Week 6 took me sailing in Killaloe, on a day trip to Adare (“the prettiest town in Ireland”), and to various shoe stores in an effort to replace my old sneakers that are full of holes. Porous sneakers are not the most comfortable footwear for Ireland.
As I’ve mentioned in other blogs, I joined the UL Windsports Club, which includes windsurfing, kitesurfing, and sailing. See blog 3 for a story about my windsurfing trip. The first scheduled sailing trip was unfortunately rained out, but this past Wednesday we were able to go for the first time. Fortunately, I don’t have any classes on Wednesday afternoons, so I was able to make the 2 o’clock trip a half hour north of Limerick to the small lakeside town of Killaloe. UL runs an adventure sports center on Lough Durg in Killaloe, which is a large lake. The club had access to six small two-sail two-man sailboats on the lake for the day, as well as six slightly larger boats that are currently undergoing repair. Upon arrival the staff member there told us he was considering cancelling this week again due to heavy fog, more rain, and excessively strong winds. But he was anxious to get us out on the water this week as we had already cancelled the last session, so we braced ourselves for the less than ideal weather conditions and prepared to sail.
I have some experience sailing small one-man, one-sail boats with friends back home, so I felt ok but slightly nervous to be sailing slightly bigger boats in these conditions. My companions from the club had a mixed bag of experience, from sailing instructor to never having been on a boat before, so we tried to pair up in a way that would prevent anyone from being totally lost. I ended up pairing with a guy of similar ability who I had met during my swim test when joining the club, so we were already friendly and excited to get out on the water. Where it was our first day going out to the lake, many of us were unprepared for what was in store. First off, many of the newcomers had not anticipated getting wet on this trip, and didn’t pack bathing suits or towels. The problems with this were twofold: it was raining, and as we would soon learn, the warning about high winds was perhaps a slight understatement. We were required to put on still wet, freezing wetsuits, shoes that we could wear in the water, and life jackets, and before we had even walked down to the shore, everyone was visibly cold.
But we toughed it out and began our lesson on rigging the crafts, from how and where to knot, and tie up our jib and main sail. By the time our boats were rigged, my finger dexterity was noticeably decreased, and many of us were doing jumping jacks to try and warm up a little bit against the cold rain and wind. But like good sailors there were no complaints, and we all launched into the lake. Off to a good start, my partner and I set course directly downwind away from the shore. Everything was going grand until “WHAM” a gust of wind sent us reeling to try and balance the boat but with no luck – we were capsized. The next 30 minutes were spent frantically trying to right our boat and get sailing, just to get blown back over by a crazy gust in a few minutes. Looking around from the top of our overturned craft, we could see that the others weren’t faring much better – at one point every one of the 6 boats were upside down. By the time we decided to just fly one sail rather than two and started cruising a little more comfortably, our supervisor on a motorboat had decided he was far too overworked by the aggressive winds, and called us all towards the shore.
Simultaneously relieved and disappointed as we started to be more comfortable with only one sail, we made our way back, adrenaline receding and the feeling of frigid water and wind setting in. And so I left the trip as excited to return as I was glad to be warm. Also reflecting and appreciating in myself and in my international friends on the trip how willing we were to jump right in to something new, exciting, and more than a little bit uncomfortable at times. If someone asked me to go sailing in a storm in Boston in October I’d say “Are you crazy? I’ll wait till June thanks”. But travelling opens your mind to new experiences and going out of your comfort zone. I’m so glad for that, and I’m already imagining the ways in which I want to take that mindset back to Boston. To try things just for the sake of trying them. Despite the craziness, I did have fun on that trip, and made connections to some really cool people. This wasn’t an experience unique to Ireland, but I only took the chance on it because I was here. That’s the message I want to share from this experience, and about the value of studying abroad in general.
By Saturday of that same week, I had fully warmed back up and was ready to go outside again. So I took a bus for a 45 minute ride to Adare, known for being a quaint and touristy little village near Limerick steeped in history. While this trip wasn’t quite as exciting as some other trips to castles or islands I’ve been on in recent weeks, it was a great relaxing way to spend the day. I had little appreciation for the boutique shopping and luxury hotels in the town, but was impressed by the quality pubs, public parks, and central village with traditional thatched roofs, and a couple magnificent churches. Despite the overly touristy nature of the town (the logbook in the church was almost entirely signed by Americans), I enjoyed getting to see a small Irish village as opposed to the larger towns and cities that tend to be the focal point of my travels. I also made a promise to myself not to stay in Limerick for an entire weekend for the rest of the semester. There are so many small villages and attractions easily accessible by bus, I have no excuse but to explore this country to the fullest extent during the rest of my time here, which is sure to fly by.
