An Irishman's boating diary
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I know… I just said the recession word. Please forgive me while I relate my story… At least I said in the context of boating through a recession! I had just returned to the Wicklow hills from a weeks holiday in France on our boat “Driftwood” . Wicklow is where we live and it’s where I work. The book about our adventure bringing our Shannon cruiser to France had just
We had a few drinks in Taylor’s Pub in Drumsna Co Leitrim on the banks of the River Shannon with good friends….
On Fri 21-Aug-2009 we said fairwell to many good friends. We had a great evening in Liam Taylor’s Pub in Drumsna. Liam looked after us with
This is my Dad Gerard Sheehy and myself. Without him none of this wonderful adventure would never have taken place. When I was planning to sail my boat to France I had loads of people who were planning on coming along. But when the day came nobody was available. Except for my Dad he was the only one who had faith in me.
I’ve always wanted to do the sea crossing from the river Shannon all the way to France. In April 2007 we untied Driftwood from her moorings near Jamestowm on the northern end of the river Shannon. This was no ordinary trip, we were heading on a mammoth journey to France.
A sea crossing that would involve a few days on Ireland’s Atlantic west coast before a full 24 Hrs crossing of the Celtic sea from Cork in the south of Ireland to Cornwall on the south coast of England. Then a few more days traveling east along the English coastline before crossing the English Channel and entering the French inland waterways at Le Havre and the river Seine.
Continue reading “Driftwood sea crossing from the river Shannon to France”
We called our first boat “The four of us” because, well because there was four of us I guess. We hadn’t a clue about buying boats and we bought it from a shed in Bansha in Co Tipperary. The guy selling it explained that it was made of plywood but it has a fibreglass skin over the ply “So you’re getting the best of both worlds”… I believed him!
We bought the Seamaster 30 “Glory Days” at a bargain price, that said it was kind of mankey dirty. There were cloths in the wardrobes covered in mould and one leather jacket that had mushrooms growing on it.You have to be able to see past the dirt with boats and see what you can make out of it. She was called Glory Days after the Bruce Springsteen song, well I presume that bit.
When we sold Trindle we bought a Seamaster 27 called Jerry. It was a terrible name for a boat so we renamed it “An Bhean Eille” it’s Irish for The Other Woman. They say it’s bad luck to rename a boat. Well my experience is that you will have bad luck with every boat whether you rename it or not.
Trindle was once a ship’s lifeboat but when we bought it, it was some what neglected. It had sank on the Grand canal and lay on its side there for eight years. We had often admired it and we could see through the surface to a boat that had potential.
Continue reading “We bought “Trindle” while it was still sunk…”