February 4th… unfortunately Patchouli II is no more. She was rammed by a container port about 35 miles from Singapore. Luckily all the crew are fine! This is the most important thing! But a dream ends». This terse and painful message was published in the early afternoon yesterday on the Facebook page “Patchouli’s journey around the world”, by Massimo Vecchietti, former head of the emergency department of ASL 2, retired, and his wife Paola Broggi. On the page, the many friends and acquaintances were updated on their daring enterprise: the round-the-world voyage on the Patchouli II sailboat, which included rescuing the local populations they gradually met.
The message amazed the many faithful who have expressed their closeness to the couple. Husband and wife, after spending the last ten years aboard their sailboat, sailing the Aegean between Greece and Turkey, had decided to make their dream come true: to go around the world on a sailboat, helping the needy. A dream that had come true and that had seen them leave on May 26, 2019 from Marina di Loano, with their sailboat on which, in addition to the flag of Loano and Liguria, that of the Red Cross was waving. A dream that unfortunately shattered yesterday to the displeasure of all the faithful who immediately expressed their esteem for the couple who, with great courage, challenged the oceans, not without having to face a thousand obstacles.
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