FROM CAPE WRATH TO FINISTERRE

FRÅN VREDENS KAP TILL JORDENS ÄNDE – FROM CAPE WRATH TO FINISTERRE: SAILING THE CELTIC FRINGE

BY LARSSON, BJÖRN

Cape Wrath points towards the arctic Circle at Scotland’s furthest northerly limit. ‘Perhaps I was looking for a homeland, perhaps not, or at any rate a place where it would be worth trying to live for a while as well as one can for as long as it lasts.’ Finisterre, the furthest point in Galicia in Northern Spain, was so named for being ‘the end of the earth’. Larsson’s contemplative musings on life as seen from the cockpit and deck of his yacht enliven this journey from Denmark around Scotland, through the Irish sea and onwards to Brittany and Spain. ‘Yes, I admit to rootlessness and impermanence,’ he admits. ‘But restlessness, on the other hand, is a scourge. It and its modern variant, stress, the futility of running round in circles, are to be avoided at all costs. It is far from certain, of course, that this way of life would suit everybody, but if it instils in someone the desire to experiment with alternatives. I shall be happy.’