Monday evening:  After relaxing on the deck and enjoying a quick dip in the sea we enjoyed another delicious dinner served by the ship’s crew.  Then the the group met in the main room to prepare for tomorrow. At the moment, the ship is sailing back to Civitavecchia and we hope to arrive early tomorrow morning.   Tomorrow is a special day.  Twelve children who are victims of the L’Aquila earthquake are coming on to the boat, along with some social workers and the press for some newspapers.  These children are from some of the families who lost their homes from the earthquake and are currently living in the tent city temporarily erected to house them until long-term housing can be secured.  We started the evening with an interview with Stefano, one of our group who himself is from L’Aquila and experienced some damage to his family’s home.  He shared his story with our group so that we all could better understand the difficult circumstances in which these children live.  We then worked with the teens to place them in a leadership position for tomorrow, allowing them to use some of the games and lessons from the past week on board with these children.  The crew of the Nave Italia will also join in and if there is wind we hope to put up the sails immediately.  It will be a big day, but this groups of teenagers is excited to share this experience with our guests from L’Aquila and to connect with new friends aboard the Nave Italia. 

Luigi interviewing Stefano about the L'Aquila earthquake.

I am 16 and my name is Stefano. I say hello to Ale who helps me and is nice too. I live in Aquila. Here my friends are: Antonio, Iacopo, and an Egyptian boy , Hazeem. To live in a boat and to put up the sails is fun. Today I saw the island of Montecristo, Ragga told us the fantastic story of a sailor and a treasure. It was like Jurassic park… I went sightseeing  it with my new friends, I went to a museum of wild life and plants.   I cleaned the boat with my new friends from many countries. The Captain let me clean my bathroom and also the bathroom of the main room. I also hovered the lower lounge.   I like to use the loud speaker of the boat to call “dinner is ready”, “breakfast is ready” , “lunch is ready” and the Captain says I am doing a good job. Pasta and chicken are good, I liked the spinaches too.  I learned how to make some mariner knots… I like this sail ship because it looks like the one of the Caribbean pirates. But I would like to go back home to have a long quiet shower, here I can't. At home I shower for two hours, even three. I put on shampoo and soap as much as I want. Pictured: Stefano with Comandante Tedeschini helping to translate.

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