Author: John

We spent a night of luxury in a bed and breakfast near Athlone and went to sample the nightlife in the city , visiting the famous and historic Sean’s Bar.

We returned to Ballina by bus, retrieved the van and said goodbye to William and Pat and then came back to pick up our new crew Jeremy and Rebecca at the station in Athlone.

Second week, Day 9  17/06/2018 6.3 miles

Despite getting up at 7am, the canoes were not actually on the water until much later. It was a somewhat miserable day, cold with drizzle and a SW force 3-4. The drive to Boyle only took about an hour and a quarter but we were initially prevented from actually reaching the marina with the van+canoes by a bar limiting the headroom on the access road to 1.8m. In any case, the marina proved to be another one designed like a U-Boat pen for large motor cruisers with high quay walls and no slip from which to launch.

A detailed look at the map showed another possibility so we drove to the point where the canal from the marina meets the Boyle river. This looked promising for a launch down the bank, but we found we had forgotten to fill the water containers whilst still near civilization!

Finally we sailed out into the very scenic Lough Key at about 13.20 and went over to look at The Priory on its island.

The Lough was surrounded by dense trees right down to the water and it was hard to spot the river exit. Cutting inside some small islands, I hit some rocks quite hard and the rudder of the old canoe seemed to have actually broken off and was trailing astern attached by its downhaul line. Initially I tried sailing with no rudder and then used a paddle to gain directional control but in the panic I lost my sense of direction and missed the river outlet and headed North into a blind bay. I took the sails down and retraced my course, Rebecca paddling well and finally got ashore in a shallow rocky bay on an island on the North shore of the river outlet. Fortunately the rudder proved to be intact and had only been knocked upwards off its pintels past the spring retaining catch.

We went out of the Lough and down the river, where the wind was mainly blanketed by trees, and round a corner to be surprised by a timber wharf with a picnic table on the left bank. We stopped for a brew-up as it was now about 15.30, and found that this was our first lock.

Below the lock it was a very nice river with trees, reeds, meadows and not much boat traffic. We soon passed a good looking camping spot and so stopped for the night a bit earlier than planned, at 17.00.

Day 10  18/06/2018 8.7 miles

A fine and sunny start to the day with a nice swim in the river.

We sailed off with a fluky W/SW force 3-4. There are some nice small loughs on the river Boyle. We stopped for tea and a break on the South bank in a rather open field and got a bit cold. We went on out into the river Shannon proper and now there were some hired plastic motor cruisers to get in the way of our tacking. Rebecca and I very nearly capsized in the gusty wind ( I could see the centreboard sticking out horizontally just below the water as I lunged myself over the Port rail to balance the boat!) Rebecca had to bail a lot of water out which had come in over the Starboard cockpit coaming.

We struggled as far as Carrick-on-Shannon by 13.30. Initially we stopped on the West bank just below the bridge at the garden of a riverside pub, but unfortunately the pub was not due to open until 4pm and there was no access onto the road to cross the bridge until then. We moved to the opposite side of the river and moored up to a pontoon.

We were all looking rather cold, so we had a pint of Guinness in a nice but very quiet pub with a friendly landlord who, despite not serving lunch, went out and got us chips from the local takeaway for free!

We walked a long way across the river and out towards the suburbs to a Supervalue supermarket, at his direction, in order to buy some fish for supper. We got very cold again so went into a cafe there for hot chocolate, to warm up.

The wind was now more N Westerly. We sailed on down river for a bit and camped on the East bank just round a bend at 5.30 in the shelter of some trees. I put up the cooking shelter in case of rain and Jeremy found an abandoned plastic chair to increase his level of comfort in the camp.

Day 11  19/06/2018 14.7 miles

It was a grey day with a light wind from the South which increased a bit through the day. We packed up camp and paddled the first reach to the SE.

We managed to sail the next reach heading NE but without much wind.

