(in the canal)
some words up front - you will find this not very much a "traditional" sail travel report like you find them plenty on the web. Reason is that I made the Nordic sea - Nordic light movie containing all the necessary nautical details. I will use this sides more to share some feelings and thoughts ...
Ireland
I spend about 2 - 3 times in Ireland in winter - spring 2005 with good reason so consequently I choose Dublin as the starting point for "Nordic Sea - Nordic Light". Like many people I was looking for a "kind of magic" in Ireland but often when you are looking too hard there is chance to be disappointed. Not that I didn't enjoy the stay, I fact did too much. I knew I should have left the city - in this case Dublin - and visit the country side Ireland only that I enjoyed Dublin so much that I couldn't decide to leave. Of course it didn't help that I had lot's of work to do left and was waiting for Dirk joining me for the first leg. So I spend days in Internet cafes really working hard, evenings preparing Summerwind and nights in temple bar or somewhere in the places surrounding O'Connell Street. 
I was living on Summerwind in Dún Laoghaire, a city of approximately 60000 on the Irish Sea. It is the main passenger port for Dublin and a seaside resort with yachting and fishing and as it was early in the season I felt pretty alone in the marina as only visitor between regular moorings owners. But I don't want to give a wrong impression, thinking back to the times in Dublin I just have positive feelings. I remember countless cafe lattes and warm beagles at the promenade of Dún Laoghaire, the boys and girls I met every day in the Internet cafe in temple bar who didn't knew I was doing serious business while they were just studying and surfing. I remember evenings in temple bar's music clubs and the smaller versions of the same clubs in Dún Laoghaire where it took only some days to be called with my name when entering my choosen home pup. Being in a new place, going to a bar and being called "Hans - mate come in" gives you a sort of homecoming and warm feeling that is hard to describe. In Helsinki it's never difficult to meet somebody in the evening but meeting the same person again the next day there is a big chance he will ignore you.
I always wonderd why I enjoy so much being alone exploring new places. My live is filled with moving from one place to another. Already in the age of 17 I lived in several towns and when real work live started with 26 and I begun to understand the possibilities offered by my job I spent seldom longer than 1 year at one place, often much less. And later I had nothing better to do than buying a sailing boat so I can also use my private time moving around .You might call it restless but that's the wrong word. Sometimes it seems that only when traveling and exploring new places I feel home. Looking at the last year working I can hardly remember any specific day but this days in Dún Laoghaire are crystal clear in front of my eyes as if I was 10 times more alive.
The night before Dirk arrived something unbelievable happened, the UEFA champions league final 2005 between Milan and Liverpool and except Istanbul and Liverpool centre there might have been not better place then Dublin to support the reds in the maybe best match ever played.
Finally it was Jogi remembering me quit plainly that we had to leave. He was suppose to join 4 weeks later in North Germany and that was a long way to go especially with the weather unpredictability's in the west. We used the first chance with a light south west to lifted our anchor - direction Northern Ireland.
Summerwind and Scotland
For some strange reason I met many people from Scotland in the last years. One just shortly before the trip who was working for a potential customer in a Caledonia paper mill and unforgettable the big fellow being a picture of a Scotsman spending so good time with me in Stockholm. I have to admit that it's hard understanding them but trust me, Guinness helps and Whiskey even more. Point being, I liked them in a strange way and was looking forward to my first trip to Scotland. But it was the nature absorbing me from morning to night. After leaving from Belfast on a rainy evening and light wind North West 3-4 we reached the Mull of Kintyre which is the most southwesterly section of the long Kintyre Peninsula in southwestern Scotland. The name is an Anglicization of the Gaelic Maol Ceanntìre. The weather was horrible, fog, light rain but moderate wind the whole day. I remember sitting outside on the trampoline, wrapped in several layers of cloth for hours captivated from land, sea and mountains. We skipped the planned stop in Oban because we didn't want to stop. Fog, rain, tide stream and Summerwind sailing constantly with 8 knots, the stunning scenery, everything mixed into an addictive cocktail. We finally moored totally wet, under cooled and happy at Fort William the entrance to the Caledonian Canal at midnight and I still wonder how we managed to find the small pier at Corpach Sea lock.
The next morning we woke up from sun shining on our cabins. Under the majestic Ben Nevis Mountains I had my first black hot Scottish Coffey. One hour later and 2 locks further it was raining again but that doesn't stop me commenting in my camera about beauty and fascination. For Christ sake, I grew up on country side, how could it happen that I started to film dears, horses, cows, yes even ducks with there offspring like a 10 years old boy. I remember once arriving in Lapland and the feeling when suddenly coming to a place so far away from every day stress level and that morning standing beside the Caledonian Canal I felt the same. Simply being happy, alive, breathing, smiling, wondering, exploring with my camera everything in reach of the lens. As they say, the journey is the reward or every journey has a secret destination the traveler is unaware than I can say today that this morning, in the Scottish Highlands I got my reward and I reached my destination and everything else was a bonus.
In the locks and in Loch Ness
Back to Nordic Sea - Nordic light home
(Picture: Fort Augustus)
