Arklow - 52° 47' 50" N, 06° 09' 44" W

Arklow is not a town that was designated a "must stop" by many, but we found it to be a great place.  Quite industrial (and quite shallow in the river!).  Being here was all about making our way north - a bit closer to Dublin.

Our sail up included a trip across St. Patrick's Bridge - a notorious shallow spit of land that runs south from Kilmore Quay to the Saltee Islands.  What looks like open water is quite dangerous if you do not stick to the channel marked with a green buoy.

"I know we stick to the light blue part, but does the green buoy go to starboard...
or port?"

Crossing it cuts two hours off the journey, but getting it wrong could put you in the many uncharted rocks there.  The seas were steep going through for 15 minutes but soon evened out into a gentle swell from the east.  As we turned to port around Carnsore Point, the on-the-nose 16 knot breeze became a lovely, steady, sail-able wind from the aft quarter.  We cut through the swell and had an enjoyable ride north. 

As we approached Arklow, we radioed ahead to the harbourmaster to confirm that they could accommodate Chinook.  He asked what our draft was and we replied, "1.2 metres."  He seemed satisfied that he had enough information and told us to motor past the fishing boat basin on the left and keep going to the leisure craft marina on the right.  He would come out of the office to the dock and give us a hand with lines.

The leisure craft (non-fishing boat) marina is at the top right.
We tied up on the river pontoon just outside.

The entrance from the Irish Sea was tricky - a one metre swell was running from the east and the chart showed a shallow (dark blue) bit just on the east wall of the South Pier.  We rounded the corner and made it it into the Avoca River.  As we made our way upriver, we saw the harbourmaster standing onshore at the entrance to the marina with a portable VHF radio in his hand.  Our radio crackled to life when he saw us.

"Sweet Mary ... yea'll not fit in here!  Better tie up to the river pontoon!"

I guess he had made some assumptions on our vessel size based on our shallow draft!

Tied up on the river, outside the marina

Arklow was once the biggest fishing port in Ireland and has had many big industries based here, including a munitions and explosives factory and a porcelain (as in, sinks and toilet bowls) factory.  The latest industry driving the town is an offshore wind farm project came to be in the early 2000's.

Drone picture showing the town to the left (past the fishing boat harbour)

Some of the locals were more optimistic about the warm weather than we were!

We had arrived on St. Patricks Day and there was a local parade along the High Street (sorry, no pictures were taken - we were trying to get to the pub!).  We were meeting up with the daughter (and her husband) of one of Kate's workmates.  Sydney and her husband, Thomas, are now living in Dublin and drove down to Arklow to meet us and catch up.  It was so nice to see them!

Visiting our friends' adult kids is fun. 
 The St. Patricks Day balloons made it even better!

We have heard from the local fishermen in Dunmore East that Arklow is an inexpensive place to get fuel.  We are not sure what the prices are like going further north, but we will fill up here if we can arrange it in the next few days. The daffodils make it look like spring has arrived.  We'll take this lovely, sunny weather when we can get it.

Chinook enjoying the sun bobbing on the Avoca River. 
The marina entrance is behind Chinook, by the red tower.

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