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Displaying items by tag: Highlands

#NEWS UPDATE - A fisherman whose body was found in a Scottish harbour on St Stephen's Day has been identified as that of a 34-year-old Donegal man, the Belfast Telegraph reports.

Philip Anthony Toland, from Glengad in Inishowen, Co Donegal, was last seen on Christmas Day near the pier at Ullapool harbour in the Scottish Highlands.

As BBC News reports, concerns were raised later that evening and a search was launched involving police, coastguard and RNLI lifeboat teams.

The body was located by a police dive team in the sea near the pier when the search resumed on Monday morning.

It is being speculated that Toland - who has an eight-year-old son - may have slipped and fallen into the water while returning to his boat.

Published in News Update
Forty-four stranded pilot whales have been returned to open water after a mass beaching in the Scottish Highlands, The Independent reports.
Medics from British Divers Marine Life Rescue joined the coastguard and navy working  through the night to right whales that stranded on their sides or backs, or on top of each other, before the morning tide.
Sadly 25 whales from the pod died at the Kyle of Durness, a tragic echo of last autumn's mass stranding in Donegal, where 33 whales were lost.
The Independent has more on the story HERE.

Forty-four stranded pilot whales have been returned to open water after a mass beaching in the Scottish Highlands, The Independent reports.

Medics from British Divers Marine Life Rescue joined the coastguard and navy working  through the night to right whales that stranded on their sides or backs, or on top of each other, before the morning tide.

Sadly 25 whales from the pod died at the Kyle of Durness, a tragic echo of last autumn's mass stranding in Donegal, where 33 whales were lost.

The Independent has more on the story HERE.

Published in Marine Wildlife

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

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