ADVENTURE - IRELAND'S WILD ATLANTIC COAST

Artist Joanna Martin sailed south along the wild west coast of Ireland, where the power of the ocean meets rugged cliffs and deserted shores. She joined husband Mark and son William for part of their circumnavigation of Ireland, heading from County Mayo to Kinsale

- Joanna Martin

From a distance the Skellig Islands look like two shards of rock sticking out of the Atlantic. Skellig or Sceilg means ‘splinter of stone’. It was a calm, hot and sunny day and we had motored from Dingle, County Kerry, to get close to Little Skellig. It has the largest colony of gannets in Ireland and I wanted to sketch them. The sheer, jagged cliffs soared above us, every ledge packed with birds and whitewashed with guano. The gannets grow to be huge, with a wingspan of two metres.

One of the joys of cruising is watching the gannets flying gracefully in a row of two or three, far out at sea, close to the surface of the water. The largest seabird in the North Atlantic, they are white with cream-coloured heads and black-tipped wings. I could see them perched, sparkling white, each one in their own space with no shelter from the elements. Make no mistake, however, these birds are vicious, and any chick wandering near the wrong nest will get stabbed. The noise and smell was all-encompassing as it came from every facet of the rock. Before long we were dive-bombed by flying adult birds, and the deck became splattered with guano. We made a hasty exit.

This was July 2022 when my husband Mark sailed anticlockwise around Ireland in our Moody 33, Bonaventure II, and I joined the boat at Broadhaven Bay, County Mayo. On this leg we visited some of the most remote and wild places on the Wild Atlantic Way, the 1,600-mile route along the west coast. As a wildlife artist and printmaker, I get my inspiration from these sailing trips. Wild cruising enables us to be immersed in nature, at the mercy of the elements, with adventures around every corner.