Canoeing for Cuan!

Three Cavan men made a successful voyage from Cavan to Galway, on a three-man canoe, in aid of local cancer charity, Cuan Cancer Support Group, writes Michelle Taite...

Infamous explorer Christopher Columbus set sail in 1492 with 90 men aboard three ships as he took on the voyage from Spain to India.

His Irish namesake, Christopher Maguire of Farnham had a less conventional approach when he set off on a three-man canoe with two Denn natives, Thomas Lynch and Thomas Reilly, as they embarked on their voyage to make Galway.

The boys left their compass and map back on dry land, relying on a smartphone, a great modern asset to any sailor’s orienteering kit.

“It was all Christopher Maguire’s idea. He did all the planning, fair play to him, we have a map in front of us now. It’s all planned out, all of the locks, all the canals,” says Thomas Reilly about his Captain. “We just sat back and looked pretty.”

The crew set sail on Sunday, August 14, immediately encountering horrendous weather conditions.

“The first night we set up camp, a massive thunderstorm came through - lightning, thunder and rain. That was our first night so we got dropped in the deep end at the very start.”

Like all good seamen, the boys powered through only for weather to then impact their boat’s course as well.

“We went to a lake called Lough Key and it was the only time on the trip where we saw our lives at risk. It’s a massive lake, there was wind and there was water coming into the boat. We were just in a small canoe so it’s not really built for those kinds of conditions.

“We were pretty much wet all the time, our tent was wet, our clothes were wet, everything.”

The quest was 230 kilometres in length, a voyage never taken on by any other crew, so the boys reckon.

Any crew member will know it is essential to pack food rich in Vitamin C aboard a ship to stop scurvy from taking over. These three boys routinely ate a Belvita biscuit and an orange for breakfast, an orange for lunch and, depending if they made it to a town that evening, pub food for dinner. Occasionally, the crew’s head chef, Thomas Reilly cooked up a nutritious, “flavourless but filling” meal of pasta or rice.

The crew stopped every night wherever they found land, spending the night in a tent on the shores of the rivers.

“We lived under a bridge in Ballaghaderreen for two nights. It was our favourite camping spot as we were dry all the time.”

Occasionally, local people spotted them on their venture and offered refuge or respite.

“A man called Eamon in Roscommon, he helped us out in a moment of dire need. One day we were just soaking wet in a bog,” says Thomas, reflecting on the kindness. “We were about to set up camp, we had no food, we hadn’t showered in about five days and this man that Christopher’s dad had been in contact with showed up in his jeep, put us in the jeep, brought us to his house, gave us a warm shower and a hot meal, it was lovely.”

“Another man called Frank, the Sheriff of Milltown, paid for a meal for us. So we met some lovely people along the way.

The boys couldn’t believe it when they finally called “Land Ho!” as they spotted the lights of Galway appearing through the trees ahead.

“It was definitely surreal coming down the Corrib and seeing Galway because we had been talking about it the whole time and it didn’t feel like we were ever going to reach it, but it felt great finishing it,” says Christopher.

The crew decided to dedicate their voyage to CUAN Cavan, of which Thomas Lynch’s mother is a volunteer. They created a donation page which has raised almost €3,000 in total.

Click here to donate.