Taking on high seas of the world to escape Celtic Tiger madness
After four years alone on the oceans, an intrepid sailor tells Victoria Mary Clarke why he has come home
Sunday August 22 2010
'Would you like to meet a very handsome man who has just sailed solo around the world?"
That was the question put to me recently by a dear and generous friend.
I had just eaten two plates of pasta and some chocolate ice cream and, feeling pleasantly immobilised, I was settling down with Shane to watch some mind-numbing nonsense on telly. The last thing I wanted was to get off the sofa.
"No thanks," I said. "You go ahead."
Half an hour later she called again.
"I really think you should come and meet this man. He went 100 days without any human contact and he was struck by lightning," she said.
"Is he really very handsome?" I said.
"Yes."
Of course that wasn't what got me off the sofa. I was just suddenly struck by the thought that I might be wasting my precious life watching boring people on TV when I could be meeting people who live adventurous lives in real life.
Marcus Seigne, the lone sailor, was not difficult to spot as I arrived at his welcome-home party. He was the one in the exceptionally garish orange fleece.
"You can tell he is single," his sister said. "No woman would let him wear that thing."
He was handsome, as promised, probably in his late 40s, and very tanned, and he beamed at us as I was introduced. After congratulating him on his sea voyage, I turned my attention to a very glamorous older woman sitting next to him, wearing sunglasses.
The Seigne family are well know for their beauty, and especially for their cheekbones (fashionista/farmer Cha Cha Seigne is Marcus's niece). Phyllis, his mother, had the high cheekbones.
"I'm not wearing these as an affectation," she hastened to tell me, pointing at the sunglasses. I congratulated her also, and she said she had discharged herself from hospital especially for the occasion, in spite of a fractured ankle.
From a distance I watched the delighted faces of Marcus's family while thinking of pertinent questions to ask someone who had taken it upon themselves to sell-up their business and home and buy a boat and sail off around the world for four years. Like, how do you wash and do you live on tins of sardines?
"Why does a person do that?" I asked one of his friends.
"When a man runs off to sea, there is usually a woman involved," the friend said, mysteriously.
It transpired that Marcus had indeed been engaged, and had not actually got married, before he left. But that was not the reason he gave when I approached him, a day or two later, and asked him for an interview.
It was clear that he was still a bit at sea and not quite landed, as he was still living on his boat, conveniently moored outside a bar and restaurant in Ringsend. (His yacht is now in Dun Laoghaire and he lives partly there and partly with his family). As he did not have a telephone, I just wandered down to the boat, where he was still wearing the orange fleece. He regaled me with tales of climbing up and down the mast while being tossed around the Atlantic, and confirmed that yes, the yacht had indeed been struck by lightning.
We went into the bar to do the interview, where he talked about how he had endured more than 100 days with no human contact whatsoever, outside of text messages. And that yes, he had gone a bit mental and would talk to himself, to the boat, to the sea, to whatever, and would often scream at all of the above.
"Let's start with why we went," he said.
He explained that he had built a successful IT business.
"Did you make loads of money?" I politely enquired.
"I did. But the more you make the more you spend. That was the biggest thing I learned."
Because of his success, he was paying huge amounts of tax. So he was not happy to see his money being wasted by an inefficient government.
"I was furious, actually," he says. And this was the main reason for leaving the country when he did.
"And what about your engagement?" I enquire, again politely.
"I was engaged to Arabella at one point, but never got married."
"Did you run away from her?"
"No. Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't. Things weren't right, so it wasn't a sensible thing to continue. But that was the closest a woman has ever come to getting her claws into me."
I knew for a fact that several of my girlfriends would fancy him.
Anyway, as he said, the main reason he left was because of the Celtic Tiger economy.
"It was getting too extreme, they had the foot down on the pedal and I was saying you need to slow down because the s**t is hitting the fan. I saw real trouble on the horizon.
"I just said 'I am out of here'. Everyone has got too greedy and we have lost our spirit, the thing that made us a beautiful people."
Work and his business had always been his priority in life, above family, he says. But it had always been his dream to one day sail around the world.
And now, having sold the business, and with no ties, he had the opportunity to do it.
"I headed to the Med first, and I had the best time of my life. Making great friends, seeing how people live in different places. Maybe wondering if there is a nicer country to live in."
From there he went to Brazil for the carnival.
"The best party in the world," he confirmed.
But it meant sailing solo across the Atlantic in a boat that was not designed for the high seas.
It seemed like a massive undertaking, but he is the kind of man who loves a challenge.
Along the way he stopped off at a rock which he had been warned to stay away from, because of the treacherous waters.
"The whole fact that they said don't go there. I decided I had to go there. Just to make a point of getting to the thing."
Sure enough, he got to the rock and had a fabulous time.
After a year in Brazil, he headed for Australia.
Eventually he decided to come home. Partly, he says, because he wanted to be with his mother, who is 92. Partly because of visa problems in Australia. And partly because he felt it was time.
As yet he has not decided what he will do with his life here. He has been made an honorary member of the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire and will give talks there, the first in early December. Apart from that, he's writing a book about his journey.
"But I will stay here for at least a year."
"Was it worth the trip?" I asked.
"I have had the best years of my life, in the last four years."
What has he learned as a result of it?
"I was quite a furious person when I left. It was infuriating that no one would listen to me. But now they say I was right. I have come back to Ireland and we are in the s**t. But for me, I love being at the bottom of a hole, where the sky is practically falling on my head. There is nothing more beautiful than knowing you are at the bottom and there is nowhere to go but up. Isn't that a wonderful place to be? Because it can only get better! And maybe now we will become human again and talk to each other and not be caught up in the Celtic Tiger madness."
Oh, and he ate tins of sardines and tins of pineapple, mostly.
For details of his talks in the Royal Irish Yacht Club see www.cruising.ie
- Victoria Mary Clarke
Originally published in
