Youghal to Dungarvan

Wind against tide made the Youhgal moorings a bit bouncy once the tide turned to run out against the wind around 8 this morning. The weather forecast suggested that the wind would increase to force 5 around lunchtime, but was less blustery than previous forecasts for the day. We decided to leave rather than spend a day on the mooring, but just head 20nm along the coast to Dungarvan. This has a drying harbour we would not be able to approach until 16:30, so there was no point leaving much before 10:30.
The swell at the moorings had quieted down as the tidal flow in the river increased; it had moved down river to the harbour entrance making a marked “bar” there. Since this was in over 5 metres of water there was no problem crossing it, but the short steep seas were uncomfortable and sluiced the foredeck a bit. Luckily Julian had already finished hoisting the jib and tidying the mooring ropes.
Once we were in clear water I throttled back the engine revs. Julian had seen gannets diving and wanted to see if he could catch anything. He ran out the mackerel line for ten minutes but nothing bit so he hauled it in and we got the sails up.

Mine Head

Despite the unpromising weather forecast we had a gorgeous sail east along the “Copper Coast”. The slight swell only became obvious round headlands, which just encouraged us to duck a little further into the bays once we were past, giving us some lovely views.

Helvick Head from the sea

We gybed round Helvick Head as the sun went behind a cloud, and after a few minutes the wind began to increase. The sun had gone, and we were heading too fast towards the entrance channel so we decided to get the main sail down where we were. The area we were in, just off Helvick, already felt shallow and contained a high concentration of crab pot markers. Between dodging the crab pots and eyeing up the depth it was difficult to keep Robinetta head to wind, and the sails came down in a bit of a mess (my fault, not Julians on the helm. It would have been a lot easier if I had remembered to remove the preventer before tying to centre the main..).
The cloud thickened and the wind continued to rise, then it started to drizzle which brought the visibility down. I pulled Worm in so she would not catch on any of the navigations buoys, then we picked our way from buoy to buoy in the Dungarvan approach channel which winds through drying mud flats for over a mile. We were at half tide, and never had less than 1.7 metres beneath the keel, but would probably have gone aground a couple of metres to the wrong side of a buoy.
The drizzle began to be driven by the wind, so we were glad to see plenty of empty moorings just outside the harbour. We would need at least an hour's more height of tide to get to the pontoons inside the harbour, so picked up a mooring to wait.
Conditions in the cockpit were nasty, with the wind gusting to force 6 and heavy drizzle being blown in curtains across the view, but inside the cabin was snug and dry so we went below and had a cup of tea. I called the Dungarvan Sailing Club, which owns the pontoon where we hoped to spend the night (and probably the mooring we were on) and asked for advice. The suggested waiting until an hour before high water to approach the pontoon, so we did.
I pulled Robinetta's bowsprit in and stowed the jib, then sorted out the mess I had made of getting the sail down, then Julian came up to help and we got fenders and ropes ready for the pontoon.

Perch marking Dungarvan harbour entrance

Robinetta was dancing round the mooring to the contrary demands of the tide and the wind gusts, so it took a while to free the mooring rope. The harbour entrance was well marked with perches, but the tide was setting strongly across it, so we took a ferry glide approach to the first pair. Once through those there were no problems.
We were tied up to the pontoon by 1815, with 2m below the keel. A quick call to the Sailing Club duty officer saw him appear with a key fob to lend us to let us off the pontoon and back.
Dungarvan is a good place to stop so long as your boat can take the mud. There was a good Indian restaurant and several pubs within 200metres of the pontoon!