Farewell to Orkney...

... for the Spirit Dancer canoe. She's a 42 foot Canadian canoe who's spent time in Orkney waters over the last 2 summers and is now off to Shetland. I've been lucky enough to be part of the crew of this fantastic vessel for the past 2 years and have a whole host of fantastic memories and good friends as a result. I'm heading up to Shetland for the tall ships and to rejoin the crew, but first she had to say her goodbyes to Orkney...

She was towed in from her temporary home in Holm, where she had been much admired (and even had coach parties stopping to look!)

I'm sure Andrew felt like a celebrity being pursued by the paparazzi...

... as 3 cars full of crew members kept overtaking him, whereupon the occupants would leap out and take photos of him passing. Other road users must have wondered what was going on...

Spirit Dancer said her farewells...

.. and was then left in the care of Northlink at Hatston, ready for the evening ferry to Shetland.

Was this the last time that the Orkney flag would be seen flying from Spirit Dancer's bow and stern?

The crew had some fun before heading off for lunch.

 It was warm enough for lunch outdoors, kindly provided by Andrew & Irene.

Food featured again later in the day, with the farewell dinner at the Kirkwall Hotel. It appears that steak pie from the Kirkwall Hotel is now seen as vital fuel for a Spirit Dancer trip!

Later, everyone's gear was packed into the canoe ready for ferry. All that people needed to carry onboard for the crossing was sleeping bags and mats, only Andrew had managed to pack his at the bottom of his rucksack, necessitating a quick repacking...

Bags were somehow stuffed in...

...along with the boxes of food supplies.

Spirit Dancer was ready for the next leg of her adventures.



Summer plans

My visit to Orkney in the summer will coincide with the Tall Ships, and with Chris & Barbara's return with the Spirit Dancer.

Don & Kye climbing the rigging of the Statsradt Lehmkuhl to get a bird's eye view of the Spirit Dancer for photography.

Evening paddling in Kirkwall Bay.

After that, I'll be heading on to Shetland as I had such a fab time there last summer. And again my visit to Shetland will coincide with the Tall Ships and the Spirit Dancer's first visit to Shetland!!

To quote a friend of mine, "All good".

The Impossible Is Nothing

More memories from summer 2009 - Don and Ora's great film about the youth group from the Okanagan who came to Orkney and spent 2 weeks paddling with the Spirit Dancer canoe.

The Kwu Sukwna?qinx Canoe Family were a great bunch of folk and I feel very privileged to have the had the opportunity to spend the 2 weeks with them. I wasn't able to paddle much as I'd just had an operation on my wrist, but I was the official Spirit Dancer photographer for the month it was in Orkney and had a fantastic time!


Impossible is Nothing from Donald Jonasson on Vimeo.

Spirit of the People

Don's excellent "Spirit of the People" video giving a taste of Spirit Dancer's journey up the west coast of Scotland and to Orkney in summer 2009 is well worth a look. It does take a while to load though.

For those that don't know - Spirit Dancer is a 42 foot canadian canoe (i.e. very large!) She's been journeying around parts of the British coast and I've been lucky enough to spend a few weeks with her and her crew over the past 2 summers.


British Isles by Canoe, Glasgow to Orkney from Donald Jonasson on Vimeo.

This video brings back many, many happy memories.

And it's worth a laugh too... when my class watched it last year (as part of their Canada link) they pointed out that my bum featured at one point - I hadn't even noticed!  Great - you can always trust kids to point these things out to you.....