Benedikt ('Bene') Hoffmann, 62, lives in his hometown Münster, Germany and, along with his three siblings, is taking care of his ailing mother. His wife Eileen is in the USA to be close to her aging parents.
Three months after the bombing, Bene returned to Germany to speak and write about the Rainbow Warrior's campaign for a nuclear-free Pacific. He then worked as mate and skipper on various Greenpeace boats including the new Rainbow Warrior, Sirius, Moby Dick and Beluga. He skippered the Beluga during a tour of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River in 1988, when he met Eileen, a former Greenpeace USA media coordinator. The two married soon after and have two children, who have both finished college. Bene supervised the superstructure conversion of the second Rainbow Warrior and oversaw work on other Greenpeace vessels. Bene returned to Germany in 2014.