Emerald Group International, it's associated
companies and all the staff wish the crew of the Naomh Bairbre a
congratulations on their journey
from Chicago to Lettermore.
Naomh
Bairbre (St. Barbara) is a Galway Hooker class
boat built in Chicago, solely by Steve Mulkerrins from
Lettermore, Co. Galway who now makes Chicago his home. Truly a labour of love, Steve began planning his project many years ago,
while the actual construction began in 2001. Three long years, many long
nights and quite an expense later, the project of a lifetime was for
almost complete.
Only two things remained.
One was taken care of by Hon. Mayor Richard J. Daley
when he performed his first and only boat Christening at Montrose Harbour on
June 4th of 2004. Although obviously a very busy man, Mayor
Daley has followed the progress of St. Barbara and we trust he will also
follow our journey across the Atlantic to Galway, via this site. The second was to ‘take her home‘.
This journey will begin in Chicago, travelling North
on Lake Michigan to Mackinac island, back South again through Lake
Huron, into Lake St. Clair. Detroit is the next major city we’ll be
passing by on our way to ‘The Graveyard of the Great Lakes’, Lake Erie.
Here is where our trip takes a bit of a twist.
Almost two years ago we did this same trip up to this point, at that
time we went North through the Welland canal, which drops 325 feet into
Lake Ontario in 8 different Locks, therefore bypassing Niagara falls.
Once in Lake Ontario we could see the lights of the beautiful city of
Toronto. It was then through there to the mighty St. Lawrence Seaway
past Montreal to the Ocean. This time however, once we are in Lake Erie, we’ll head for the Erie
Canal, dug in large part by Irish immigrants. Once on the Erie canal,
it’s a matter of days now before we fulfil the last stage of the North
American leg of our journey. Upon reaching New York city, we’ll tie up
for a few days and sort out the last few details before tackling the
biggest challenge so far and where we’ll spend the next month of our
lives, the Atlantic Ocean. Once in the Atlantic, we’ll head almost directly East, the beginning of
a nearly 2500 mile stretch of open seas to Ireland. Soon after leaving
New York, we’ll enter the warm waters of the Gulf Stream to the
Portuguese Colony of the Azure islands, around 1000 miles from Europe.
This will be the only scheduled stop in the Atlantic and we plan on
spending no more than a day to load up with supplies before heading
North again for the last leg of our journey, another solid week of
sailing where we hope to pop a few bottles of Champagne upon our arrival
in Lettermore!
From start to finish, the whole trip, from Chicago to Ireland will
take between six and seven weeks. More
Information.
