Eight Irishmen and their 47-foot aluminum boat "Northabout" left Westport Co. Mayo in June 2001 to sail the Northwest Passage. Completing the voyage in a record thirteen weeks, the crew returned home leaving the boat in Alaska to cruise British Columbia in 2002. The call of the wild induced a return to the Arctic in July 2004 to try the more difficult Northeast Passage - a longer, more difficult journey. On October 12, 2005. "Northabout" sailed into Westport having completed the first ever, and more difficult east-to-west, circumnavigation of the Arctic icecap by a small yacht.