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Displaying items by tag: Autobiography 'So Far, So Good'

#Lecture - Friends of Glenua are to have a lecture 'Adventures in Antarctica' and launch of an autobiography 'So Far, So Good' by Paddy Barry this Thursday 2 November at 20:00.

The venue will be in the Poolbeg Yacht & Boat Club, Ringsend, Dublin and where there will be an entry fee of €5 in aid of the RNLI.

Paddy Barry has led an adventurous life land and sea. His crossing of the Atlantic in his Galway hooker, St Patrick, was a just a prelude to a series of ever more ambitious voyages and expeditions. These include traversing the North West and North East Passages through the Artic ice cap.

Paddy was joint leader and skipper of the Tom Crean for the South Aris expedition to Antartica in 1997. He has been presented with numerous awards, including the coveted Blue Water Medal of the Cruising Club of America, in recognition of his achievements.

In his talk, Paddy will narrate how he and his six fellow Irishmen organised the South Aris expedition to recreate the 800 mile voyage of Ernest Shackleton from Elephant Island to South Georgia in a 23 foot lifeboat. A near ‘wipe out’ didn’t deter the South Aris expedition from laying a brass plaque on behalf of the Irish people at Shackleton's grave at Grytviken, South Georgia.

His talk will be followed by the launch of Paddy’s recently published autobiography, So Far, So Good-An Adventurous Life. Purchase the book online here.

Published in Coastal Notes

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.

Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King became a trailblazing solo sailor.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk-rigged schooner he designed himself.

After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.

Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.

The round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.