The river goes over a weir at Jamestown, so it was necessary to paddle through a 1.5mile long cut to reach a lock which lets you back out onto the river well below the weir. Going ashore to speak to the lock keeper, I found a pair of glasses on the ground as I rushed across the upper lock gate, quickly, before it was reopened. The glasses were hers and she was very grateful.

Perhaps as a consequence she took an interest in the canoes and was very accommodating regarding our transit of the lock, including asking me if I would like her to open 1 sluice or 2 and not bothering us with requests for long ropes for the bow and stern etc.

We stopped to boil up a cup of tea on the pontoon below the lock.

From here we were now tacking against a force 3 wind from the SSE. It was a very long tacking session in a drizzle of rain. We reached more open water in Lough Boderg and were able to do longer tacks. In the poor visibility, I could not see Barbara and Jeremy in the other canoe behind us and worried that everyone must be getting very cold and miserable. It was well after lunch time so I stopped at a less than ideal, rock infested bit of the wooded Eastern shore. Jeremy was indeed very cold. We had a hot cup-a-soup and some chocolate and felt a bit better.

The channel cuts East through a narrow gap here and then we did a lot more tacking down into Lough Bofin. At this point it was possible to turn East and run across the rocky shallow directly towards Drumod. We were buoyed up by the promise of hot showers at the marina. The harbour had the usual U-boat pen architecture, but we managed to beach on a bit of rocky foreshore near the entrance. Behind this, there was a stretch of well mown grass with some picnic benches and a line of trees.

It became obvious that if we had the hot showers, we were not going to want to go any further that day! We erected the tents and the cooking shelter, making it look a bit like a Gypsy encampment.

A guy in a reflective jacket wandered over. He looked as if he was going to say that we couldn’t camp in this well manicured sub-urban location. What he actually said was ” you must be wet through. Would you like me to take your clothes and dry them in my dryer at home?”

The Irish can be so friendly. After the hot showers, we went out for a wonderfully carnivorous meal at Cox’s Steak Restaurant, a short walk from the harbour.

Day 12  20/06/2018 18.6 miles

It was a better day with a NW force 3 and some breaks in the cloud. We left at 11.15am after a short walk to find a cooked breakfast at a strange hotel and after Adrian ( the man in the reflective jacket) had brought back our dried clothes. We were very appreciative and when she got back home Rebecca sent him a hand-made thank you card.

Initially it was a morning of fine broad reaches. We went through the lock at Roosky then had a dead run followed by a broad reach for 2 miles down a long open stretch at up to 6 knots with Rebecca enjoying hanging out and going Wheeee……!!

We stopped for a break on a narrow point at the bottom end of this stretch.

We went on through Lough Forbes and into a section with more trees and a more Westerly course which made for frustrating sailing. I tried to reach the lock at Termonbarry ( pub+ shop?) for lunch but Barbara had got cold and tires and was a bit fed up and so stopped 1/2 mile short of it on the West bank in a spot with a lot of large slippery rocks under water which made it a nightmare getting people and gear in and out of the boats.

After the lock we rounded a long right hand bend and came into a narrow reach dead to windward. This required us to do some hard short tacking against the fresh and gusty wind funnelling down it. Rebecca enjoyed the thrill until we ran on to a rock. Jeremy and Barbara wisely decided to paddle instead.

We went on down more reaches of the river looking for a likely place to camp in order to stop before we reached Lanesborough and the entrance to Lough Ree. Unfortunately, none proved suitable, as the river banks were mostly thick with reeds, so in the end we wound up at the canoe slip in Lanesborough at about 6.30pm. We made the best of it and camped on a small area of grass next to the cruiser’s U-boat pens again.

Day 13  21/06/2018 12.9 miles

The longest day of the year. We started with a swim in the river and then a short trip into Lanesborough for provisions.

We got away at 10.30am with a broad reach before a force 3 NNW wind down out of the river and into the wide open sea of Lough Ree.

