Displaying items by tag: MV Quest

13th May 2012

Cruiseship's Return Consolidates New Business

#CRUISE CALLER – The small expedition cruiseship Quest made a return port of call to Dun Laoghaire Harbour early this morning, having inaugurated the season last month, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The 50m long vessel operated by Noble Caledonia carries 52 passengers and a crew of 25 had sailed overnight from Holyhead. She departed the Anglesey port at 20.00hrs and she took a leisurely 10-hour passage to cross the 60 nautical mile Irish Sea route.

Her visit to Dun Laoghaire today will provide her passengers to visit Powerscourt and Mount Usher Gardens in Co. Wicklow as part of a Garden themed cruise throughout destinations in the UK and Ireland.

On this occasion she is taking the cruise in reverse direction having previously made a southbound circuit starting at Oban and ending in Poole.

Likewise to her call nearly three weeks ago, she is moored alongside Carlisle Pier, which is designated berth number two out of a total five berths that are used for commercial vessels.

Published in Cruise Liners

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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