Arklow

Woke up in the early hours to visit the heads but when I was back in my berth I couldn't go back to sleep.
I felt refreshed after my sleep so decided, why not leave now?

I crept around so not to disturb Mel on the boat beside me and waited until shortly before leaving to turn on the engine and then slowly moved away, leaving the harbour in the dark at 02.45.

When I turned on the chartplotter shortly after leaving I was blinded by the bright backlight.
On my previous boat I had a Standard Horizon plotter which was brilliant and had a night time mode which turned on automatically just like the sat nav in a car.
My new Raymarine plotter doesn't have this and you'd need an instruction manual to discover how to dim the screen.
I had been so pleased with the Standard Horizon that I had tried to buy a larger model but discovered that they no longer made plotters and I was unable to find even a second hand one for sale so I got the Raymarine thinking that it would be better than the SH budget model. It isn't!

Anyway after pushing buttons and searching menus as I ranted, I let the autopilot do its job and stayed forward of the plotter as much as possible so I wouldn't be blinded.

I opted to go south of the Saltee Islands rather than crossing through St. Patrick's Bridge in the dark.
Once off the Coningbeg Light I changed course and headed east towards the Tusker.
I was getting about an extra knot from the tide and this increased to 2 knots once I got close to Tusker Rock and I was able to carry the tide with me as far north as Courtown.

The fog remained with me till midday, sometimes bringing visibility down to half a mile but mostly much better than that. Strangely the fog was not cold or wet. The sun then burnt it off in the afternoon and the temperatures rocketed upwards.

A pod of Common Dolphins joined me for a little bit but they too found the heat too much and headed off for deeper waters.

As I approached Arklow the depth sounder showed just how shallow this part of the coast is with its sandy bottom.
I came across a basking shark feeding on the surface leaving a long lazy S shaped wake.
There were plenty of pot buoys to avoid but they were easy to spot on the flat calm surface.
There hadn't been a puff of wind all day so the sails stayed stowed.

This was going to my first visit to Arklow.
I motored slowly past the empty disused quays and continued upriver until I came to a long pontoon on the river Avoca, tying up at 13.35.

The marina manager soon came down to relieve me of some cash and showed me the facilities and told my the best places in the town for food and drink.
I saw an old price list of berthing fees from 2009 before the crash and was pleasantly surprised that to find the fees nine years later were still 30% less that those of the Celtic Tiger era.

After a shower I wandered up the quays, bought the Examiner, got a coffee and sat down and chilled out as I read the paper.

Later when I walked into the town, I found that it was the centre of activity during the 1798 rebellion and also that it was the birth place Ronny Delany, the Olympic medallist.

The dock area had all the signs that it was once a busy port but now with the big factories long closed, the docks were mostly empty but hopefully will be repurposed for leisure activities in the future.
It was a nice friendly place and the town itself seems a busy place.

I returned to Eureka, had my dinner and did a bit of reading afterwards.
I had an early night as the heat had sapped all my energy.
I am looking forward to reaching Dun Laoghaire tomorrow and meeting Maeve and the other Moody owners.Read more