Topsail schooner R Tucker Thompson set sail from the Bay of Islands, New Zealand in the winter of 1995 to stop France testing nuclear bombs in the South Pacific. She would be fifty days away from land, her crew enduring trying sea conditions and harassment by the French military.

This is an account of their adventure by Greta Simmonds of the partnership that built Tucker, sailed her around the world and established her as an awarded tourist operation. Read it to learn about this piece of history and to get a feeling for what it is like to sail a tall ship across an ocean.