A Week on the River Shannon, Ireland, August 2008

Monday morning was a wet start, and surprisingly the worst weather for the whole week! After toast and a cup of tea for breakfast, we set off towards Roosky at about 09:15. After passing under a quite narrow lifting bridge through fast flowing water, we decided to moor just after and pop into a local shop to get some more provisions. It doesn't take long to get a few things for a couple of people.

Leaving Roosky at about 10:30 after a coffee, we went through Roosky Lock and Lough Forbes before arriving at a lifting bridge at Tarmonbarry. You need to wait for a green light to pass, as the "bridge keeper" has to stop road traffic and raise the bridge. Waiting can involve circling very slowly as there are not many places to moor and wait.

After passing under the bridge, we moored just before the lock for lunch. The lock keepers usually have their lunch between 13:00 & 14:00, so a good time for ours too.

There is a fee to pay for using the locks and lifting bridges that are raised. At the time of writing, the price was €1.50 (euros) for each use.

There was quite a flow over the weir opposite Tarmonbarry lock, due to the amount of rain that had clearly fallen over the past week or so. We were very lucky with the weather, as just after lunch the clouds started to clear and the sun came out for our cruise to Lanesborough.

We had decided that Lanesborough, County Longford, was a good place to moor for the night, before heading down the huge lake that is Lough Ree.

After passing through the very narrow marked opening of Bord Na Mona rail bridge, we passed by a peat burning power station.

A few fun and games then ensued. Another Lake Star craft attempted to turn in the fast flowing waters before the bridge entrance, but failed to make it ...... Initially the starboard side of the boat struck one of the bridge pillars, then it attempted to do another turn only to hit the other side on another pillar.

At this point, the boat got stuck broadside against the pillar of the bridge. The flow and current were so great that it couldn't move. I rang the boatyard on the supplied mobile phone to inform them what had happened. After 1½ hours the team turned up, but unfortunately didn't have a very powerful craft on a trailer to move "Gowna"

They decided to use "my" boat to drag the boat from the pillar. This the clever team managed, and with the other craft in reverse managed to manoeuvre the craft away to safety ... incredibly undamaged!

I do have a couple of YouTube videos of the sequence here and here

We decided to moor in the safety of the Marina later ...... and visited the town for a bite of dinner.