It took us only two and a half days to cover the roughly 400 nautical miles from Oban to the southwestern tip of Ireland. That means we had good winds from the north and were traveling at speeds of up to 10 knots at times.
Unfortunately, whenever there was a swell, we kept hearing a terrible clanging noise, even though we dived down and found no loose zinc anode on the ship’s propeller shaft. (??) … But the atmosphere was great thanks to Baltasar’s voice (Rockstar) and Sabine’s Yamaha piano as we approached Dingle.
We arrived in Dingle shortly before midnight on Monday evening, July 13, 2026. The Irish welcoming committee left us speechless. We hadn’t expected such a warm welcome from five people at that hour. Our friend Fiona—who served as our expedition coordinator at the start of the expedition around the year 2000—is from Ireland and contacted her friend Susan Vickers in Dingle. Susan put us in touch with Deirdre de Bhailis from the Dingle Hub and various environmental groups, organized our climb up Ireland’s highest mountain with Darach Murchú, arranged a medical checkup for Mia, took care of a large grocery shopping trip for the crossing, organised a mechanic Terry Deane and coordinated with the media.
So, early Tuesday morning, we set out with Darach for Ireland’s highest peak, Carrauntoohil (1,039 m). Salina, Noé, and Alegra ran to the top in one hour and 50 minutes. The best part of the day was the refreshing swim in the mountain lake.
Our cleanup bags stayed empty the entire way to the summit and back. We’ve probably never climbed such a clean mountain without any trash. Bravo, Ireland—that’s TOP.
Back on the ship, mechanic Terry became our friend, but unfortunately we couldn’t pinpoint the cause of the knocking noise.
After that, we had two more interviews with journalists. Here the articles (2 of 3):
The next day, we enjoyed a presentation by Deirdre, the CEO of Dingle Hub, about the many environmental organizations in the region. On that day, we also celebrated the partnership between Dingle Hub and TOPtoTOP, thereby laying the foundation for our journey to connect as many TOP Flagship locations (examples) as possible around the globe. To this purpose, we launched the “TOP Label for Sustainability.”
After that, we went with Martha Forrell to her project “Neart na Machairí“. This project, part of the Dingle Hub, has received the exclusive “TOP Label” from TOPtoTOP as an exceptionally efficient and important project for a sustainable future for our planet.
Then, after two weeks, we had to say goodbye to our friends Baltasar and Selma, who had to go home. They’d been on the ship since Nedd, and we miss them. Thank you so much for being with us, and hopefully we’ll see you soon.
In the evening, we went on a big shopping trip with Susan before heading to bed, exhausted.
Today, Thursday, mechanic Terry took us out in his inflatable boat to remote islands, where we were able to observe a lot of wildlife. We also visited the westernmost house and lighthouse in Europe, often accompanied by dolphins.
There was so much beauty. But even out here, at the edge of Europe, there are microplastics. Here is a young bird that lost its life because of a fishing line.
So try to avoid plastic.
Tomorrow morning we’ll set out on the long crossing to the Azores. Andri was given the off from a parachute training from the Swiss Army late last night and barely made it onto the ship just now. So all eigth of us plus Andrina hope to arrive safely in the Azores in just under two weeks. Thanks again to all our friends in Dingle and to Fiona, who made this stopover a highlight of the expedition. Thank you Dingle Marina for your hospitality!
