31.12.2003 - Tagebuch
Best wishes for the New Year!
[General] - Torsten - torsten@breaking-the-ice.de @ 23:21:00
After settling into two small guesthouses, the team members made their way down to Puerto William’s tiny yacht basin for their first encounter with Pelagic Australis and Pelagic, their two sailing vessels.
Another full day of preparations lays ahead of the team before it sets to sea on January 1. During the voyage, they’ll be expected to play an active role in crewing the yachts. With virtually no sailing experience, they’ll have to learn everything from how to weigh anchor and hoist sails to how to flush marine toilets. But, over dinner on Tuesday night, the team seemed most preoccupied by the skippers’ exhaustive explanations on seasickness and how to deal with it.
On the morning after, with Palestinian Ziad Darwish cutting vegetables for salad and Israeli Avihu Shoshani scrambling eggs, they enjoyed one of the last meals they’re assured of being able to keep down before they sail onto the waves in pursuit of their objective -- Breaking the Ice.
Tonight, with all their equipment stowed, these peacemakers will join the rest of the world in celebrating the beginning of 2004. Far from their families and friends, they’ll usher in the New Year with wishes that it may be far better – and far more peaceful – than the one they’re leaving behind.
Ice Breakers Reach the Waters Edge
[General] - Torsten - torsten@breaking-the-ice.de @ 23:15:21
At the end of Patagonia and the beginning of their adventure, the eight Israelis and Palestinians of the Breaking the Ice peace expedition reached Puerto Williams at the southern tip of Chile, flying in on an aircraft so small that it had to make two round trips to accommodate the team and all its trekking equipment. One of the surprises of the flight came when they discovered that the man piloting the Twin Otter bush plane was Osman Assad, himself a third generation Palestinian immigrant to Chile.
At first glance Puerto Williams (pop. 2500) looks like a shantytown. Built low to the ground, the small, spare houses and scattered shops sit on a hillside overlooking a Chilean naval base. This remote outpost anchors Chile’s hold on the region’s rich mineral deposits and forest lands against claims from neighboring Argentina that, in the past, have fueled conflict between the two nations.
Puerto Williams, Chile (55° S -- 68° W)
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