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Are there far away islands?
Yes, there are. They are inside of us but we can’t see them – or, maybe, we forget them – we forget that we were born free .

Sergio Albeggiani – Far away Islands

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A glorious existence, a great, legendary, and romantic adventure. The last mooring in Las Palmas in 1989, the return to Palermo and its abandon. Until now.

Porticello, April 1989. Lisca Bianca, a wooden Carol Ketch made in a local shipyard, is ready for its second voyage around the world. The Albeggianis, in their sixties and after a 3 year voyage around the globe, are ready to cast off again. It was hard to find sponsors and helps. They eventually made a resistent, stable and reliable boat, where you can live on. They faced difficulties and sacrifices, but with passion and knowledge they achieved their dream of a free and simple life.

Leoluca Orlando, the mayor of Palermo at the time, attends the departure of Lisca Bianca, as well as many other citizens. A crowd of vessels accompanies Lisca Bianca out of the port until the two masts of the boat disappear on the horizon. The project is fully supported by the Regional Department of Tourism, the Municipality of Palermo and some local companies: Lisca Bianca will be ambassador of Sicilian products and culture in the most distant islands. The logbook written by the Albeggianis will be published with the title Le isole Lontane by Brotto Editore and it will represent a precious reference point for many oceanic navigators. The couple will never complete their second voyage around the world because Sergio will sadly pass away in Las Palmas. TODAY, 30 years after the first departure, the adventure of the brave couple is well known. It has been an uncommon and romantic Sicilian maritime adventure, so radical to leave a mark in our collective imagination. After the return to Palermo, LiscaBianca has been abandoned for many years. The abandon caused a progressive deterioration and the risk of demolition. The yacht designer Francesco Belvisi and the Sociologue and Penal Mediator Elio Cascio decided to combine their common passion for sailing and their specific skills to found the organization Lisca Bianca, and dispose the recovery and promotion of the vessel and its story. The Albeggianis embrace with passion the project and decide to give LiscaBianca to the namesake organization. After the renovation of the boat, they want to focus their activities on social aims to promote maritime culture (didactic cruises, environmental awareness workshops, sailing therapy, etc.). The restoration of LiscaBianca and its reuse fosters social inclusion for disadvantaged young people – young people in trouble and/or risking behavioural problems. Especially those young people hosted in rehabilitation youth centres, primary assistance structures, drug rehabilitation centres, social centres, and mental and physical health care centres. Sea and navigation are seen as educational and therapeutic “instruments”. Through the sailing they can learn to stay together and discover again important and essential values such as cooperation, mutual support and sense of responsibility, solidarity, and love for nature. The program of restoration and reuse consists of:

• Formalization of the assignment of LiscaBianca from the Albeggiani family; ✓
  
• Dismantlement of the removable wooden parts and transportation to the Correction Centre for young people of Palermo; ✓
  
• Restoration carried out by the young inmates, assisted by a Master Craftsman and the Technical Responsible for the Project;
• Transportation of LiscaBianca in the Sant’Onofrio therapeutic community for drug addicted (Trabia) held by the Istituto Don Calabria; ✓ (watch the video)
• Creation of a restoration workshop of the vessel where people hosted in the therapeutic community and/or people recommended by the local Socio-educational Services will be integrated as trainees; ✓
  
• Renovation of the boat and its structural parts, rebuilding from the beginning of all the parts that can’t be recycled carried out by the young people, assisted by the Master of Axe, the supervisor for the works and the Technical Responsible for the Project;
• Launch and use of LiscaBianca for social, educational and cultural aims;
• Creation of maintenance works and non-invasive fittings oriented to the development of environmental sustainability in the nautical field.

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