Arklow south
Arklow is a "no nonsense" sort of place! You know where you are, the High Street is functional with the usual shops and more than enough pubs to keep every visitor well watered! Across the road from the river pontoon is a large shopping centre with a glossy floor high windows and the usual high street names and beside it a large Aldi - so stocking up the boat was easy. We were there over a weekend so all of the pub/restaurants were offering some sort of live music - which was fun but a bit noisy! In general we found that it was expensive to eat out in ROI however when you did the quantity of food given was huge - so does that make it expensive or good value? In many cases I would have been happy with the kids portion but sadly I didn't qualify! I also continued my research into the quality of Guinness in ROI and can definitively say that it does taste much better in Ireland than in England. Theories as to why this should be vary but I think it is something to do with transportation however some conspiracy theorists suggest that inferior water is used for the UK export stuff!!! I have also developed a bit of a taste for Bushmills 10yr old whiskey but I still prefer the Highland malts - sorry all my Irish friends!
Initially we had planned to visit Wexford on our passage south and this caused more than a few raised eyebrows from HMs and fellow sailors. Wexford is at the end of a tidal sandy basin and in order to reach the quay you have to weave your way through sandbanks following a series of bouys - they have an app to help you!
The pilot books are full of dire warnings and cautions against visiting unless you have "local knowledge". We couldn't really see much difference between that entrance and the entrance to St Valery sur Somme which we have visited before or threading our way across the Thames estuary - we are also fortunate in that we have twin keels (so if we do ground we sit upright) and as a consequence only need just over 1.5m of water to stay afloat. However the weather was not playing again!
In order to visit Wexford you need to cross the sandbanks on a rising tide and you also need to leave on a rising tide - so that if you do touch there is more incoming water to lift you off again. The big problem would be that as we left we would arrive for the south going coastal passage while the tide still doggedly moving north - we thought it would be possible to push into this for a few hours as we were approaching neaps (when tidal rates are at their lowest) but with the wind forecast to blow from the south/ south east at F5/6 this would mean we would be battling into both tide and a strong wind and we needed to make sure we were off Rosslare at the turn of tide in order to sweep us round to Kilmore Quay our last stop in Ireland. After looking at the charts we decided this would not be possible and in the next forecast the predicted wind went up another notch to SSE 6/7 so we sat it out in Arklow for another day.
As usual when in port on a Sunday we found a local church and this time we ended up at Arklow Methodist church. Another small congregation trying very hard to maintain an old and very beautiful building but yet again good teaching and friendly folk but sadly not many young people.
The strong winds blew as predicted on Sunday and Monday and early on Tuesday morning we chugged out of Arklow for the 50 mile trip to Kilmore Quay. My plan was to leave Arklow and head a couple of miles offshore outside of the sandbanks that run along the coast at this point and head for a cardinal bouy named "Lucifer". I never thought I would ever hear myself saying "Lucifer is about 7 miles away at a bearing of 160°"! So we sailed towards Lucifer - which turned out to be a fairly normal large black and yellow cardinal mark guarding the southern edge a large sandbank. Although we were sailing against the tide the wind had moved into the west and moderated so we were sailing along really nicely making 5K over the ground against the tide - the boat was really showing off! As we passed Lucifer and closed on Rosslare shipping lanes the tide began to slacken as I had hoped and we moved inshore to make the most of the slack water and pick up the early south going tide which swept us around the corner and towards Kilmore Quay. The last part of this journey involved crossing "St Patricks Bridge" an area of deeper water over a reef which links the mainland to the offshore Saltee Islands, the bridge is well bouyed and on a rising tide we didn't have any problems although once across the bridge the sea became quite rough and so following the leading marks into the harbour was a challenge for the skipper. After a glorious 7hr sail we were safely tied up in Kilmore Quay.
Initially we had planned to visit Wexford on our passage south and this caused more than a few raised eyebrows from HMs and fellow sailors. Wexford is at the end of a tidal sandy basin and in order to reach the quay you have to weave your way through sandbanks following a series of bouys - they have an app to help you!
The pilot books are full of dire warnings and cautions against visiting unless you have "local knowledge". We couldn't really see much difference between that entrance and the entrance to St Valery sur Somme which we have visited before or threading our way across the Thames estuary - we are also fortunate in that we have twin keels (so if we do ground we sit upright) and as a consequence only need just over 1.5m of water to stay afloat. However the weather was not playing again!
In order to visit Wexford you need to cross the sandbanks on a rising tide and you also need to leave on a rising tide - so that if you do touch there is more incoming water to lift you off again. The big problem would be that as we left we would arrive for the south going coastal passage while the tide still doggedly moving north - we thought it would be possible to push into this for a few hours as we were approaching neaps (when tidal rates are at their lowest) but with the wind forecast to blow from the south/ south east at F5/6 this would mean we would be battling into both tide and a strong wind and we needed to make sure we were off Rosslare at the turn of tide in order to sweep us round to Kilmore Quay our last stop in Ireland. After looking at the charts we decided this would not be possible and in the next forecast the predicted wind went up another notch to SSE 6/7 so we sat it out in Arklow for another day.
As usual when in port on a Sunday we found a local church and this time we ended up at Arklow Methodist church. Another small congregation trying very hard to maintain an old and very beautiful building but yet again good teaching and friendly folk but sadly not many young people.
The strong winds blew as predicted on Sunday and Monday and early on Tuesday morning we chugged out of Arklow for the 50 mile trip to Kilmore Quay. My plan was to leave Arklow and head a couple of miles offshore outside of the sandbanks that run along the coast at this point and head for a cardinal bouy named "Lucifer". I never thought I would ever hear myself saying "Lucifer is about 7 miles away at a bearing of 160°"! So we sailed towards Lucifer - which turned out to be a fairly normal large black and yellow cardinal mark guarding the southern edge a large sandbank. Although we were sailing against the tide the wind had moved into the west and moderated so we were sailing along really nicely making 5K over the ground against the tide - the boat was really showing off! As we passed Lucifer and closed on Rosslare shipping lanes the tide began to slacken as I had hoped and we moved inshore to make the most of the slack water and pick up the early south going tide which swept us around the corner and towards Kilmore Quay. The last part of this journey involved crossing "St Patricks Bridge" an area of deeper water over a reef which links the mainland to the offshore Saltee Islands, the bridge is well bouyed and on a rising tide we didn't have any problems although once across the bridge the sea became quite rough and so following the leading marks into the harbour was a challenge for the skipper. After a glorious 7hr sail we were safely tied up in Kilmore Quay.
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