We hove-to and took in a reef at Barbara’s suggestion, as the wind increased out of the shelter of the land then ran on at 5-6 knots heading over to stay nearer to the West shore to get a bit of a lee from the developing swell.

We cut inside a small island but hit a rock and found ourselves in an area of shallows with lots of rocks. We hit a few more trying to find a way out.

Further on, we stopped within the hook of a small rocky bay for a brew-up but with no shelter from the wind.

On again, making good time and close to the Western shore for some shelter, cutting across the bays until we reached a section which was running SE, almost parallel to the wind direction, where we were exposed to a gradually increasing fetch.

Jeremy and Barbara inadvertently capsized but they got the canoe back up and bailed out quite smoothly.

We went on round the next point into smooth water to find a place to stop and have lunch. We built a small fire and they changed into dry clothes.

After lunch we ran the short distance across the bay and into what is called “Safe Harbour” on the maps, this was our planned destination for the day. It is an ideal spot, set on the Warren peninsular with shelter, short grass and a ruined castle, church and windmill. I had worried that it might be a bit of a tourist “honeypot” but we saw very few people and no other boats.

We did a bit of exploring

and had a pleasant afternoon resting in the sun.

Day 14  22/06/2018 10.6 miles

It was a fine and sunny day and we only had about 10 miles to go to reach Athlone. The wind was NNW force 2. We headed East behind King’s island and saw lots and lots of swans on the water, then down to stop off at Nun’s island which has a very small harbour at its Southern end, formed by some rough stone walls.

We headed East again, round Inchmore and down among a lot of rocks and small islands inshore. We finally stopped for lunch at the SE end of Hare Island close to the private Southern harbour. It was hot and windless and there were rather a lot of horseflies but otherwise it was a pleasant spot.

Jeremy and Rebecca sailed together in the new canoe for the final run in past Coonan Point and down the long lanes of buoys that had been laid in Killinure Lough, for a rowing race, since we came in at the end of the previous week.

We camped back at Ballykeeran campsite which was by now much more crowded.

We made the final trip by bus back up to Boyle the next day to get the van and had our last night in the campsite,

before heading back to get the ferry at Rosslare.

The river Shannon is an obvious choice for a long sailing canoe trip. It is long, wide and, particularly in the Southern section above Killaloe, open and unsheltered by trees, so it is good for sailing, with very little river flow. There are also two huge Loughs with lots of fine islands.

Although I could not find any historical accounts of sailing canoe trips on the river, I did find a book called ” An Englishman in Ireland” about a man paddling down the river in 1878 and his tale gave me some inspiration.

The trip was planned as two separate weeks, each with a different crew. Partly based on the wind forecast, we decided to go for South to North, against the flow for the first week with William and Pat, starting in Killalo/Ballina and ending near Athlone. We would then go back by bus to get the camper van and drive North to Boyle with our new crew Jeremy and Rebecca to spend the second week sailing/paddling South down the slightly more sheltered upper reaches of the Boyle/Shannon going with the flow, to finish back at Athlone again.

First week, Day 1  09/06/2018 14.9 miles

We got shower cards for the trip from T J Angling and unloaded the canoes off the roof of the van at the slip in Ballina. It’s always hard to pack everything in on the first day, perhaps partly because you have not yet got used to how to stow everything in a cunning way but also because there is so much food. In this case we nearly forgot to add all the cold food items from the van fridge as the canoes already seemed full to the brim.

Finally away at about 11.45am. We had to tack quite hard against the combined effect of the Northerly force 3 and the outflow in the river. Once out in the Lough Derg we tried to find a quiet lunch spot but most of the Western shore was occupied by private houses, so headed over to the East side and stopped in a field.

After lunch, we tacked on up the Lough until the wind died about 5pm. We paddled on along the shore to where the Lough opens out to the West. Most of the coastline here is covered by reeds and overhanging trees so is not suitable for camping. We decided to paddle over to Holy Island which looked green and a possible good camping spot now that the daily visitors would have gone home. We camped about 7.15pm in the grass which was very long despite the efforts of the sheep on the island.

