During the summer of 2007 in Ireland, an unusual weather pattern created the worse summer since records were kept in the mid 1800s. Despite the rain and strong unstable winds, Sam Crowley circumnavigated Ireland by traveling over 1000 miles in 82 days. Share in his tale of the people he met along the way and places he visited while paddling in some of the most challenging conditions found in the world.

Excerpts

"After ten days of being storm bound in Black Ball Harbor on southwest coast, I finally got a good forecast to launch. It was a rough day, but I was happy to be paddling again, happy to be getting closer to the finish in Dublin. Conditions were rougher than what was forecasted. After going through Dursey Sound, I landed at the slipway in Garnish. As I paddled up a fellow came walking down. It was Mitey McNally, he asked, "Are you the American going around?" and then insisted on inviting me to his place for lunch. I thanked him for his generous offer and his response "The Irish like to take care of madmen.""

....

"I landed on Skellig Michael, a rock 10 miles out from the mainland sticking up out of the Atlantic on Ireland's west coast. The reason for the trip had been the opportunity to visit this island by kayak. I quickly found the steps that went up 300' up to the 6th century Celtic Christian monestary. As I went up the steps, I remember wondering how I was going to feel here. Was it going to be a sense of sacred? Was it going to feel magical? These steps were hand quarried, cut and laid by Celtic Monks in the 6th century with simple tools. They also transported all this stone here by hand. What I felt was that they sought out their god not the way we do with quiet comptemplation or meditation, they sought out their god through hard work."

...

"Stew Joseph of Marquette joined me just outside of Belfast and was to paddle with me to Dublin. Headwinds had been weaing me down. Stew pointed out that I had head winds all the way through Northern Ireland. Thats 8 days and 150 miles with winds from 15-20 knots, but at times gusting to 30-35 knots. I noticed when paddling with Stew, he seem impervious to the winds. When I wanted to stop and wait them out, I would look over at Stew and tell myself, 'see he's not complaining, he's not brothered by the wind'. After a couple of days of this I told Stew 'You don't seem to notice these headwinds'. Stew said, 'Well I look over at you and you're not complaining, you're not stopping'.

Photos

Click here to see photos of the trip.