Arklow to Kilmore Quay 20 May 2023

 

Our cruising decor
Top left clockwise: Celtic Nations - on our bow; Red Ensign - on the stern; Royal Scottish Motor Yacht Club - on the mast; Irish tricolour - our courtesy flag on the mast.

Before you ask 
Brittany; Isle of Man; Scotland; Wales; Cornwall; Ireland.
and a Celtic squiggle in the middle for decoration (we have been corrected by our new Irish expert - the squiggle is a Triskelion, a motif that dates from the Neolithic age in Europe, and comes in many forms, including the three bent legs of the Isle of Man).

We left Arklow at 10am - a bit earlier than our Chief Navigator thought we should (based upon tidal flows), but under the influence of the Arklow marina manager, and also a desire to reach Kilmore relatively early.  There are very few suitable berths at Kilmore and a large yacht at Arklow, which left more than an hour before us, is also heading towards Kilmore. 

As we write this, we are off Ballinadrisogue, Wexford, and just passed the yacht, and as predicted by our Chief Navigator, we have only recently started to pick up some tide to help us along.  But we are now well on our way, the sea is calm, the sun has come out, it is warm, we have had morning coffee, and lunch is looming.  Idyllic.

Having said that, we are being kept on our toes.  Our passage route is littered with buoys - presumably lobster and crab pots - that come in black, blue, white, orange or red.  They are astonishingly well camouflaged.  Despite keeping a constant lookout, we are suddenly on top of a buoy and urgently have to take avoiding action.  To make this much more hazardous than in the north, Irish fishers have a propensity for long (long!) floating trailing ropes - perfect for entanglement with propellers.  It is really rather important that we avoid this.

In memory of Arklow
Lazaway at its berth last night.  We will probably give Arklow a miss
now until it has finished construction of its sewage processing plant.
 At least another 2 years. 

As we rounded the south eastern corner of Ireland we arrived on the south coast (whoop whoop) and the The Saltee Islands came into view.  Great bird islands and very busy with visitors on regular ferries from Kilmore Quay.

Saltee Islands just off Kilmore Quay

Arrived into Kilmore harbour at about 15.00 and to our great relief there was a space on the hammerhead - we were onto it like a rabbit down a hole!  Kilmore is a really nice holiday-ish wee town, with lots of thatched houses, and yet it does not feel twee.



After a walk round we came back to the boat to find the we were a lifeboat sandwich.  The current modern Tamar class RNLB Killarney on one side and, rafted up against us, was the 1957 Angle Lifeboat on the other.



The harbour here runs a system for accessing the marina, the showers, toilets and pontoon electricity that they don’t man over the weekend - so if you arrive on a Saturday or Sunday you can’t use any of these things.  Not entirely satisfactory. Still, it seems likely that we will stay here two nights.  

The boat bird list for today has 30 species on it.

Out for dinner this evening at the Wooden House.

Our route:









































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