We had a nice swim during a thunderstorm which luckily did not start until we had the tents up. We explored the ruins in the twilight and had a Spaghetti Bolognaise that we had precooked at home.

Day 2  10/06/2018 13.6 miles

We were up at 7.30am and away by 9.30am paddling across to Mountshannon for a coffee and a croissant. It was a nice little harbour, but there was not much else there. It was a short walk to the small village with the cafe.

We paddled on up the shore as there was absolutely no wind. Warm but overcast. We cut inside some islands through nearly impenetrable reeds which was fun.

We rounded the Easternmost point and turned North looking for a suitable lunch stop. We ended up going into Blackrock harbour which was even smaller than Mountshannon but quite pretty.

We sailed North in a force 2 during the afternoon then finished by “motor-sailing” with the paddles and sails across a wide bay to the West and camped on a sunny patch of short grass on a small island where, luckily, the holiday home in the middle of it was unoccupied.

Pat cooked a fine chickpea curry with rice and we had a nice fire.

Day 3  11/06/2018 11.1 miles

We tacked up the Lough against a light NNW force 2-3. The West shore seemed too thick with reeds or dense trees for us to find a suitable place to stop .

However, we stopped briefly on the East shore and then at the harbour near Portumna, near the head of the Lough, to have a shower and re-provision. The harbour itself is designed for large rented motor cruisers with high topsides and there is no slip, so it was difficult to get in and out of the canoes up a ladder and hard to stow our purchases in the fore hatch.

The town was a short walk through the grounds of a grand stately home . We sought refuge in a cafe that had been created in one of its outbuildings.

By contrast the town itself appeared down at heel. All the pubs were shut despite it being only 2.30pm and Barbara bought the one and only free range chicken in the Low Cost Supermarket.

Here we left Lough Derg and returned to the river Shannon itself. The first obstacle was a very low road bridge. Whichever side of the large midstream island you go, the bridge is so low that you need to take both masts down to get under it. I did not realise this until the last moment and dropped my mizzen mast into the water complete with the sail, which then acted like a sea anchor. The river flow here was more significant than we had expected and so we had quite a battle to make progress.

It was now 6.30pm and we wanted to find a place to camp. After a further 2 miles paddling hard against the wind and current, we turned into a very small inlet on the East bank which gave access to a narrow channel behind a big flat island with horses, like a piece of the Camargue transported to Ireland. Barbara cooked a very elaborate meal of Chicken Tarragon and potatoes whilst the rest of us set up camp.

Pat at home!

Day 4  12/06/2018 12.5 miles

No wind so paddled North East along the narrow channel on the Eastern side of some long islands to keep out of the worst of the current. We passed the only other canoeists that we saw all week, a group of kayakers 5 days into a trip down river to Limerick.

We came to our first lock, in the middle of nowhere, just as the gates were opening an a motor cruiser was coming out. It was very deep and somewhat intimidating, with no visible stepladders. We crept in and waited against the wall. Initially nothing happened but after a bit the lock keeper looked over the edge of the wall and noticed us. Our masts were so short they didn’t even show above the top.

Although large, there was little turbulence and canoes pass through for free as they have no engines!

When the river finally turned East we were able to sail the last 2 miles to Banagher. This town also proved a bit of a disappointment, a somewhat run down settlement whose only claim to fame appeared to be that Trollop had worked there as a clerk in his youth. However, we did find somewhere to have tea and scones.

We were back aboard at about 5pm for a short paddle assisted sail against a fairly strong flow to turn into a very small and intricate channel in the East bank shown on the map just beyond the island called Bird Island. Here we found a nice camping place. It was a bit muddy, but we had a nice fire and there was a big log to sit on. Barbara and I had a swim in the weedy channel. Luckily there seemed to be no sign of the cattle that where evidently driven across a shallow ford here from the mainland to graze.

