TO CLIMB MOUNT COOK.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18184, 22 September 1924, Page 11

TO CLIMB MOUNT COOK.

YACHTSMAN'S TRIP FROM ' IRELAND. (STECUL SO "no PBJUl") AUCKLAND, September SI. "I left Ireland with tho express pur* poso of climbing Mount Cook, aid now that I havo failed, my one object is to return, liomo again," said Captain Connor O'Brien,.captain .of tho 12-ton. Irish jacht Saoirse, which will shortly bid farewell to New Zealand and sot out on her long homeward voyage to Dublin. "Yes," ho said, "it's hard to come more than 14,000 miles and thou fail to accomplish what yott set out to do." ' . . Captain O'Brien explained that it was what happened when tho yacht was at Capo Town on her outward voyage j that ruined the trip as far as ho was concerned. On arrival there he went 'ashore for the purpose of climbing: Table Mountain and'getting his /'land I'legs" in readiness for tho mountaineering he proposed carrying out in New Zealand. The work of preparing th.o yacht for the remainder of her voyage was left in the hands of tho mateaiul the cook, and that neither proved up to. his job was shown by what happened subsequently. Questioned as to his route Home, Captain O'Brien said that ' on leaving Auckland his first port of call would bo Port Stanley, in the Falkland Island?. Provided that everything on board was in order,.he intended proceeding thence to Dublin direct. There is a possibility that the yacht will also touch at Pernambuco. Captain O'Brien considers that she will do well if she averages 1000 miles a week. Tho outward voyage occupied nearly twelve months, but the actual number of days the vessel was at sea wa3 only 157. i