SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. - In flashbacks, Alan Mulholland can see the unthreatening swells advance towards his small ship, foaming crests tumbling in the wind along with a pod of whales clicking and whistling as sharp as a soprano. He feels the marine mammals roll under the metal hull, rattle of the sails, and the burn of the tropical sun.
“It’s one of my favourite memories when I sailed solo from Nanaimo (British Columbia) to Australia,” he declared, while fondly recapping his sailing adventure into the wild and distant waters 23 years ago.
Mulholland’s voyage was broken in segments – 41 days to reach Hawaii, 29 days to sail to the remote Gilbert Islands, and then 52 days to Australia – and all done on his handmade boat called Wren.
“I went to military college and when I graduated I was commissioned as an officer in the navy. After completing my contract, I wanted to get hand skills, so for four years I apprenticed as a carpenter and then built my own boat and launched it a year later.”
He still recalls the thrill of watching the Milky Way flash across the night sky like never seen before, the horizon unbroken for days without any sign of a ship, the freshness of the air, friends made along the way, as well as the violent storms and lonely nights – all part of the adventure.
Mulholland is now spending his time repairing a small (26 feet) sail boat built in 1979. He purchased the boat in Ottawa at just $3,500 with his sights set on sailing again, but this time across the Atlantic Ocean next year.
“Glenda, my wife thought I had lost my purpose after we sold our self-sufficient farm in Ellerslie and moved to Summerside just over a year ago, so she advised me to get a boat. In her mind that meant a kayak, but I took it as an opportunity to purchase a sail boat – it’s unfinished business from 23 years ago.”
Over the winter, Mulholland will plot a tried and true route while working with the seasons. In spring, when the ice melts he plans to test the boat on the water, and by mid-July set sail.
“Glenda is very happy to stay here on P.E.I., but she will meet me in each destination,” he explained. “Although I’m still considering whether to start the journey from Dublin, Ireland, because I was born there or leave from the Azores near Portugal.
“If I left from the Azores I would continue on to the Canary Islands and then sometime late November cross the Atlantic using the trade winds to the Caribbean and cross the Panama Canal.”
“Mulholland plans to sail through the South Pacific and into the Indian Ocean, circling the Everest of landscapes for sailors – the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.
“There are huge waves, huge winds, it can put you back days,” he said.
The adventure, a feat that could take two to three years, will end in either the Canary Islands, Brazil or the Caribbean.
“For me it’s about the independence, the self-sufficiency and the adventure,” chimed Mulholland.
“I’m keeping it simple, low cost, low technology and high adventure.”
