Top Cat Irish Cruise 2003

SE Ireland Summer Cruise on Top Cat 2003

Map showing Arlow to Waterford part of the cruise, click on yellow areas to navigate

Wexford

25 August 2003 1445z
37 nm Average speed 6.5 kts
Wind NNE F5-6

We left early next morning from Arklow and sailed south towards Wexford. Dublin was out as the wind had gone into the north and the idea of wind on the nose all the way was not too appealing.

We had a terrible time trying to find the entrance. The pilot says that the entrance is buoyed during the summer months by the boat club, these would be orange buoys, it said.

What I did not expect was that these would be mooring buoys, in onshore wind at the top of a F6 these would be neigh on impossible to locate. We ran in front of the wind towards the entrance, this gave us a false sense of security with respect to the weather, it was not until we turned we realised that the wind was 26kts gusting to 32kts. We were already in the shallows and needed to get offshore quickly in order to work out our entrance.

The sand banks around the entrance to Wexford move regularly and just heading in was not an option. I started the engines around half a mile out and started to make for more depth, once in deeper water we were quite comfortable and able to plan our strategy. We had four pieces of reference, the Irish pilot, the reeds almanac, paper charts and the navionics chart plotter. Oh and of course our eyes. The worst part of the plan was none of this information tallied!

We plotted a course that was an average of all the information, in the hope that at some point one of the orange buoys would appear and we could continue the entrance using the locals channel. This did work, although upon seeing the first buoy which was unfortunately not the first in sequence we inadvertently crossed one of the many sandbanks. This was not entirely unplanned, I had checked the depth and charted depths and decided we could make it, it would just be a bit lumpy, which it was!

At Wexford we still had 26kts of wind North of East, this is not a good condition for crossing the badly marked sand bar entrance. We crossed with steep waves with only 1ft of water beneath the keels, Top Cat only drafts 2ft 6in so you can see the bar was very shallow.

Once over the sand bar you find yourself in a tranquil bay, shallow all over with a moving channel. Mussel dredgers work this area (see photo). We were struggling to find the channel marks as we did finding the entrance buoys before the bar. These marks are laid by the boat club and are only orange fenders, which disappear below waves in the conditions we arrived.

The skipper of this dredger called me up on the radio to help me with my pilotage, even offering that we could follow him in as he was due to finish after a few minutes. Fishermen helping yachts in, never on our side of the pond, these guys were really happy to help.

Visitors moorings

Wexford has made many improvements to its waterfront using large grants from the EU. Unfortunately the proposed marina development has been put on hold. The Irish Pilot says it acceptable to anchor in the area which is due to become the marina. I would not advise this in strong easterlies. It is a very small area and very open to wind.

Because of the space, wind and 12m+ depths getting your anchor on the bottom and fast before the vessel is trying to clamber onto the back wall is quite entertaining, more so in Top Cat with her higher windage. Before we gave up and moved to the fishing wall we tried to moor stern-to the back wall tying up to the ladders (this marina has the worlds strongest ladders, there are no mooring facilities on the walls).

Our problem was aided by the haphazard anchoring of the small boats already there. Two guys on their fishing dinghies were very helpful but I had to abort eventually, we had got the anchor down but Top Cat was skidding about in the wind and there just was not the space.

We ended up moored to the wall just in front of the dredgers.

Here was our view for the next few days. It could not be much better, step off Top Cat and you are in the middle of town. The only problem was the design of the walls, they have been designed for fishing and larger vessels. Our wall fenders were useless as they would not hold us off the wall due to the beams being 20" thick. There were some tires where we tied up, but these have left terrible marks on the hull. They also tore chunks out of our rubbing strake, yes it was rotten, but now it also looks terrible.

We were awoken in the morning by a rumbling train noise getting louder and louder. We had crossed the tracks the evening before and thought nothing of it, I expected maybe the odd goods shunt or even a tram, there are no fences or warning signs, like any tracks generally seen around docks. No; This was the Dublin to Rosslare main line, and as you see proper trains really do run through, though they do slow down, it is still something I have never seen before.

26 Aug 2003

Here Tanya is walking the dogs (now international Staffies) along the board walk at Wexford.

We had a couple of nice days in Wexford waiting for a change in weather, which was nice, if you can Wexford is well worth the visit. The locals are unbelievably friendly. On our arrival yesterday Tipper had been on the foredeck sporting his bright life jacket.

Just before this picture was taken we had been in the town, victualling and I needed an internet cafe to get some idea of the coming weather. We had not run to Wexford, but we had no intention of leaving in an E F6.

While in a news agents they happened to have South East Radio on the radio, the presenter talking about the Welsh boat that had arrived yesterday and the dog had a life jacket on, he was chuffed by life jackets for dogs. So we got a mention, well at least Tipper did on National radio.

Earlier on I had walked up to some of the fishermen on the wall and asked where I might get diesel, I still was unsure whether or not red diesel was available in Ireland. It is, but is coloured green, but around the same price as the UK.

