Session One - 18 August 1999

18 August - Last day on board

Leg one

"It was our last day on the ship, a long day of navigation and usual duties. We were lucky to be allowed by the captain to stop and swim. And as everybody was really exhausted there was an optional session.

In the evening we had two very good reasons to have a party, first it was Bosom's birthday, one of the professional crew man, second it was the end of the cruise of leg one and our last night on board. Roberto, the cook, prepared delicious dishes, and there was a special chocolate cake for the ship looked like a Christmas tree, with red and blue lights shining all the time.

That was our last night on board when everybody wished all the others the best."

The first leg participants share their last happy moments on board the Black Knight.

18 August - More and more Peace Sailors in Larnaca

Leg Two

"The day passed with activities and games to getting to know each other. We spent a lot of time on our group-building. Meanwhile the weather has been so hot that we thought we were going to die when moving outside the meeting room. We tried to visit some places around our camp site but because of the heat it was not possible to move around a lot.

During the day more an more peace sailors arrived. At the end of the day we were already twelve:

Dusan (Yugoslvia), Shana (USA), Emre (Turkey), Elena (Macedonia), Hristijan (Macedonia), Fady (Egypt), Havard (Norway), Irini (Greece), Sotiris (Greece), Mouloud (France), Samad (Morroco), Miguel (Spain)

In the training team there are: Mario (Spain), Daniella (Lebanon), Haki (UK) and Mirko (Germany). Mirko however is still on his way with Leg I and will join us just in two days.

In the evening, Richard Almavy, the Project Manager of the Peace Cruise, gave us some more information and the latest news on our trip. They were not very good. The Lebanese government has forbidden us to enter in Beirut for political reasons and has also not permitted to let Lebanese participants to take part in the Peace Cruise. That also means that Daniella cannot join us.

However we are trying to go to Gaza, since this was not possible for Leg I. New negotiations in the last days gave hope again. So our route will look like that: We are sailing from Cyprus to Ashdod (Israel) and from there we go either by bus or by boat to Gaza, depending on the outcome of the negotiations.

In the night then we enjoyed ourselves with teaching each other national dances and songs."