Grannagh to Dunmore East

The tides were favourable to do this paddle on Sunday morning. High tide was at 0940 and this meant high tide Waterford Bridge at 1040. We planned to be on the water in Grannagh about 1015 to arrive Waterford Bridge at slack water. I checked the eddies under the bridge the previous day and they do need to be treated with respect when the river is on full flow. We did the obligatory car shuttle to Dunmore East and the place was chock a block with cars as there was a sailing regatta so we ended up parking a distance from the slip - this meant when coming ashore later we would have to carry boats if the large crowd was still around.
When we got back to Grannagh we put in at about 1045 and went under the centre span of Rice Bridge at slack water around 1110. It was a great feeling to finally paddle down through our home town! We had never seen Waterford from this perpective and I was amazed at the size and number of boats moored in various locations along the river. Later in the trip as the current picked up we clocked 11km/h at one stage without even trying. We had two stops along the way - Cheekpoint and Fornaght Strand near Creadan.
As we rounded Creadan the wind had picked up a bit and we kept our heads down paddling to make Dunmore East around 1545. The regatta had finished and we did have to carry our boats some distance to the cars. The trip in total was 31km (as per GPS) which makes this our longest paddle to date.
One of our more memorable trips and the conditions were perfect!