Aleria's Adventures

Leaving Kilrush at 0530h.  We brought Aleria home from Kilrush over the past few days. We drove down Tuesday, hanked on the sails, provisioned, fill the tanks with water and fuel, cleaned up, then had a nice dinner aboard and early to sleep. Left at dawn to catch the tide, rounded Loop Head with the tide pushing us at about 8 knots, then motored in flat calm arriving in Inishbofin 12 hours later, bypassing Inishmore to take advantage of the calm weather as the forecast was dire for the next day.  We had gale force SE winds and torrential rain overnight but were well protected in Bofin Harbour. The next morning, with near gale and torrential rain forecast, we set out in flat calm and sunshine. There were rain showers all around us but we maintained a personal weather bubble. As it turned out, we were motoring along in the eye of the low-pressure system and arrived exactly at the right time to catch the incoming tide at the half. As we secured the boat on the mooring and got al...

The marina at Kilrush Kilrush has so much potential The River Shannon divides Clare from Kerry; it is Ireland’s longest and largest river. The mouth of the Shannon River is wide and inviting, stretching between Kerry Head on the Southside and Loop Head on the Northside. You really need time to be able to explore her lower reaches as there is little opportunity to find shelter before the town of Kilrush some 30 km up in County Clare on the Northside of the River. The Shannon is a powerboat paradise and a very popular tourist attraction for river boating. Consequently, there is a lot of information available about the River, especially from Limerick and beyond. The lower Shannon has Ireland’s only pod of resident bottlenose dolphins. More than 100 dolphins have been identified using the Shannon estuary. The success rate of seeing dolphins here is reported to be better than 98%.