharing resources, providing moral and human support. We have shared food, water, fuel, mechanics, inflatables, clothes, ideas, hope and determination. We have shared actions together and have a few more ideas in the wings. The group has changed as boats come and go, but the determination is the same -- we are here to maintain a witness and, whenever possible, a hindrance to a great wrong that is being done here.

What we can do by sending folks into the test sites and keeping the pressure on, we think is worth all the effort here. The news has been encouraging: the strong reactions around the world after the first test; the moves by the OAS, the Pacific Forum, the European Union and US Congress to condemn French testing; and, the plans to take on France in the World Court, the UN and in their own European Union. All of this gives us the clear impression that France is being surrounded by critics of its blind and stupidly regressive testing policy. We feel that victory is more possible than ever before, and we become more and more determined to keep up the fight here and make our presence felt.

Peace, Audrey