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Displaying items by tag: Sailing North Midnight Sun

#lecture - Michael O’Neill, a former member of Glenans is to present the opening Friends of Glenua's Winter 2017-2018 lecture series in Dublin early next month, see details below.

The opening lecture is 'The Lure of Sailing North to the Midnight Sun-Cruising Scotland and Beyond to Norway and Iceland'.

Michael O’Neill started sailing with the Glenans in Ireland and France in the late 1970's, and benefitted from the marvellous structure for learning cruising with experienced cruising skippers. His early Scottish cruises in the 8.5m Armagnacs introduced him to this varied and captivating cruising ground, dotted with islands and inlets, distilleries and dolphins, and blessed with long summer days.

The charms of Scottish cruising whetted Michael’s appetite for sailing to the far north to explore the unique attractions of volcanic Iceland. At this northerly latitude, the summer sun sets as late as midnight and, even then, the half-light remains through the night. In recent years, Michael has explored the archipelagos of west-coast Norway, Fair Isle and the Shetlands, culminating in the Orkneys and the Hebrides this summer.

In his illustrated presentation, he will recount fond memories from these cruises, and explore the challenges and charms involved with sailing the remote northern seas.

Venue: Poolbeg Yacht & Boat Club, Ringsend, Dublin 4. 

Date: Thursday 5 October 2017 (20:00hrs)

Admission: There will be an entry fee of €5 in aid of the RNLI.

Published in Coastal Notes

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.