Just a month after the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and death of crew member Fernando Pereira on 10 July, 1985, Gael Johnson and Tony Stills crossed the South Pacific on a voyage to Mururoa to protest French nuclear testing. Johnson and Stills braved the seas in the Alliance, a small flat-bottomed scow. It was the kind of boat used to carry cargo along the New Zealand coast, not cross oceans.
Despite this fact, Johnson and Stills realized the importance of joining the Peace Flotilla headed to French Polynesia. In the face of tragedy, they endured obstacles and preserved hope when it was needed most.
Johnson, a young mother at the time, recounted the journey a diary entry while aboard the Alliance. Recalling the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, Johnson writes:
My mind runs through my actions – have they been actions of integrity? So much celebration, laughter and booze and passion; but the feelings have been very high, very loving, very honest, open and joyful. How has this reality been created? Has the naming of a ‘peace ship’ as a ‘warrior’ somehow drawn the ‘war’ to us?
Johnson also wrote the following song in remembrance of the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and loss of Fernando Pereira, a shipmate and friend.
Johnson and Stills eventually reached Mururoa along with the rest of the Peace Flotilla to carry on the mission of the Rainbow Warrior and its crew.
Photos and song courtesy Gael Johnson.