I was told of a supplier, but it was out of town and not too easy to find. The guy with the van is on lunch I will get him to give you a shout.

I did not know what to expect so nodded accordingly and wandered back down to Top Cat About an hour later the fisherman with the van knocked on the boat, he then ran me in his van 20 minutes out of town to get fuel, he would not take a penny of me for this, this is why I love Ireland. If you ever read this website, may I take this opportunity to thank you very much for your help and selfless help.

Later on, we had another visitor, the commodore of the boat club came to invite us up to the club for a drink. Wexford sailing club is quite an odd affair. To save on costs they share the premises with the tennis club, it is a little strange to see tennis racquets on the wall of a sailing club.

We had a nice night at the club and wandered back to Top Cat glowing from Guinness. It was a little difficult to explain to the taxi driver where we wanted to go and I think he was quite confused when dropping us off on the sea wall.

We had a great time in Wexford, and we thank the locals for making it so.

We left Wexford bound for Waterford at 0634z 27 Aug 2003.

On our way to Waterford we passed the windfarm at Rosslare, this is the closest I have ever been to a wind farm, the turbines were enormous.

Waterford

27 Aug 2003 1541z.

We arrived at Hook Head Lighthouse at 1541z.
Time 09:07 hrs
43.7 nm Average speed 4.8 kts
Wind ENE 3-4 then E 4-5

Waterford river. We had taken about an hour and a half to get this far up river, I had missed the tide and we had up to 4 kts of current against us. This was ok while we were sailing at 8 kts with the strong winds at Hook Head, but as we moved up river we were in the lee of the land and our progress slowed dramatically. At times the GPS fell below 1 knot speed of ground.

At times going up river we were down to 1 knot SOG. This did though give us plenty of time for sight seeing. Here the chain ferry from Waterford to Wexford crosses our path and a cargo ship leaves Waterford. There were very few leisure craft on the river as we sailed up, there was a lot of commercial traffic though.

The visitors pontoon in the City of Waterford.

Time 2015z
Distance from Hook Head 16.7 nm
Average speed up river 3.67 kts
Wind calm

The frontage of Waterford is split between leisure boats and commercial. Here a trawler on her berth on the other side of the river on the right the leisure boats rest on pontoons on the town side of the river.

The visitors pontoon at Waterford is in the heart of the city overlooked by Reginald’s Tower, dating from 1003 AD so pretty old really.

On the right hand image you will see a lodged cannon ball from Cromwell's Son in Law, Ireton's assault; Unsuccessful. The Tower now houses a museum and gives an impression of how life was in the tower, which has also been used as a mint. The top floors were added later on in the Towers life, definitely worth a visit.

Further up the waterfront is Waterford Museum, these two attractions are a must to anyone visiting.

The Tower Hotel is a very nice hotel right above the moorings. They offer showers to visiting yachtsman as Waterford does not have a dedicated sailing club, they also give gate keys out of hours when the City Hall Engineers department office is closed.

For 3 Euro you can use the gym showers, that is each!

This was the one aspect of our stay that in my opinion was terrible, the showers are communal in a bank of 4, one cold and three hot. They have those sticky taps that you press and they release almost immediately you release, stopping the flow of water. After a quick swim or session in the gym these showers are fine, but when you need to clean up after a day or two at sea, they really are not up to scratch, I hope the harbour rectify this blip to an otherwise great stay.

On the vessel we had rafted against I had spoken to the owner who earlier that day had popped down to check everything was ok with his boat. I had asked him when a good time to leave was, with respect to tide, and he told me an hour before HW is usual. The next morning I found an envelope attached to our cockpit.

Inside Alan from his boat Mabona had printed out weather and tide info for the next week ahead, I had not asked for this, he just wanted to help us, I love Ireland. Thank you Alan, I hope you got the box of biscuits we left, before the seagulls did.

Waterford Town images

30 Aug 2003 0710z

On Saturday morning we left Waterford. This was to be our last day in Ireland as the coming forecasts where not looking good for the week ahead. As it turned out the forecasts had been incorrect, each time I logged on the forecast changed, this has been the case all year, but I had to make a decision, I did not want to have to leave the boat in Ireland if the weather had turned nasty.

Dunmore East

30 Aug 2003 1206z

We were held up in Dunmore East waiting for the fuel guy to return from lunch. We were told he would be about ten minutes or so. After thirty minutes I was getting anxious, I did not need fuel desperately, but thought it would be nice to fill the tank, and the Eberspasher tank was getting low.

After an hour I wanted off, but you know how it is, he may get here in two minutes. It was after two hours I called some fishermen on the quay, they called him up on the mobile and he came from home in about a minute.

I think he fell asleep!

30 Aug 2003 1322z

Finally we left Dunmore East and headed back for Wales. I had decided to go over to Milford Haven and then travel down to Padstow from there, thus completing a trip we attempted earlier in the year.

This is our last landfall of Ireland, we had had a great week, and vowed to come back soon, I want to cruise further north next time and then come home via the Isle Of Man; watch this space!