A book detailing an adventurous sea kayaking trip along the Irish coast will have its launch on Sherkin Island tomorrow.

Sherkin resident Pat Rodgers (55) wrote Chasing Tides about his extraordinary journey around Ireland, based on travel diaries from 1997.

The book, newly published this week, tells the story of the 1,500 km circumnavigation, which started at Toe Head.

It documents a style of outdoor adventure travel mostly vanished since the use of GPS trackers and digital maps.

“I wanted to tell the story as it actually felt at the time,” said Pat, who also runs H2O Sea Kayaking on Sherkin. “I couldn’t just look at an app on my phone to get the forecast.

“We listened to the sea area forecast on a Walkman radio, or sometimes we made it to a pub in time to catch it on RTÉ after the news.

“I didn’t even have tide tables. I estimated high tide from what I could see on the water.

“There was a much greater sense of stepping into the unknown,” recalled Pat.

The book will have its official launch at Sherkin Island Library at 4.30pm on Sunday (September 27).

Chasing Tides will have its mainland launch at the Irish Sea Kayaking Association's annual symposium in Bantry on Saturday, October 3.

Read the full story of Pat's adventure in next week's Southern Star.