It is said that you have to be prepared to wait until the 15th July in the average season before you can contemplate a successful venture into the most heavily-iced parts of East Greenland. Whether or not global warming has moved this date significantly forward remains to be seen, but in line with the established experience, the Clifden-based naturopath, environmentalist and Arctic-sailing enthusiast Nick Katz and his crew with his hefty Danish-built steel ketch Teddy – usually a familiar sight at Clifden Quay in Connemara - have stationed themselves in Iceland after voyaging north from Ireland, and their passage toward East Greenland is now top of the agenda.
Nick Katz’s yellow-hulled steel ketch Teddy (centre) at Clifden Quay in Connemara Photo: WM Nixon
A many of many interests – Nick Katz of Clifden
Meanwhile in the Northeast Atlantic, the long distance warming effects of the North Atlantic Drift - often described with some inaccuracy as the Gulf Stream – means that serious voyaging into High Latitudes can be undertaken much earlier, and it was in the first week of June that Dublin Bay Old Gaffers President Adrian “Stu” Spence departed north with his Voyager 47 El Paradiso.
“Everything rolls neatly away”. Adrian “Stu” Spence’s Vagabond 47 ketch El Paradiso in Poolbeg Y&BC marina in Dublin Port
His previous boat – also cruised to the Arctic - was the incredibly ancient 1873-vintage former Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter which came with - and kept - the name Madcap. Thus Skipper Spence is obviously averse to changing boat names, despite the fact that El Paradiso is just about the last thing anyone would think of in going to Svalbard/Spitzbergen and beyond, the main focus of the current Spence voyage.
Seafaring veterans: Joe Pennington of the Isle of Man, Dickie Gomes of Strangford Lough and DBOGA President Adrian “Stu” Spence in a serious discussion, probably about Manichaen philosophy…..Photo: W M Nixon
After the challenges of Madcap’s utterly traditional rig, the ship’s company of El Paradiso – which includes serial High Latitude sailor and Blue Water Medallist Paddy Barry – find themselves dealing with the ultimate convenience setup in which everything – in theory at least – conveniently rolls away. The word is that going north via the Faroes, they’ve already experienced at least one exceptional storm. But the stories will be much longer and more varied than that when El Paradiso finally comes home.
“A man of the mountains and the sea” – Blue Water Medallist Paddy Barry is aboard El Paradiso for the voyage to the High Arctic
