January 26th, 2009: 
Circumnavigation of the Falkland Islands successfully finished!
Gentoo Penguins at Death Head, West Coast of West Falkland Island
Back in Stanley after 22 Days of Paddling in Strong Winds
Yesterday, Monday, January 26th, I paddled back into Stanley Harbor, successfully finishing my solo circumnavigation of the Falkland Islands. Although the expedition lasted only 22 days, the trip was more demanding than the 6 week trip around Ireland.
Due to the high winds during the day, I usually paddled from 3 AM to 10 AM, and then again from 6 PM to 10 PM (with the first hour and last hour of the day paddling in darkness) to avoid the strongest winds. This meant setting up and breaking down camp twice a day, hauling the kayak and camping gear up and down to the water twice a day, and not too long stretches of solid sleep and for recovery.
Waking up for the 3 AM launch at Black Point, North Coast of East Falkland
Even on land, the stress
level was quite elevated since the high winds tried to blew the kayak
and tent away (there are no trees in the Falklands to tie the boat to),
and thus whenever I left the tent, I took the EPIRP with me in case the
tent and/or kayak would have been blown away, which happened twice but
I was able to recover both tent and kayak.
Large and many fields of thick kelp - some many square Miles large -, and some mine fields, did not add to the pleasure of paddling around the Falklands either. Paddling through the kelp fields felt like paddling through freshly poured wet cement: The boat got immediately stuck, the paddle blades had a hard time getting into the water due to the thickness and density of the kelp, and you had a similar fun time getting the paddles back out of the kelp. Add a 20 to 30 Miles/hr. head wind to this and you get many new ideas how to spend your next vacation other than kayaking.
My best wishes to the 2 other expeditions which are still on their way around the Falklands! More info and rambling about the Around Falklands 2009 Expedition under the
Falklands 09 link.
The Around Falklands Expeditions received lots, lots of help by Nigel Dennis, Marta, Lisa, Chris, Murray, Morgan, Kerry, Stacey, Chris, and Danielle working for the following companies:
Circumnavigation of Ireland 
Successfully finished July 17, 2007. 1,100 Miles in 42 days
The circle is closed! On July 17th, 2007 I paddled back into Dun Loaghaire harbor, after paddling 1,088 Miles clockwise around Ireland in 42 days. The circumnavigation was a fundraiser for the Irish chapter of the Royal National Lifeboat Association (rnli.co.uk). Visit the updated Ireland Link above for viewing the pics and for reading me complaining about the weather, the head winds and the gear which broke. There was a nice article in the October issue UK's "Paddler" magazine about this trip, also look out for a quite upbeat trip report of the circumnavigation I wrote for "Grumpy Paddler" magazine.
To visit the Ireland Circumnavigation photo album, please click here.
For more info about the Ireland circumnavigation please click here.
A Nutritionist answers: Why did I become so weak 4 weeks into the Ireland Circumnavigation?
4
weeks into the 6 week circumnavigation of Ireland, I felt extremely
tired, and there was no rebound for the better until I reached Dublin,
and stopped paddling. By coincidence, I saved all shopping receipts
from before and during the trip, which helped the nutritionist answering
my question: Why was I so damn tired? Go to the "Around Ireland" page to read the nutritionists' full report, and her rock solid advice for kayak trips.
Surf's Up!
Check out this lil' Kayak Surfing Mini-Movie
Wave off Donegal Bay, Ireland, June 2007
To view the footage of the 3-piece Explorer riding the waves last weekend at the Jersey shore close to Belmar, NJ crank up your computer speakers to the max and click here.
Deck mounted camera & editing was provided by my friend Jeff Folmsbee.
Australia, February 2007