From Nick Kats

The Trip was splendid.

Sailing to Iceland developed my confidence as an offshore sailor. Connemara is a rockbound coast with few markers & harbours, and the weather is often intense. My land-bound instincts as a coastal sailor were inappropriate. I needed to learn to enjoy being offshore, and to see the sea as a refuge.

The changing of the nights was neat. We left Clifden shortly after the summer solstice, when the Irish night is 4 hours long and star visibility is poor. With a northing of 2 degrees of latitude a day, the nights rapidly shortened. From the Faroes on there was no night. How small the globe seemed to be! The return trip began well after the solstice. Darkness reappeared much sooner as we went south, and became satisfyingly black. There were 2 nights rich in stars off St. Kilda.

It was a pleasure to learn from an experienced crew. Eric put a reef line on the mainsail and showed me how to reef rapidly. Jan worked out practical setups with the sheets and blocks. Oliver demonstrated the shocking effectiveness of motor-sailing against gale, tide & cross chop rounding Achill Head.

I am now thinking in terms of longer trips. A week at sea gives a range of a thousand miles. This opens a world rich in possibilities. The north offers wilderness and small communities of people. We’ll go north next year.