My Irish adventure.

[PEJ]

So here I am on the river Shannon, well lough Derg actually.

A visit to car phone warehouse and 20 euros later I have a PAYG data Sim for the ipad and I am connected to the Internet so I report on my Ireland adventure.

Picked up the Haines 400 at Banagher and cruised south. Nice bright and airy boat, we are on 400A, the same one that Patrick had. We missed the 5.30 bridge lift at Portumna so made the 7.30 one. Got to Terryglass about 8.00 and it was very full. There is festival in the village. Had to raft 3 deep but then we moved to a spot 2 deep. We ate at the Derg Inn, very nice. Peaceful night on board but no shore power, they were all taken.

Weather is not great but it is not cold.

One thing that is very different to the Solent is that all the "marinas" are owned by Irish Waterways so they are more akin to a public car park, you turn up and if there is an empty space you take it. No booking ahead, no allocated berth. So no guarantee that you will get a space and have shore power.

Heading for Dromineer tonight.

EDIT: I seem to have lost my photos. I'll try to get them back.

 

[rustybarge]

So here I am on the river Shannon, well lough Derg actually.

A visit to car phone warehouse and 20 euros later I have a PAYG data Sim for the ipad and I am connected to the Internet so I report on my Ireland adventure.

Picked up the Haines 400 at Banagher and cruised south. Nice bright and airy boat, we are on 400A, the same one that Patrick had. We missed the 5.30 bridge lift at Portumna so made the 7.30 one. Got to Terryglass about 8.00 and it was very full. There is festival in the village. Had to raft 3 deep but then we moved to a spot 2 deep. We ate at the Derg Inn, very nice. Peaceful night on board but no shore power, they were all taken.

Weather is not great but it is not cold.

One thing that is very different to the Solent is that all the "marinas" are owned by Irish Waterways so they are more akin to a public car park, you turn up and if there is an empty space you take it. No booking ahead, no allocated berth. So no guarantee that you will get a space and have shore power.

Heading for Dromineer tonight.

Whoops, the further north you go the prettier the Shannon becomes!

 

[lynall]

Very smart looking pontoon there.


Lynall

 

[oceanfroggie]

The back of this weather front should have cleared your area by about 5pm today. Whiskey Stil in Dromineer ok for a bite, also the Hostel beside the harbour does a great cooked breakfast. You'll love Killaloe, almost worth two nights. You should get shore power on the long marina beside canal. Mountshannon very pretty, and "An Cupan Caife" a great little restaurant. Garrykennedy has nice pub/restaurant - Larkins.

If your feeling adventurous and have the time you could cruise down to the massive hydro electric dam at Ardnacrusha and tie up at the waiting jetty, but will need to phone the lock keeper to a) open the pedestrian gate so you can walk inside for a look at the 102ft lock, and b) raise the giant guillotine gate at Parteen weir to get boat you into the head race canal. The dam is 90mins cruising time from Killaloe so realistically it's 3.5hr round trip. Hire companies don't permit their boats to go through the dams lock down to the tidal Shannon.

Keep us posted. Btw Lough Derg YC in Dromineer claims to be the 3rd oldest YC in the world after the Royal Cork and LRYC.

 

[oceanfroggie]

Ps. Terryglass is not that full yet for Festival Weekend! By tomorrow night there should be little water visible inside the harbour. In 2004 we were rafted 8 deep for the festival Saturday, but that was before the recession. Did the 400 have a little chart plotter?

 

[PEJ]

Day two. Peeing with rain just about all day. I guess that lough Derg is nice but I could not see much. Windscreen was steamed up so opened the canopy about a foot to see out. Crikey, how much rain can get through such a small opening! I was soaked.

Was going to go to kilgarvey for lunch stop but carried on to Dromineer. Played cards as the rain fell on the roof. Photos taken from through the window.

 

[PEJ]

Did the 400 have a little chart plotter?

