TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

0700hrs Departed Dungarvan for Waterford approx 35 miles.

Need to be at Dunmore East in time to catch the flood up river to Waterford. LW around 1300 hrs but not exactly sure when the flood starts up to Waterford so will anchor for lunch at Dunmore East until it begins. A very strong flood up to Waterford so need to get it timed right. Aim to cover the 20 miles to Dunmore East by 1300 hrs but an hour or so later would still be okay. Leaving earlier has actually worked out well. The forecast is SW or SSW 2-3 becoming SSW 3-4 by 1900. Similar pattern to yesterday with the wind coming up with the tide in the afternoon.

Another lovely morning with bright sunny skies with a few clouds around mainly over the land. Very light winds as I head off down the entrance channel at high water +1hr. Motoring until I get clear of the channel and into open water in the bay. Engine sounds slightly different, I check to see that the tell tale is running and its fine. Thought it may have ingested some of the soft Dungarvan mud through the intakes on the leg. Very light winds again and spend the first hour just drifting out of the bay with the ebb. Decide to motorsail over to the coast and keep in close again to avoid the main tide and have a good view of the cliffs and many little coves and beaches along the coast. A few pot buoys but well marked.

1234hrs After motor sailing under full sail and engine at low revs now able to cut the engine. Broad reaching 4.5 knots Irish radio 1 on in the back ground, quite entertaining. Wind SSW 2 and Hook Head light house visible on the bow. Swines head just before Dunmore East coming up and should be at Dunmore in plenty of time. Tidal info on chart plotter showing tide still ebbing from Waterford. Wonderful toy! 

1322hrs Arrived Dunmore East Harbour, stowed sails and anchored close in behind the local moorings under the cliff in 5 metres at low water. Anchor holding fine but water not clear enough to see the bottom. Remembered to put up my anchor ball and settled down to lunch in the cockpit. Lovely and sunny and just in out of a small swell that is coming across the outside of the harbour from the south. Probably not so comfortable at high water here. The inner harbour is a busy fishing port and probably best avoided by yachts but the anchorage is much prettier than I was expecting. A Hurley 22 on one of the local moorings but can’t make out a name.

The entrance to Waterford is wide with the distinctive Hook Head and light house on NE side and Swine’s Head on the SW. Saw one yacht out motoring around as I came in but thats all the yachts I have seen out sailing since Cork. Where are they all?  

1440 Departed Dunmore East under engine with half a knot of flood. Looking up the entrance towards Waterford you can see a headland a mile or so in on the port side called ‘Creadan Head’ which to me looks like it offers much better protection as an anchorage than Dunmore East. You can tuck right in behind it for a way and even probably dry out further in.

After half an hour slipping along with the flood at 6 knots you start to see it narrowing ahead as you approach a spit marker and East Passage. You will probably see a life boat on its mooring here to and a ferry crossing. The tides are very strong here as you get swept through East Passage at 8 knots! Now you are in the river proper and if you study your chart don’t need to follow the markers and can cut inside most of them until past Cheek Point. Lovely scenery as you go along and a couple of little boat yards tucked away on the banks. As you go around ‘Cheek Point’ you will see a power station to starboard and if it is a SW wind you will start to get a fresh breeze funnelling down and wind against tide chop on the water. There are also some strong tidal eddies for the next couple of miles as you pass a large dockyard and go past a little island just before Waterford. Still doing 6 knots comfortably at low revs. 

The final straight approaching Waterford once past the island slowly reveals the city and it isn’t the hard transition from countryside to city that I thought it was going to be, a pleasant surprise. There are a couple of modern apartment developments and small marinas before you get to the three large Marina pontoons at Waterford City. The visitors pontoon is pontoon ‘C’ and is the last one you come too before the Tug boat berth. Have all your ropes and fenders ready as there is a very strong tide at full flood, it was running at 4.5 knots when I arrived!

1755hrs Tied up alongside Waterford. You can moor on the inside or outside of pontoon ‘C’ and will need to raft up when busy. I tried to get to a vacant berth on the inside but my little outboard struggled to stem the tide and berthing successfully took a few attempts and wasn’t pretty. My propeller being behind the rudder doesn’t give you very good steerage but luckily a local man appeared after a while and was a great help taking a rope and spinning the boat around for me when I ended up bows on to the pontoon and beam on to the 4.5 knot tide. Needless to say I ended up berthed with my fenders and ropes on the wrong side! No damage done thanks to ‘Tom’ who took my rope. I expect many people mess up berthing here. The pontoons are all wood capped so no real harm can be done, just a couple of marks to polish out sometime. A very good days sailing and I am facing the right way to leave.

Note: Allow three hours to get from Dunmore East to Waterford at full flood. You could do it quicker in 2 1/2 hours but if you motor harder but up to 8 knots with the flow is fast enough for me.