The dream comes true | July 15, 2013

In 1996, a teenage boy in the West of Ireland first harboured a dream to embark on a sailing adventure. It would take him and his wife across seas and oceans, in good conditions and bad, and culminate with the return to the bay of his home in Co. Mayo, Ireland. On 14 July 2013, that dream came true. 

At 7pm we took a right turn at Roonah Head and pointed Ashling's bow to Old Head. For the past four miles we had been flanked by four speedboats with local friends and family bearing Louisburgh, Mayo and Irish flags. We saw smoke on land and realised that it was bonfires burning in our honour. We saw car headlights flashing and almost reached for the Morse code handbook before we copped it was a signal to welcome us home. 

Then we rounded the final corner and faced a mirage of colours at the pier, a crowd that went on and on and on. After ten months of writing about our trip, we find ourselves lost for words as we try to describe how we felt - as it was, we just about held it together enough to motor up to the pier and greet everybody. 

It was like Christmas, a wedding and a school reunion all rolled into one. Thank you, thank you, thank you for such an outstanding reception that went far beyond our wildest homecoming dreams. What a perfect ending to the adventure of a lifetime. My God it's so good to be home!