Our plan had been to visit Garykennady (yes, that's a town, not a person) after Killaloe, but the wind forecast looked ugly. There were several days with increasing winds. Wednesday would have 10-15 knot winds from the South. By Thursday, they were meant to increase to closer to 20 knots. If we stopped in Garykennady at the bottom of the lake, we were going to be waiting for several days before we could head North. So, we decided to make directly for Portumna (which would also mean nice walks, good shopping and take-away).
We set out around 11:30. Our first challenge was getting through the bridge. It was a bit intimidating, since the water was running quite high. But now we were going against the current, which gave us much better control. There was much less adrenaline involved this time and we made it through safely.
The wind was strong from the South, and the water was quite choppy on the river (there is a specific kind of wave which forms when the wind blows against a current which is quite dramatic, and can be dangerous in some circumstances). Once we moved out onto the lake, it turned into large swells. Since we were moving North, the pushed us along, and it was a fairly smooth ride. This continued all the way to our destination.
The trip was uneventful, except for a bit of panic around a small hazard a bit North of Drumaan. There is some sort of shallows there, and the buoys there were hard to decipher. At one point I panicked and stopped us, not knowing which side of a marker we were meant to travel. Sarah figured it out quickly, and we managed to not run aground.
The whole trip only took about 3 hours, which was faster than expected (did I mention that Sarah has a lead foot??). We pulled into the harbour and had our choice of a few berths. Andrea woke from a nap shortly after arrival, and we all went for a walk in the woods.
We spent four nights there in Portumna. There was a good bit of rain, and we were glad to have the shore power so we could run the dehumidifier. During the better weather, we enjoyed some long walks in the woods, and I managed to get a run in.
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