2024 May 6th Days 38 and 39, To Beggars Reach and Dale Shelf.

Up the River

With northerly winds forecast there are no sensible anchorages available in Ireland short of Sorento Bay, Dublin and Fishguard is exposed to the North, I will not be leaving until Wednesday, rather than stay at anchor all that time I headed up the the river for a night, leaving at lunch time to make use of the flood tide.

Nayland marina, together with the surrounding anchorage a
hot spot for Achilles boats - they were made not far away at
Gowerton near Swansea

Claddau Bridge the "Air draft" is 33 metres
at high water, why does it look so close to the
top of my c 12 metre mast when near low water?

I had intended to anchor off Williamston Pill as recommended in the Pilot but space between the moorings was very limited, there was a spot just north of them but with possible issues with shallow water so I pressed on and found a good spot near the bottom of Beggars Reach at a turn in the river, I would also get some shelter from the occasionally brisk wind. The down side was the strong flood tide running across the wind. 

Having anchored the wind backed and was coming straight down the reach and fighting with the tide for control of the boat but things remained quite comfortable. The tide turned, very quickly, at 18:00 and I was then pointing directly into wind and tide. Not a place to anchor in a storm or with poor ground tackle and insufficient rode to cope with almost 7 meters rise in the tide.

Beggars Reach looking north.

12 miles in 3.5 hours.

To Dale Shelf

As usual when on the boat with no curtains over the windows, I was awake early with the wind noticeably increasing from very little overnight. The tide was about to turn so rather than struggle to get the anchor up with no one to drive the boat up to the anchor against the wind and tide I decided to leave as the tide turned, a very narrow window as I had seen the night before but even if I missed the turn I would have half an hour or so with relatively slack water so I got up and made the boat ready to move. 

I was lucky and just as the kettle boiled the flood tide stopped, as expected some minutes after published HW which it 8 miles down the river.By the time I had made the coffee and started the engine the boat was half way between the positions with the full flood and ebb and almost over the anchor so I was way just after 06:00 on a chilly overcast morning - despite the domestic weather forecast, it did not start to warm up until after lunch.

Going down river, Claddau Bridge in the distance.

The wind was rather fickle, ranging from almost nothing to F3 and from NW to NE in direction so the engine was on and off for the trip to the Dale Shelf anchorage that has reasonable protect from winds from all likely directions and is a good start point when leaving.

Up and back.

The plan is to leave Wednesday morning around 07:00 but I can leave earlier with a fair tide once out of the Haven if awake earlier as is likely. Winds are likely to be light and variable but with a southerly and westerly component so I may have a choice of anchorages and destinations in Ireland, I will be heading for Carnsore point that I have plenty of time to get too but if I have to use the engine more than I would like there are a couple of places further north that I might divert to. Then there should be several warm days to gentle sailing in light winds, or if there is no wind a dash up the coast under engine, with reasonable start times with north going tides starting around 07:00.

12 miles in 3.5 hours.

Click here for the two attempts to get to Ireland.