Two rivers and a bridge

Waterford Dawn

I woke really early, and noticed a reddish tint to the light coming into the cabin, so stuck my head up to have a look. Julian asked what I was doing, then got up to take some pictures. while I want back to sleep.

After breakfast we went to the Medieval Museum, which was well worth the visit, with some interesting stuff about the trade rivalry between Waterford and New Ross. As we wandered round the town it began to drizzle, so we took our sandwiches back to Robinetta to eat. The weather did not help my end of holiday feeling!

The tide was due to turn at Dunmore East (the entrance to Waterford Harbour) just before 3, so there was no point leaving Waterford before 2. The tide was still ebbing rapidly at Waterford then, so we had to think hard about how to leave our berth safely. There was plenty of room in front of us, but the tide would soon sweep us down onto the next boat along... I thought we had enough room once Julian pushed Robinetta off at the bows and we swung out into the river, but then the current pushed the bow back in and I had to reverse in a hurry. That was the perfect manoeuvre as it made the stern swing out, and we were soon clear of the pontoon and all the boats without hitting anything. If only I had planned it...

We were soon heading down river in poor visibility due to the drizzle, with the engine hardly above tick over; just enough to give us steerage way. We were making 5 and a half knots. My calculations had told me that with at most an hour and a half to low water there should have been less than a knot of tide with us even at springs, but I was obviously wrong.

I had phoned the Barrow Bridge yesterday to advise them that I would want a opening today, and now I phoned again to give an hours notice. I felt slightly silly, we were at low water springs and there was every change that Robinetta could just about fit under the bridge, but the Barrow Bridge is on a disused railway line, and opening it does not inconvenience any trains!

Barrow Bridge

The bridge began opening while we were still in the River Suir and as I turned Robinetta towards the bridge, and into the ebb tide from the River Barrow her speed dropped from 5 knots to 1. Even when I throttled up to maximum we were making less than 3... The bridge operator came out onto his balcony and watched Robinetta slowly pass through.

The river Barrow is shallower than the Suir, and at low tide we had barely 2m beneath the keel. Plenty for us, but the river is buoyed for big ships. It is very pretty and looked totally rural, with wide muddy banks fringed by reeds. After about half an hour the ebb had ceased, and the drizzle cleared away, leaving us with a bright hot afternoon.  Once the decks had dried Julian asked me to make a start on greasing the shackles (a necessary job before leaving Robinetta) but the tide was hurrying us along again and I did not finish before New Ross came into view.

We saw a small freighter tied up to the far bank, making it obvious that the river is still used for commercial traffic, and the town quay side had the Dunbrody, a ex-working replica of a famine ship. The Three Sisters marina at New Ross is mainly used by motor boats, which can pass under the bridge in the centre of New Ross and gain entry to the entire inland waterway system of Ireland. It was only half full, so there was plenty of room for us to leave Robinetta there for a month.

We put Worm upside-down on the foredeck again. The tide current sweeps though the outer berths of the marina, bringing rubbish with it, so Worm is safer up there than in the water. She also acts as a good cover for the leaking hatch, and can not fill with water herself, so Peter at Dingle did us a good turn when he insisted Worm would fit.