Monte Cristo:  blue, clear sky,  sea – brilliant and crystalline, but above all- a silence that I’ve never heard before. It almost seems illogical to use the verb “to hear” when you speak of silence, but it is accurate.  By now our ears are used to continuous sounds from the frantic life of the city and for me to be able to listen to total silence, interrupted only by the crashing of the waves in the distance and the songs of the seagulls, was a unique and unforgettable experience… exactly what has been demonstrated during this entire voyage.  In fact, we don’t have technology or books  that can teach us about other cultures in the same way that we discovered them during this trip. Besides the happiness to have had the opportunity to be here to help make a concrete change in the world,  I have enriched myself culturally  as well as personally during this journey.  This voyage is more than a trip in a sailboat.  It represents something more profound:  a trip inside myself that makes me understand I don’t need a life of constant stimulation in order to find the little moments of happiness. Above all, I see that with hard work and a good feelings toward everyone – despite nationality or race - we can reach brilliant results as a group.  Perhaps it is this that we should write at the end of the document that we’ll share with the leaders of our society and to the world. 

Melissa (center) with George & Anna

Hi everyone. We have left Elba Island and are opening sails toward Montecristo Island. There is no internet connection around Montecristo and we will be in the open sea for much of the time so I will probably not be able to add any new entries for the next 1.5 days.

Here Stefano and Melissa climbing the masts

I’m Melissa and 16 years old. I live in Rome but I’m Italo-Brazilian and I am very proud to represent Brazil at this grateful project. Today we climbed up over the net to the first seat of the main mast. It is 17 meter high. The view up there was just wonderful. For me it was very impressive that even the disabled got enough power out of the group that they climbed up there. During the morning we had our first discussion about the G8 topics. It was about discrimination. I liked that the educators presented the topic in an unusual way because they made a game out of it. It sounds stupid but with the game it was easier to talk about this topic which is very difficult and complex in the reality. That made it easier to talk about it in the discussion later. Now to the awesome part of the trip with a sailing boot. We stopped today close to the Coast of Elba Island. So we were allowed to swim the first time after the departure in Civitavecchia. I even jumped of the railing of the Bow. IT WAS 5 METER HIGH!!! After that we were lying in the sun and just enjoyed the time on the ship. But the best thing since we departed is the relationship to each other. We are coming from all over the world and just know each other for 2 days but we have the same goal: We want to change the world to a better one.