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After a nice couple of days at the Royal Cork Yacht Club I moved up to Drakes Pool 20 minutes up the Owenboy River. Said to be where Francis Drake hid his ship from the Spanish who were patrolling Cork Harbour. A fierce tide runs and you need to keep up enough speed to maintain steerage as you will have to navigate moored boats and the occasional buoy getting pulled under. Drakes Pool appears as you finish navigating a long ‘S’ bend in the river. You used to be able to anchor here but there are some private mooring buoys here now. Most people pick one of these buoys but an owner may well appear quickly and remind you it is private. They still seem to be happy for you to use it though. Have your mooring ropes ready to feed through an eye on top of the buoy, as the tide will sweep your bow away quickly. I arrived at full flood 2 hours before high water and there was 2 1/2 knots of tide running. I had to ferry glide with the engine driving to hold station above the mooring as I threaded the buoy. Being single-handed does have some draw backs but it all went well on the second attempt.

There are tall wooded banks on both sides with a road along one bank and a footpath next to it frequently used by walkers and joggers. It is a lovely little spot and a real bolt hole, you could understand how Drake was never found. How he managed to actually get a square rigger up the river before engines and without grounding is a feat in itself.

The grey ketch in the picture is ‘RONGLAS’ a unique and serious junk rigged ocean crosser. Designed and built by Jock McCloud incorporating many features of used by his friend the famous Blondie Hasler of ‘OSTAR’ fame. Google it for more information. Built of ‘Caschophen’ sheaved mahogany, very heavily framed and weighing in at 16 tons for a 43ft yacht. It was bought last year by some friends who I met five years ago when they came to Scilly in an early James Wharram design catamaran. They lived on her full time and spent the next five years cruising the French coast before looking for something bigger. ‘Ron Glas’ is a big step up for them and they have done a lot of  cosmetic restoration work to her and are waiting here in Drakes Pool for a weather window to go direct to spain. It is there permanent home and a remarkable boat which I was fortunate enough to go aboard for a couple of hours. Good luck Tony and Sally.

Made myself some dinner and sat taking in the surroundings in the cockpit, lovely weather again.

Tomorrow will see me depart around 0800 with the ebb for either Dungarvan approx 40 miles or further on to Dunmore East approx 60 miles.

Note: Mobile phone signal is very weak here but okay for text messaging.