Traveler’s Journal

About the presentation:

When: 7 p.m., Thursday,

Where: Sequim High School library, 601 N. Sequim Ave.

Cost: Suggested $5 donation (adults); 18 and younger, free

Presenter: Chris Duff

Presentation:  “Northern Reach: Exploring the Islands and Peoples of the North Atlantic”

by CHRIS DUFF

For the Sequim Gazette

I don’t remember when, or for that matter, where I was when I first thought of rowing from Scotland to Iceland. I think rowing the North Atlantic is somehow in my Scottish/Irish heritage; a continuation of my ancestors’ wandering quest for what lay over the horizon.

For three summer seasons I rowed a 19-foot custom-built rowing boat through Scotland’s Northern and Western Isles, across 200 miles of open ocean to the Faeroe Islands, and then on to Iceland, a further voyage of 500 miles. Throughout those three summers, I rowed into the lives of coastal people who understood the challenges of tides, severe currents and the infamous weather of the North Atlantic.

And while the winds and the seas held me for long periods of time within the protection of seawalls and small village harbors, I learned of the lives of those hardy and independent people. I shared meals at their kitchen tables, danced their traditional Circle Dances, stood in silent wonder at their ancient ruins and watched them gather around memorials set against gray skies that called to mind the tragic loss of those who never came back from the sea. In those small coastal communities I was welcomed in as family because of the unspoken bond that sailors of any size boat share once they have endured what others can only imagine.

When the winds and seas allowed, my new friends would gather at the harbors of their villages and bid me farewell with handshakes, hugs and tears all around. And as the last blessings were called out, I would promise to return someday, reluctantly cast off the lines that held Northern Reach and take the oars in my hands once again.

From one harbor to the next, and then across vast stretches of open ocean, I gathered memories and stories linking the cultures and lives of the northern islands.

As a continuation of that voyage, I want to share those stories; the wonder and challenges of being 100 miles off-shore, and the very special warmth that I found in every village in which I was welcomed.

Northern Reach is the name of my boat, as well as a metaphor and my story of exploring the islands in the North Atlantic.

I believe that the value of this voyage, of any adventure, is in the sharing; the passing on of stories from high rocky islands ringed with white crashing waves.

About the presenter

Chris Duff is a writer, carpenter and adventure traveler who has sea kayaked over 16,000 miles since 1983.

He has solo circumnavigated the eastern third of the U.S. and Canada, Great Britain, Ireland and New Zealand’s South Island and was part of a team circumnavigation of Iceland.

During the summer of 2014, Duff rowed his ocean rowing boat from The Faeroe Islands to Iceland, completing a three-summer, 1,000 mile exploration of the North Atlantic from Scotland to Iceland.

An award-winning author of “On Celtic Tides,” and Southern Exposure, Duff is writing about his northern isles adventure.

About the presentations

Traveler’s Journal is a presentation of the Peninsula Trails Coalition. All of the money raised is used to buy project supplies and food for volunteers working on Olympic Discovery Trail projects.

Shows start at 7 p.m. in the Sequim High School library at 601 N. Sequim Ave. Please note the change of venue: All shows are in the library, not the cafeteria as in previous years.

Suggested donation is $5 for adults.

Youths 18 and under are welcome for free. One selected photo enlargement will be given away each week as a door prize.

Creative Framing is donating the matting and shrink wrapping of the door prize.

Call Dave Shreffler at 683-1734 for more information.