18th - 19th October. Garadice Lough and Haughton's Shore harbour.

After staying overnight in Riversdale Marina, we continued on to cross Garadice Lough.

When we arrived at Haughton's Shore, three of the mooring bollards were under water, so we tied up in the corner. We were moored across the slipway, but it seemed very unlikely that anyone would want to use it.

The water level continued to rise during the day, and by late afternoon we decided that The Puzzler would be safer against the work platform, at the other end of the harbour. We did not want to wake up to find ourselves stranded on top of the wall!

Looking to the right of the harbour, the wall mooring was completely underwater.

This is a photo taken at the end of May, to show the water level as it was then.

At the far end of the harbour, the slip way can just be seen, in the centre to the left of the wall.The lifebelt is hanging behind the wall mooring on the left. Last night, just before dusk, a Carrick hireboat arrived in harbour and pulled in just beyond the lifebelt, not realising that there was a wall there! They stuck on top of it! However, by using our long pole to push them, they were eventually afloat again. They spent the night safely tied on to The Puzzler, and left early the next morning.

Access to land was across this floating bridge, created by the workboat. When Catkin came out here first, in the evening, it was dark, and she did not realise that we were now tied to another boat. She checked all round the edges then, as the water was quite calm and the harbour lights were reflected in the water, she jumped off at this end of the boat, thinking that it was her best option! By the time that Sally reached her, she had nearly swum to the harbour wall, and was soon clinging on to it, waiting to be pulled out. What a wet dog!

15th - 17th October. Keshcarrigan and Shannon -Erne Waterway to Riversdale Marina

Having come up eight locks, we are now on the summit level of the Shannon - Erne Waterway. We moored on the end of Keshcarrigan jetty, behind a cruiser. With a penichette hire-boat beside us, we feel very small!

The dinghy from the boat in front took a liking to The Puzzler!

From Keshcarrigan we moved on to moor above Ballyduff lock. There is always room to moor above these locks, still leaving space for any boat which may be using the lock.
Monday was very wet but we were due at Riversdale Marina so had to carry on in the rain. After going through Ballinamore we entered Ardrum Lock, where the rain became torrential. Having exited the lock, we tied up on the lower lock mooring for an hour, until the rain stopped. During that hour the water level rose by about a foot!

The weir at Aghoo lock, the next one down, is immediately above the lock, making it difficult to get to the lock mooring, because of the pull of the stream. The east side of the Shannon - Erne is definitely a waterway, as opposed to a canal!

We decided to turn The Puzzler round and go down the lock backwards. It was wonderful to be in the lock, and away from the power of the river water.

Once out of the lock, we continued backwards down the river, so that it was then easy to turn against the stream into Riversdale Marina. Andy is nearly level with the entrance, to his right, here.

It did not take Graham's man long to remove the damaged taff rail.

Great care was taken to make the new port taff rail match the starboard one, while protecting our paintwork. We were very impressed with the work done, and would recommend Graham's Marina at Riversdale to anyone.

11th - 14th October. Carrick, Leitrim and the Shannon - Erne Waterway

We spent the night at the end of the Jamestown Canal, always one of our favourite moorings.

Catkin does not really mind where we moor, so long as she can have her daily roll on the mown grass. Waterways Ireland certainly look after their moorings well.

From Jamestown we sailed up the River Shannon to Carrick, stopping on the end of the finger pontoon mooring. There was a barge moored just upstream of us, which protected us from the flow on the river, and it was a quiet place to be. There were no passersby, but it was over 200 yards to dry land, and grass, along the jetty, so Catkin was unimpressed!
We took the bikes to shop at Tesco, as it is about a mile from the mooring. After that Andy set off with the trolley and empty gas to a garage he had found, which was even further than Tesco! We use propane, while most boats in Southern Ireland use butane, which is not compatible with our gas regulator. The fitting on the propane cylinders is different in the South too, so we have one of each, which works fine, so long as we can find a supplier who sells propane! They have been few and far between.

Sailing on from Carrick, it is really noticeable how much more water there is in the River Shannon. It is starting to come out of its banks into the surrounding fields.

At Leitrim we leave the River Shannon to join the Shannon - Erne Waterway. The floating pontoon is at least a foot higher than it was earlier in the year, with the connecting bridge being nearly level. We are quite glad to be on quieter waters now.

We met Angela, who told us how, two years ago, the water level at Leitrim rose so much that an extra section had to be welded on to the pillars which hold the pontoon in place. Look closely at the black section to see the join!

Plenty of water can still be found, coming from the side weir below Tiermactiernan Lock to push The Puzzler sideways.

The local stone has been used to great effect in creating this boat, beside the towpath, part way up the Kilclare Locks.

