October 2008
Arctic
2 Antarctic Book and DVD - 14/10/08
Over the last year we have put together a book and DVD about our Arctic to
Antartic trip. It covers our log and crew diary entries with plenty of photographs
all taken by the crew. The DVD is a documentary using footage filmed onroute
by Ansis on his video camera and contributions from other crew. It is now
for sale online at http://www.collinspress.ie/products.asp?id=10 and will
be in the bookshops in Ireland shortly.
Fabrizio
has passed Cape
Horn and is now in Ushuaia - 12/10/08
After passing Cape Horn on 11 October Pangaea and her crew have arrived in
Ushuaia where they will be for a week while they provision and collect crew
before sailing on to Antarctica for the next leg of their project. See http://www.mikehorn.com/3dglobe/pangaea.html
Michiel
has left his boat in Amsterdam - 4/10/08
Earlier this year Michiel bought himself a new boat, a Van der
Stad designed Excalibur. She was lying in in England and after some preparation
he sailed her to Hull where his daughter lives. This was a perfect base where
during the summer months he spent time working on her making various repairs
and modifications. In September after spending ten days in Hull working on
his boat Michiel and his first mate Niamph sailed her across to Holland where
she will stay for the next few months.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fabrizio
joins Pangaea as first mate - September
2008
Fabrizio is joining Pangaea a project and expedition boat bound for Antarctica
as first mate. Pangaea and crew are en
route to Ushuaia via New York, Equador and the Panama Canal.
This project is run by Mike Horn and aims to bring young adults on a learning
experience. It is a great opportunity for Fabrizio and we wish him well and
fair winds.
See http://www.mikehorn.com/3dglobe/pangaea.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
West of Ireland - Summer
2008
During this summer Celtic Spirit spent her time cruising the west coast of
Ireland. After spending a short time in Kinsale she sailed west along the
south coast stopping in Glandore and then sailed north up around the west
coast to Galway. This was her base for a while from where she sailed to Inishboffin
where the crew cycled the island and bumped into Garlarth on Northabout and
Paddy Barry on his boat. She
visited Inishmoor and also sailed further north to Killary Harbour. From here
the crew become friends with a few locals and went climbing the surrounding
hills. Celtic Spirit stayed here at anchor for a few weeks before heading
back south first to galway and then down to Dingle. Here she made her home
for another few weeks before sailing back to Kinsale with an over night stop
at Sherkin Island. Kinsale is to be Celtic Spirits home for the winter. See
the gallery section for photos.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Four
Peaks Challenge - June
2008
After months of training and preparation 7 members of Celtic Spirit's crew
took part in Focus Irelands Four Peaks Challenge. This involved climbing 4
of Irelands highest peaks in four provinces in three days in order to raise
money for the homeless in Ireland. We held an Irish music night to raise funds
and thank all those who attended and contributed. Our team 'Celtic Spirit
Crew' was made up of Michael, Ansis, Michiel, JohnJohn and Janet as walkers
and Noeleen and Sandra as our drivers. We had a great weekend and the team
did well finishing timewise in 13th place overall out of 79 teams. See
the gallery section for photos.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Atlantic Crossings - May 2008
Celtic
Spirit crosses the Altantic en route to Ireland
After spending some months in Nelsons Dockyard, Antigua and with Sailing Week
over Celtic Spirit provisioned gathered together crew and left to cross the
Atlantic, destination Ireland. On board were Ansis (skipper), JohnJohn (first
mate), Ben and Jen (who had joined the boat for Sailing Week), Con and Martina.
The crossing was pleasant and they arrived safely into Kinsale toward the
end of the month. See
the gallery section for photos.
Fabrizio
crosses the Altantic onboard Pindar
Fabrizio secured himself a berth aboard the racing yacht Pindar which after
taking part in Sailing Week joined the exodus of boats from Antigua and made
her way back across the atlantic to Southampton.
Igor
crosses the Altantic onboard a racing yacht
During Sailing Week one of our favourite crew Igor got work as crew onboard
a volvo boat. While we were sad not to have him racing with us we knew this
was an opportunity for him not just financially but experience wise. After
Sailing Week he continued to crew on board crossing the Atlantic and delivering
the boat to Portugal before returning to Antigua and back to his own boat.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Antigua
Sailing Week - April
2008
Celtic Spirit took part in Antigua Sailing Week which was held from the 20
027 of April. We had a great crew made up of some old faithfuls and aquired
some new crew in order to make up the numbers needed to race. Regular crew
were Michael, Ansis, JohnJohn, Blayney, Fabrizio and Janet. Joining us after
a long absence since Iceland was Enda who was a great help as tactitian. John
Freeman was also a valuable addition with his knowledge of the racing rules
and protest proceedures. We kept up our international flavour with Jen from
Cananda, Ben who is French/British, Mike from USA, Maurizio, Renzo and Marko
from Italy and not forgetting Noeleen, Elaine and Sandra from Ireland. We
maintianed a position mid fleet all throught the week until the last day when
the pin at the gooseneck of the main boom almost came out and we had to stop
to fix this. This took a while and eventually we were out of time to finish
the race. The crew so enjoyed themselves that they were only happy to have
taken part in this fantastic event and our position was all but errelavant.
We had managed to turn Celtic Spirit and her crew into an efficient racing
boat. See the gallery section for photos.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2007
Michiel: Mick left Ireland in early September to fly to Cape Town, South Africa where he joined Pelagic Australis as crew. From there they sailed to the Falklands where they collected a group of Swiss Italian climbers continuing on to South Georgia where they made a successful Shackleton Traverse between 20th to 24th of October.
Fabrizio: Since leaving Celtic Spirit
in Trinidad, Fabrizio flew to Venice to work aboard a 360ft 4 masted passenger
ship, for a month, sailing down the Croatian, Montenegrin and Greek coasts.
From there he joined a J/44 sailing the Greek Islands for another month.
He got a job as "Event Manager" (shore crew in the rallies) at the
World Cruising Club based in Cowes, Isle of Wight. They run the ARC, the Classic
Malts Rally, among other stuff.
Fabrizio has just completed the Middle Sea Race in Malta and flies to England for ten days before heading off to the Canaries to do the ARC.
Igor: After a short time looking
after Celtic Spirit while the rest of the crew visited home Igor moved on
to a 40ft Oyster as First Mate sailing to Venezuela then heading West to Panama.
He is saving to pay for his 'brand new second hand' 31ft fibre glass boat.
A 1968 classic sloop build in Germany. He is proud to say the ex-owner was
South African! He is currently in Trinidad working on his new acquisition.
Celtic Spirit is presently in Trinidad and is being
lifted for cleaning and antifouling. She will move to Antiga in the not to
distant future and there are plans to compete in Antiga Sailing Week next
year in April.
