Giacomo is in Istanbul!

Our good friend and fellow voyager, Giacomo de Stefano has arrived in Istanbul. After three years of planning, setbacks from sickness, waiting and effort, the journey is complete.

I doubt the man can believe it himself. I'm sure when he conceived this trip, he had no idea how much an epic it would become. 5400 kilometers across Europe by sail and oar, building community all along the way.

We applaud the Man on the River. Congratulations Giacomo, you have made us all stronger.

You can read all about this fabulous journey on Man on the River - London to Istanbul .

Man on the River, Voyaging with the Ness Yawl Clodia

Speaking of travelers, Giacomo De Stefano has resumed his journey from North Sea to Black Sea.
As winter set in on the Danube last year, Giacomo was obliged to put his Ness Yawl, Clodia up in storage in Budapest, Hungary.
Giacomo is committed to life as a nomad, drawing together people of like mind to create a new paradigm - life more in harmony with our water planet. This is not just an eco-vacation. Giacomo delves deep into the culture of the river communities he visits.

I doubt that Giacomo realized how much of his life would be consumed by this venture. Three years ago he attempted to launch from London only to be stymied by pneumonia, the silent thief.

Last year he fared better, rowing and sailing along the canals of Europe, making his way uphill through lock after lock on the Rhine. Along the way, he has met and introduced us to many people and multiple cultures. You could spend a lifetime making a journey such as this!







But the goal is Istanbul and Giacomo, with renewed energy, is on the downhill leg. We'll follow him as he makes his way downriver on the Danube over the next few months because we are part of the community that is the Man on the River.



Fair winds, Giacomo!

This voyage can also be followed on Facebook.

Brancaleon

Our friend Giacomo De Stefano, most recently known as the Man on the River is preparing to continue his journey to the Black Sea, on the Danube River, after a seasonal hiatus. It's a good thing he took a break, I hear the weather was most severe on the Danube this winter.
He has plans for a new project already in the works, of which we will hear more, anon.








In the meantime, he is selling his home on the water, the fine old ketch, Brancaleon. This classic Alan Buchanan design, built in 1965, has been lovingly maintained and has a royal pedigree. She currently lies in the Mediterranean on a secure transferable mooring in Mallorca. Does it get better than that?!









She has recently undergone a thorough professional haul-out. Someone (it might be you...) is going to get a beautiful classic for a very reasonable price.








Interested parties should contact Giacomo:

Giacomo De Stefano
gi.des@me.com
www.manontheriver.com
























Some specifications and particulars:

Length overall: 43'
Length waterline: 38'
Beam: 12'
Draught: 6'

Iroko below the WL
Honduras Mahogany above the WL
Slavonian Oak frames
Teak deck 1" 2 (32 mm)

Motor: BMC Commodore 3400 cc, 56HP, Hydraulic gearbox Borg Velvet, 1964 (original engine and perfectly running) Approx. 2000 hours. Cruise speed 6 kt at 900 rpm.

Lying Mallorca, Puerto Pollenca, Spain, available with free buoy in a very protected and wonderful bay, surrounded by mountains and all facilities for yacht care (a very rare thing in the Med, with a local mariner who lives aboard 50 yards away and who can take care of her).

More photos can be found here.

A video of Brancaleon underway, made by Mario Di Filippo on a passage from Kos, Greece to Siracuse in Sicily.
Skipper; the esteemed Stefano Cordova, AKA Stefano Leon Rodrigues.

The Pirate's Apprentice from Mario Di Filippo on Vimeo.

The Man on the River and the Riqueval Tunnel

The Riqueval Tunnel (5670 meters) is located near the town of Bellicourt, passing under the villages of Bony and Bellicourt.
Built on the Canal Saint-Quentin between 1801 and 1810 by order of Napoleon it is, along with the tunnel at Mauvages on the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, the only place where the system of towing barges with a chain still exists.






The length of the underground Riqueval does not allow enough air exchange to evacuate exhaust from combustion engines on transport barges. They are required to be towed by a towboat that pulls a string of barges and/or other boats with a winch and chain.






Rougaillou, the first towboat in the Riqueval used horses arranged in a carousel on its deck to drive a winch and the succeeding towboat was propelled by steam.
From 1906, the problem of smoke in the vault has been solved with an electric towboat. Its hourly average speed is 2.5 mph, so the trip takes just over two hours. The towboat hauls on a chain 8km long, which lies at the bottom of the channel.


