Rocking in Garrykennedy

Finally out on the boat again on Sunday. We'd planned on a whole weekend, but my parents were trapped under the volcano ash until Sunday. We went to Garrykennedy for the night, into the new harbour. The old harbour was empty. Strange to see it like that when you usen't be able to get in at all. Neither harbour was sheltered from the northeasterly blowing all night. We rocked from side to side and the ropes creaked. It was very soothing. It also reminded me of our first overnight in Garry a decade ago on our first boat Caoimhe. Another windy day, but this time there were nasty choppy waves coming from the south west.

We had learned in our few weeks on the river that beam-on waves (those hitting you on the side) would make the boat rock alarmingly, breaking crockery and causing panic among people and canines, but we would be all right today, we reassured each other. Our route back to Tinerana Bay would allow us to head straight into the waves, and we had been told that a Freeman 23 was very unlikely to sink even though it may feel like riding a champagne cork in a flushed toilet. We cheered ourselves with the will-not-sink angle, and set off in good form, chugging slowly out of the harbour, but as soon as we pulled out of the lee and into the wind the boat mutated into a cork.
‘I’m not very happy,’ said Joe.
‘Neither am I.’
‘And we have to go round Parker Point.’ We both had strained, under-the-surface-panic voices. Parker Point is a notorious section of Lough Derg where the southerly arm joins Scariff Bay. A strong south-westerly splits around the headland opposite the Point, pushing waves from south and west to meet in pyramids at the intersection. Pyramids do not have a single edge at which you can point the boat.
Our boat felt very small in this big grey sea. We were cowards. We turned back.