Marcus Dermuth, aka “ROCKETBOY”  returned to Stanley yesterday completing his circumnavigation of the Falkland Islands.  I can’t wait to hear the stories.  What little we did hear along the way leads us to believe Marcus put on his super man jammies under his dry suit for this little jaunt!  Congrats Rocket Boy!!  Read on!

Oh now boy what you been and done
Set a course for the silver sun
oh now boy what you been and done
– coldplay

I hope you’ve been following along with Marcus Demuth’s attempt to circumnavigate Iceland. He’s certainly had a challenging start. So far he’s banged up his boat the surf, lost a paddle, killed a pager, and had his VHF charger go out just since his launch only 7 days ago. As you know Iceland has been the center of a good many expeditions over the last few years and each time produces a bit of excitement.

Iceland as we’ve talked about before sits just short of the arctic circle and produces some of the most challenging weather conditions a paddler could face; big seas, quickly changing weather, and harsh unforgiving coastlines. The pay off for those explorer types of course is that Iceland also offers and incredible look at raw nature with active volcanoes, lava deserts, tall snow capped mountains, huge seabird colonies, friendly people. . . oh, and great access to the net as well! (even if the SAT phones are a bit dodgy)

By completing his Iceland Circumnavigation, Marcus would join a very small group of paddlers who’ve come before, only Rotem Ron is credited for doing the trip solo. (although I’ve heard there may have been one other.) Greg Stamer & Freya Hoffmeister completed the trip last year at breakneck speed and Shawna Franklin, Leon Somme, & Chris Duff also completed the trip in 2003. Iceland demonstrates how each expedition has its own personality, and it’s own set of challenges. Sometimes uneventful, sometimes filled with crazy weather and challenges of a more human nature. Still each paddler or team has been up to the challenges this island at the top of the world could toss at them. As Marcus continues on he not only faces nature, but the inner battle over good judgment, drive to succeed, self doubt, and self confidence. Each voice demanding their moment. The real victory however is in taking the challenge at all; win, lose, or draw.

I was chatting with a friend the other day about how these amazing expeditions can seem a bit too simple sometimes to the casual observer. More often than not we hear someone is going somewhere and later we hear they completed the trip. It can seem a bit too simple. As more and more folks take on these challenges they can feel a bit mundane. Of course that is not the case. The truth is that each trip, whether a day, a week a month or more carries some hard risks. The longer the trip, the more isolated the destination, the more you expose yourself to those risks. It’s worth noting that often the biggest dangers each day are just launching and landing.

As supports, well wishers, paddle voyeurs, or fans I hope we always recognize that just sliding that boat off the beach and making good decisions is a respectable win, even if the decision is to stop. Marcus has shown already that each little issue cause him to re-evaluate the journey. This is a good sign. It means that he will probably make the right choices for himself as an individual each day. With that regular self-evaluation chances are we will soon be adding him to the list of those who have successfully circumnavigated Iceland. And even if he stopped today, he’d already go home with a victory.

- See more expeditions going on in 2008 here.

*photo by Stanislav Babenko. Creative Commons.