Fortunately for the Man on the River, the towing at Riqueval is still in service. Traffic on the Canal Saint-Quentin has declined from 100 boats per day to ten, due to the opening of the Canal du Nord. The Waterways of France have considered installing mechanical ventilation that would allow boats to use their engines in the tunnel.





We must ask Giacomo and Friends if they would prefer to row the 5670 meters in darkness amid the rumble of cargo barges, or be towed silently by an electric towboat.

What an adventure on a man-made underground river in France!
Be sure to follow the links above for a more comprehensive story.






Tunnels aren’t the only obstacles on the Canal Saint-Quentin. The main mast on Clodia must be struck often to clear overhead bridges. Fortunately for the Man on the River, this is a simple task.









Ciao, Bruno and Giacomo!

From England to France in a Ness Yawl

A nice day for crossing the Channel in a small boat. Giacomo and Bruno in Clodia.



My good friend, Max, comments at the end of this post that the video doesn't capture the level of commercial traffic on this body of water. This is exactly the contrast that Giacomo and Bruno have set out to demonstrate. The speed and power of modern maritime commerce actually creates a hazardous environment for smaller boats, besides being one of the major polluters of our water planet.

It will appear absurd to many to suggest that we could provide the world's needs using a less invasive technology. But Giacomo and Bruno have just shown that what most people think is not necessarily so. Yes, perhaps it is absurd to imagine the English Channel littered with thousands of tiny boats the size of Clodia, bringing goods to market. This example is all the more powerful because of that symbolism.

The technology propounded here could be expanded to accommodate a grander scale. At the same time, a new paradigm involving reduced needless consumption would mitigate the megalithic need for monster container ships and tankers.

Bruno and Giacomo will spend the next few months demonstrating how a web of physically interactive humanity can supplant the market driven economy with an economy based on respect, responsibility and caring. A world where we all win, rather than a race for winner takes all.



Perhaps then, the poisonous red petrochemical haze we see on the horizon in the video above will disappear forever.

Man on the River

My compatriot and citizen of the world, Giacomo de Stefano has announced that he will resume the journey he was forced to abandon last year due to ill health.

For those who don't yet know Giacomo, he is the person who rowed and sailed the Po river in Italy as a demonstration of how travel and commerce could be accomplished with minimal impact. Along the way he discovered that cultural exchange was part of the process. He met and shared his passion for protecting the river from the ravages of industry with so many like-minded people that the journey became a cultural event.

I met Giacomo here on DoryMan. His boat for the Po river trip was a Ness Yawl, designed by Iain Oughtred and I was fascinated by the versatility of that seaworthy vessel inspired by the ancient designs from Norway. Giacomo's use of such a design is not far removed from the original. The simple, beautiful and ultimately utilitarian lapstrake double-enders were the sole transportation from one community to another for centuries and Giacomo was determined to show that they could be useful once more, not just an attractive anachronism.



So, I joined the effort to promote Giacomo's new adventure - the ambitious navigation of Europe by rivers and canals that he initially called North Sea to Black Sea. As the project grew, he found sponsors and volunteers to build another Ness Yawl (his first one was borrowed from his friend Roland). Many people in Italy became enamored of the project and as it grew, it became Man on the River, a journey from London to Istanbul by fair means.














But as Giacomo and his friend Jacopo left London and headed down the Thames he began to feel weak and listless. As fate would have it, pneumonia gripped Giacomo in a life struggle and the journey was canceled.





Back in Venice, Giacomo has spent the last year recovering from his illness, but his dream never died. His Ness Yawl, Clodia, moored patiently in Ramsgate, waits for his return.


Once again, like a phoenix, the Man on the River cultural project is underway. I am concerned that Giacomo is not yet well enough to tackle a six month journey of such proportion but he is the judge of that. I do know that he needs our support. The Man on the River is not about just one man, but about the future for all of us. Can we find the courage to live in harmony with our environment and with each other?


















That is the simple, yet intricate message of this endeavor. To build a global community around a paradigm of a world much more loving and supportive than the one we live in today.

You may say this is utopian, but I say it's possible if we want it bad enough.

I invite you to join us as we travel with the Man on the River.
.