Saltees Paddle

We decided to do a trip to the Saltees on our own to give us a flavour for planning a trip involving tidal streams etc. We reckoned the first trip should occur at neap tides to allow a margin of error if we got the tide planning wrong. Four of us met in Joe's house on Wednesday and we looked at the charts etc. We agreed our best window was from Wednesday (neap day) to about Saturday. Beyond Saturday the tidal flows would increase and when all factors were considered including weather forecast the group decided that Saturday was the best day. I also got my VHF call sign on the Friday so at least if we had to 'Mayday' it would be an official transmission!
Unfortunately Pat couldn't make it on the day but we managed the required safety quorum of 3 - myself, Joe and Mick. We arrive in Kilmore at about 1030 and were on the water about 1200. LW/HW in Kilmore was 1000/1620 so our calculations put slack water around 1200 and 1830 or so. We were concerned about the dreaded St Patricks bridge and could see from Kilmore the ripples over it stretching out to Little Saltee. At 1200 the current would be West so there wouldn't be any problem with St Patricks bridge. I put in my first call to the Coast Guard and filed a TR (trip report). We started paddling to Great Saltee and there was no tidal drift noticable. We wondered also about Seber Bridge but all we encountered there was a small chop.
We put ashore about 1315 on a landing spot on the north of the island and met some divers who we shared lunch with on the island. The views from the top of the island were beautiful and we couldn't leave the island without paddling all around it.
The North West of the island had some nice swells and it was a bit of a craic paddling through those. As soon as we turned the corner for the southern part of the island it was perfectly flat and calm. Very enjoyable relaxing looking at the birds and the seals. Joe also discovered that you should never look up at a nesting bird colony with your mouth open! Mick also got some dive bomb marks on his baseball cap.
On the homeward journey we decided to land on one of the golden beaches facing us on Little Saltee. The short rest would be a welcome break before paddling back encountering the East flowing tide across St Patrick's. However when we got to Little Saltee we noticed the 'golden' beaches were nothing more than round boulders but decided to land anyway. We were all slipping and stumbling round the place on the stones and we christened this 'ball bearing beach'.
We then headed back for Kilmore and reckoned we would have some tidal stream effects to contend with. Conditions were very lumpy off Little Saltee until we made out into deep water. Paddling across St Patricks we had a East flowing 1kn current so we had to take that into account and ferry to the West of Kilmore.
We landed ashore about 1800 and I contacted Coast Guard - the signal at Kilmore wasn't great and they requested a radio check as they mentioned I was breaking up.
Great trip and looking forward to doing it again!

Dolphins in Dunmore East

We met in Dunmore East with and debated whether to paddle Loftus Hall or Portally. We decided to head across to Loftus Hall. On the way over we noticed a pod of dolphins splashing around. There were five in total and were very playful and curious. At one point a dolphin shot about 6 feet vertically from the water and I managed to get a photo of the re-entry (probably a dolphin version of the re-entry and roll!) They seemed to enjoy coming towards the kayaks in a group and then diving just a few feet from us and blowing air when underneath. At one point I saw a dolphin surfing towards me in one of the swells on its side in the water. Really amazing to see them playing. Some of the locals reckon the dolphins are there the past few weeks. Amazing animals and certainly the high point of all the photos we've taken since being on the water.

We then decided to paddle to Portally instead of Loftus Hall and Joe cooked a spot of lunch (LIDL sausages) - very tasty and welcome with the warm drinks. With the shite weather we're having I'm going to always bring hot drinks from now on. You would think that in August you could still get by with cold bottles of water but we cooled down quick enough when ashore.