Displaying items by tag: Friday Ferry Freebbies

11th May 2012

Got that Friday Ferry Feeling….Like It

#FRIDAY FERRY FREEBIES – Celtic Link Ferries have launched a new 'Friday Ferry Freebies' campaign where they are giving away the chance of winning a return trip to France on the Rosslare-Cherbourg route, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The prize is for a round-trip that includes two adults travelling in a car or campervan with cabin in each direction, subject to availability. The offer is valid during May, September, October, November and December 2012.

For a chance to win the Wexford based operator ask you to like and share on their Facebook page by visiting www.facebook.com/celticlink. The first winner is to announced this afternoon.

This is the first high-season that the company's Celtic Horizon will be operating the French route since the ro-pax ferry was launched last October.

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About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour