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Boat Trip on the River Shannon to Mountshannon

This is a lovely boat trip on the river Shannon to Mountshannon village, a lovely quiet village on the shores of Lough Derg. Mountshannon can boast a large and well-protected harbour with floating jetties as well as stone jetties.

The village has a cafe, two pubs and one serves good food if you fancy a nice meal out. There’s a basic shop in the local petrol station but Mountshannon’s charm is in buildings and its old world charm, and of course in its people too.

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River Shannon Boat trip to Terryglass

A great River Shannon boat trip is the run down river from Portumna to Terryglass. It takes in a little bit of river boating as well as a taste of lake boating as well. A day of River boating can sometimes be a bit cold this early in the season, but that in no way deters us and we cruise the River Shannon to Terryglass on the beautiful Lough Derg. Thanks for watching.

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Cruise to River Shannon – Low Bridges & High Water

On this cruise to the River Shannon, we have to pass under some pretty low bridges. The Shannon Erne Waterway is in flood following the recent heavy rainfall. Our Cruise to the Shannon is not easy with low bridges and the River Shannon itself is also very high. The higher water level brings with it some unexpected problems, it’s not just the problems squeezing under the bridges, the likelihood of running aground is also much higher.


 

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Sacrificial Anode On Boats – Treating Rust Spots

Fitting Sacrificial Anode On Boats and treating rust with rust converters: This episode is all about maintaining below the water line. Different types of anodes, zinc, magnesium, and aluminum as how to use them to prevent corrosion.

Get AqueSteel Rust Converter on Amazon through this affiliate link: (every purchase helps support the channel at no cost to you! Amazon give us a small affiliate commission, Ta) https://amzn.to/2HZ61LG For 1 Lt
Or
https://amzn.to/2Uvie0C For 4 Lts

Another great rust converter that I use is Vactan, more about that here: http://performance-chemicals.net/vactan/

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Shake Down Cruise – First Boat Trip 2019

The annual shake down cruise is a bit of a tradition. It is usually sometime around the middle of March, St Patrick’s Day weekend if the weather is good enough or there abouts.

The idea is to flush out any problems that may get bigger over the coming boating season. And I have found over time that most boats will oblige by providing you with at least one expensive issue that will need resolving immediately, will cost twice as much as you expected and will take three times longer than expected. Such is boating. The ability to laugh at oneself and one choice of boat is a good quality to have.

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Electric Boat Launch – On the Canal at Ballinamore

This is the electric boat launch on the Canal at Ballinamore in County Leitrim, Ireland. It’s at Ballinamore Marina and it’s a fantastic piece of kit. See how they remove this small barge off the trailer and launch it with no crane or launch trailer.

Have a look at https://www.ballinamoremarina.com if you’re looking to buy a good used boat. Gavin brings boats in from Holland every week or two and his prices are surprisingly good (no I don’t get a commission!)

Check out our shop at https://www.driftwood.tv/shop where you get your hands on our book “Driftwood from the Shannon to the Marne” the humorous account of our first ever venture into the sea, and on to the French inland waterways.

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The Irish Coast Guard & The Mummers

The Irish Coast Guard do a fantastic job and we met them when they paid a visit to Enniskillen in Northern Ireland. They have a number of helicopters stationed at various locations through out Ireland and provide cover both north and south of the border. In an unrelated incident we met the Mummers on Lough Erne and Bobby Forrest told us all about them. That’s all coming up!

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Shannon Erne Waterway – Ballinamore to Kiltybardan Lough

Do you know what? There are some days in the middle of winter that are every bit as nice as a good summer’s day. And when we recorded this video it was on one such day. How lucky were we? The good weather made what is a really beautiful waterway look even better, and when you consider that it’s the middle of winter, just imagine what it looks like in the spring or the summer.

Here it is, and I hope you enjoy it:

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A look behind the scenes:

That’s a silly title really because there are no scenes when you vlog, not as such. We try to make it just us being us as much as we can. So far we have avoided showing us brushing our teeth in the mornings which seems to have become the vlogging base line.  But driftwood.tv is really a blog not a vlog and through it I’ll open a window or two into our lives a little wider.

I’m writing this from my bed, well I say my bed but it’s not mine really, it belongs to the HSE, or to Portinuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe to be a little more pedantic about it.

This is the exciting view from my bed!

I’ll spare you the details of what’s wrong with me because I’m assuming that gastrointestinal side of biology is not a fascinating topic of discussion for you, as it isn’t for me. But don’t worry it’s nothing too serious.

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Boating Ireland – Winter on the water

Boating Ireland – Winter on the water is a short video showing you how it can be when you go boating in Ireland in the winter. It’s actually surprisingly comfortable and still very enjoyable. Just make sure you’re dressed in the right cloths (which means all your cloths!) and you have a source of heat in the boat. You can enjoy Boating Ireland almost all year round. But people normally lock up their boats for the winter. Normal people that is! We like to go boating in Ireland for as much of the winter as is possible. Okay so it’s not the best boating Ireland and most of the winter time boating is just not possible, but there are days when you can get out and enjoy a fine winter day boating in Ireland. Come along and join us.