Day 5  13/06/2018 14.4 miles

I was woken at 5am by the sound of thundering hooves running away from our tent. I got back to sleep, but woken again by the sound of cattle close by at about 6am. I Got up and made tea, resuscitated the campfire and sat on the log. The inquisitive and gradually bolder heifers would keep coming back closer and closer until a sound or a sudden movement from me scared them off again at a run to regroup out of range. The others were up by 7am and we were away by 8.45am watched over closely by the herd.

The wind had now turned Southerly force 3, rising significantly during the day. This was the tail of storm “Hector” and was part of the reason behind choosing to go from South to North during the first week. I preferred to tack against a light Northerly wind in the wide open space of Lough Derg during the first 3 days rather than face a fierce headwind on the Loch on days 5 & 6.

We ran before the wind under full sail at about 4 knots to Shannonbridge. It was rather cold.

We moored on the pontoons and went to Luckers Bar to warm up and have a full cooked lunch with a view of the river. It started to rain and the wind increased.

After lunch we took in a reef and headed on for about 5 miles to Clonmachnoise, finishing with an 8 knot blast along the last reach to beach by the visitor’s pontoon.

We went ashore and looked round the holy site. It cost 8 Euros each to visit and was nice enough but a bit of a tourist honey pot.

It rained and the wind howled. We holed up in the cafe for tea and scones, putting off getting back into the canoes for as long as possible.

At about 5pm we set out again under mizzen only ( set forward), onwards for another 2 miles trying to find a suitably sheltered place to camp, unfortunately to no avail. So we ended up in a blind inlet on an island covered in thick grass and meadow flowers, but with no shelter at all from the wind, however, at least there were no cows.

We pitched the new cooking shelter that I had made for the first time, between our two small sleeping tents.

William cooked a Carbonnara under trying circumstances as the roof of the shelter bellied down on his back and the supporting poles bent like bows, requiring doubling with a spare pole and some duct tape.

Day 6  14/06/2018 13.4 miles

The tents and the cooking shelter survived the 19/gusting 40 knot wind during the night, but it was hard to get any sleep on account of the noise of flapping fabric. I felt the need to brace the windward pole in our tent by hand for some time during the night.

We had a deliberately slow start ( away by 10.30am) in order to allow the wind to die down a bit and for some forecast rain to pass. Luckily the wind swung to West, 16 knots, allowing us to tack back out of our blind ended channel under 15 sq ft pocket handkerchief sails with the foremasts stowed below.

We arrived at the lock in Athlone at 13.13. The lock keeper had gone to lunch ( an institution for lock keepers in Ireland as it is in France) so we had a picnic lunch in the rather un-salubrious urban environment. There were some issues about us going through this lock, perhaps because it is situated next to the office of the river inspectorate, who took an interest in us. It seems that, according to the rules, “Kayaks” are not allowed through the locks on the Shannon, but must be portaged. Accordingly, we declared ourselves under the heading of “sailing vessel”. All boats are told that they must provide long warps to surge around bollards and hold their position during any turbulence in the locks. In practice we were put through, by a friendly lock keeper “on our own” so as to ” avoid the risk of being crushed  by any wayward or inexperienced hire boat users who might have only just started out from Athlone”. Despite quoting the rule about warps to us he turned a blind eye to the fact that we were just holding on to the hanging chains with our hands in order to keep position.

We sailed on out into Lough Ree where it was less protected and rather more gusty. The wind was forecast to reduce to 12 knots by 6pm. After a somewhat anxious passage over some shallows cutting inside and island on the Eastern shore, we rounded Coonan Point  into shelter and ran down a long lane of buoys put out for some rowing races and through narrow reeded channels to reach the pleasant, low-key, lakeside campsite at Ballykeeran.

Journey’s end. Most of the first week’s crew at Coonan Point.