Gaeta, July 16, 2024 – Everything is ready for the long-awaited initiative “A Latin sail for peace” promoted by the Hormiae Mare Nostrum Association in collaboration with the Latina-Frosinone Chamber of Commerce, the Informare Special Company, Blue Forum, the Municipality of Gaeta. The same Association has been promoting the Latin sail for years, which has ancient origins and it is precisely through this rig that the peoples who inhabited the coastal strip of the Mediterranean have mixed, contaminated each other, each learning something from the other just as the other has transmitted something. This year, a wide-ranging project has been chosen, capable of combining sporting feat and awareness on a theme that has become primary in this historical moment, Peace.
“We will use a lateen sailboat – explains the organizer Giovanni Di Russo -, a symbol that has united all the peoples of this basin throughout history as a messenger of Peace. “Peace requires courage”, this is what Pope Francis says in his many messages and we would like to bring this message by sailing backwards in the Mediterranean, with a small wooden boat built in Stintino in 1946, just 5.40 meters long that with the sole force of the wind will navigate day and night for over 500 miles to reach first the island of Ventotene, then the Tunisian coast, to then conclude the crossing right in the door of Europe, Lampedusa. Once in Tunisia, we will deliver to the Authorities, representing the peoples of North Africa, a message of Peace written by the Holy Father, a request already forwarded to the Holy See through the Archbishop of Gaeta Monsignor Luigi Vari.”
The idea therefore comes from Di Russo himself, a boat tester, who on July 18 will set sail from Molo Santa Maria in Gaeta, bound for Carthage in Tunisia where it will arrive on July 27 after a couple of important stops. The first will be in Ventotene, the island from which the master shipwright who built that boat in a shipyard in Stintino emigrated. The second stop will be in Favignana to collect the wreath that the Port Authority will deliver to the Hormiae crew who will throw it into the sea at the narrowest point of the Strait of Sicily, as a sign of pietas and solidarity with the migrants who died trying to reach a better place. The small boat will be able to count on the giant ‘Fra Diavolo’ on its journey. At departure it will be blessed by the Archbishop of Gaeta Monsignor Luigi Vari who will celebrate Mass for the sailors in the morning at the Cappella d’Oro. The initiative was immediately welcomed by the Latina Frosinone Chamber of Commerce, Azienda Speciale Informare and Blue Forum.
“From the beginning we believed in this project presented for the first time at the Blue Forum in Gaeta. An initiative that also found the full support of Minister Musumeci who, in recent days, personally delivered the Tricolore that will be hoisted on the mast of the Latin sail. In a historical moment like the one we are going through, this journey takes on an essential value. A message of peace and union between peoples that today more than ever we need”. – declared the President of the Chamber of Commerce, Giovanni Acampora.
The mayor of Gaeta, Cristian Leccese, will also travel from Gaeta to Ventotene, enthusiastic about the initiative. “We immediately welcomed this significant project with interest,” the mayor commented, “which is not just a sporting undertaking. Values such as Peace must never be questioned. From Gaeta, a clear and strong message is ready to depart, through this journey, which we hope will be shared by everyone.” A copy of Spinelli’s manifesto will be delivered by the mayor of Ventotene to then reach the Tunisian authorities. The crew will be rotated by Giovanni Di Russo, Mohamed Mrad, Vincenzo Addessi, Ciro Esposito, Massimiliano De Meo, Gianluca Di Fazio, Luca Simeone, Massimiliano De Meo, Francesco Campana.
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