Saturday, April 18, 2009

The Ness Yawl on the Po River


Doryman received a note from a compatriot in Italy recently about his voyage up the Po river, the longest river in Italy. This two month trip in an Iain Oughtred Ness Yawl is documented by Giacomo on his blog and it's a great story!

This is his note and a link to his site, well worth the visit:

"Congratulations for your blog and your work.
My name is Giacomo De Stefano and I rowed and sail for more than 1000 km the Po river, the Italian longest.
You can see more on my blog unaltropo.com


Thank you for the kind words, Giacomo! We admire your work, too!


Post Script: Giacomo has a new project for next year. This man's heart is in the right place!---
"North Sea to Black Sea (by fair means)":

"We undertake the voyage without the pretense of trying to teach anything, but with the objective of shining a light on that which we’ve forgotten. “The river” is a metaphor for life, and the voyage is a way of clearing the useless superstructure
that weighs us down; that is, the false security of material possessions. We want
to experience, and to show others, the wonderful feeling of freedom that can be felt from being transported by the current and by using the strength of one’s own arms and the wind to move in harmony with nature."

“A journey can be a key to finding our real nature and leaving behind the heaviness
of unneeded things, of enjoying how we can give and receive,” says Giacomo. “True happiness doesn’t come from having things, but from having the knowledge of how to attract good things to us. Prosperity is really a way of living and thinking."

Giacomo's convictions:
"With the help of Roland Poltock as master shipwright, along with and some boys and girls from the local community for the disabled and school students, we will use only using only recycled wood. Electric power will be supplied by a local wind farm."

Giacomo has taken the challenge to transform the culture of consumerism and to cultivate the human spirit. A grand and worthy aspiration.
.

7 comments:

Giacomo said...

Dear DoryMan, thank you for your words. It makes me feel so happy!! Next year, on a Ness Yawl built in Chioggia, near Venice, by a group of friends, who had some misadventures in life, with the supervision of mastershipwright Roland Poltock, I will row and sail from London UK, to Istanbul, Turkey, along the Rhine river and the Danube. The project is called North sea to black sea (by fair means). I do it to promote a lighter, sustainable way of travelling and for love of the waters of this planet. On the sitewww.unaltropo.com you can check the pdf with a brief (with some mistales..sorry) introduction at the project.
Thank you and hope to meet you one day g

Unknown said...

Thank you again for adding my post to your blog(the more I read it the more I appreciate your work..). it is an honor to me.
I added your blog to my links hoping than more persons from Italy and Europe will visit and learn from your love and passion for wooden boats and the light way to use them.
Thank you again and all my best g

doryman said...

Giacomo,
I am proud and honored to share in the global community of waterborne humans who choose a lifestyle with a small foot print. In the uncertain future we face, there will only be room for all of us if we learn to live in peace and harmony and tread lightly on this abused planet we call home.
Half of my readers come from outside the US, which means to me that I am on the right track. Only a global network of willing souls will solve the immense problems we all face today.

In Peace,
Doryman

Unknown said...

Super Michael!! You are a great person and so I am so happy to know that you are here.

Thank you and all my admiration
Giacomo

doryman said...

One downside to living in poverty Giacomo, is that I can't afford to join you on your North Sea trip!
But be certain that I am with you in spirit and will follow your successes.

Unknown said...

What poverty?? You do not talk, think like a poor man. Quite rich you seem to me. Anyway I know what you're talking about. I live aboard an old wooden ketch in venice and with little or no money. I am doing all that I can to survive and to travel I offer my help in change of food and what I need for the trip. Almost allways people respond in a good and generous way. If you want to share a part of the trip you can find a passage, even a job on a cargo ship coming to Europe. That's all you need. here 's a link, but not the best cause is more for paying passages rather than be payed http://thetravelersnotebook.com/how-to/how-to-travel-by-cargo-ship/?source=rss
I will send you more.
All my best from Venice
g

doryman said...

Giacomo,
I'd love to see some pictures of your ketch home and the Lagoon.
Can you respond directly to me at:
mbogoger@gmail.com?

You are so right! Poverty is impossible when one embraces life fully. You will find no television in my home (even the internet is a distraction).
There is too much living going on all around...