Yes. You can see it in the photo above. Tiny but handy to check that you are going the right way when you can't see out the window

 

[PEJ]

Stopped raining just about when OF said it would. Here is Dromineer in the dry.

 

[blueglass]

The Haines 400 loooks pretty good for a hire boat. Mind if I ask what they charge for a week in high season?

 

[PEJ]

The Haines 400 loooks pretty good for a hire boat. Mind if I ask what they charge for a week in high season?

It is about 2,000 euros for the week, I can't remember the exact figure. It is from silverlinecruisers.com the tariffs are on their website. If you find PatrickH's thread there is a link to his photos of the boat. She is nice considering it is a hire boat.

They call this one the "Ocean" on their website.

 

[blueglass]

Thanks PEJ, must get myself out there some time.

 

[PEJ]

Day three. Lunchtime stop at Garrykennedy.

Very nice here. Plenty of room and shore power available for the first time.

 

[PEJ]

Day three part two. Cruised south to Killaloe where I had the pleasure of meeting Ocean Froggie.

Much bigger place but plenty of place to moor and got shore power plugged in at last.

 

[oceanfroggie]

Day three part two. Cruised south to Killaloe where I had the pleasure of meeting Ocean Froggie.

Much bigger place but plenty of place to moor and got shore power plugged in at last.

Day three part two. Cruised south to Killaloe where I had the pleasure of meeting Ocean Froggie.

Much bigger place but plenty of place to moor and got shore power plugged in at last.

Yes it was a pleasure to meet Peter and Julie. Hope you and your familiy enjoy remainder of your holiday. In case you were wondering what I was doing in the tender later yesterday evening going up and down the river, I was finalising a sonar survey in a grid pattern. The depth info is for an update to the gps charts you may have used on the Haines 400. We had a meal in 'the Wooden Spoon'. How did Flanagan's work out? A bit breezy today on Lough Derg today, you'll be sheltered up Killaloe bay until you pass Parker Point.

PS: I don't think you'll have a problem getting a berth with 220v back in Killaloe Sat night as there seems little traffic.

 

[oceanfroggie]

PEJ's charter boat moored in Killaloe - Haines 400 from 'Silverline Cruisers'

Peter looking through a lens at me looking back through a lens taking this snap

Killaloe on a warmer day a few weeks ago

Bon voyage. Weather looks good for mon/tues

 

[henryf]

That's a smart looking rental boat.

Didn't someone else charter one on here and wrote a somewhat negative review. TV didn't work etc.

Henry

 

[oceanfroggie]

That's a smart looking rental boat.

Didn't someone else charter one on here and wrote a somewhat negative review. TV didn't work etc.

Henry

Yes I think it was Patrick. Mind you personally speaking being in a TV free boat for a cruising holiday seems more like an advantage SilverLine seem to have raised the bar for charter boats. I'm sure PEJ will pass on his own feedback. I think SilverLine introduced those Haines 400's only last year.

 

[PEJ]

After saying farewell to Ocean Froggie we cruised on to Mountshannon which is lovely. We are on the same boat as
PatrickH but the telly does work, we have not used it yet though. Flanagans was very good for dinner last night. Best food so far.

It was very windy earlier but we set off about 17:00 and it was nice except for one nasty squall just before Mountshannon. I was glad it had passed over before we docked. Plenty of room here.

I can see at least two other boats that I have seen before at other harbours.

 

[PEJ]

Mountshannon was lovely. Very pretty and a lovely park with a maze for the kids to have fun in. Dagmars place was a bit too gourmet for the kids so we went to the Mountshannon hotel which was good enough.

Cruised on to Williamstown but it was pretty full and we chickened out of the outside pontoons because it looked shallow.

Went round the corner to Drumaan. Very nice and peaceful for lunch.

 

[rafiki_]

That Haines is a really smart hire boat. Sounds like you are enjoying a fantastic trip.