Andy sails on to Kilclare Upper Lock. The green light behind indicates that Kilclare Middle lock is ready for a boat to come down.

By the time we reached the top of these eight locks to the summit level, it was a glorious sunny afternoon.

2nd - 10th October. Kilglass and Grange. Back up the River Shannon to Drumsna, then Jamestown.

A lot of rain fell during the night and by morning there was about an inch of water in Mini Puzzle. There was noticeably more current too, which made it quite exciting on our way back down Mountain River. The extra flow was very noticeable as the river has many sharp corners. We needed power to turn, but could not go too fast, for safety! The bow thruster was extremely useful.

Once back in Kilglass Lough, the reflections were stunning.

We carried on to Kilglass jetty, which has finger moorings, at the far end of the lough. It is a really isolated place.

Mini Puzzle is still full of water, so is not riding very well behind us, on our return up Kilglass Lough.

Grange mooring lies at the next head of navigation, to the north of Kilglass Lough. We had hoped to explore the river here by dinghy, but it is too shallow, so Mini Puzzler will be deflated now for the winter.
The mooring at Grange is much more informal than most, with the pub very handily placed close by.


The clouds over Lough Boderg were as impressive as ever, as we sailed on, later on Wednesday, once the wind had died down.

Instead of continuing on to the Jamestown Canal, we followed the Shannon River to Drumsna. This is a pleasant wall mooring, with plenty of well manicured grass and picnic tables too.

Catkin spends any spare time asleep! It is quite a squash here by the table leg.

This lifelike statue was poised at the far end of the mooring at Drumsna, ready to dive into the river.

After a few wet and windy days at Drumsna, it is back to the Jamestown canal, and through Albert Lock. Jamestown Canal was built in the 1770s  to bypass the great loop in the Shannon here, and the shallows in it between Jamestown and Drumsna.

At the far end of the Jamestown Canal, we turn right for the short stretch up to Jamestown itself. It is quite a small town, but it has a great history. These graves are within the ruins of an abbey in the churchyard.

As you walk round town these Heritage Trail Plaques are there to identify each point of interest. This one is for Jamestown Weir, even though this is as near as you can go!

Jamestown was once a fortified town. James 1 granted it a royal charter and it was surrounded with a wall 6 metres high and 1.8 metres thick. Jamestown Arch is the remains of the original gateway to the town, the top of which had to be removed to allow for large modern lorries.

O'Beirne's Tower stands at the corner of the original O'Beirne estate.

27th September - 1st October. From Richmond Lock up the Camlin River. On up The Shannon to Dromod, on to the Carnadoe waters, and up Mountain River.

We winded below Richmond Lock, using the current to push The Puzzler round. The lock can be seen behind us to the left in this photo.

Seeing the Camlin River in sunshine this time showed us what a lovely river it is. We are travelling back upstream to rejoin the Shannon.

It is about three miles from Richmond Harbour back to rejoin the Shannon. The Camlin River meanders through the fields and is rather like the upper reaches of the River Thames.

The Shannon opens out into Lough Forbes. Although it is much smaller than Lough Ree, we are still a long way from the shore here.

After a brief shopping stop in Roosky, we continue northwards into Lough Bofin and on to Dromod Harbour. There are not many boats here, compared to last time, when there were 23 in harbour. The weather today has been glorious, with wall to wall sunshine. It was out with the chairs to spend the afternoon enjoying the heat. Catkin found a doggy friend to play with here too.

The private harbour at Dromod seems to be full, with not much boat movement. Since the end of August we have seen far fewer private boats out sailing.

We leave Dromod next morning to sail up Lough Bofin, with an overcast sky and a following wind. However the clouds ahead keep away from us, and we have another glorious afternoon, heading west across the bottom end of Lough Boderg.

Leaving Lough Boderg we are back on a smaller river system, and moor at Carnadoe Quay. This is a pleasant wall mooring, with plenty of short grass for Catkin. Another glorious afternoon here and then our Indian Summer was over! Friday brought torrential rain and by Saturday we could only manage a top temperature of 18 degrees, compared to 29 degrees on the south coast of England. Still, that would be too hot, wouldn't it?!

We were very taken by this attractive thatched cottage at Carnadoe. Considering how many reeds there are along this river system, it is surprising that there are not more thatched cottages. They must be the wrong sort of reeds!

After crossing Carnadoe Lough, we take the left channel at Carrigeen Cut. The way through the reeds is well marked, and we then go right and up Mountain River.

It is not clear at all where the navigation ends on Mountain River. There are some private moorings after about ten minutes, but we continued for a further half an hour, before discretion kicked in! We managed to wind, with the stern held by the bank, as the current helped the bow thruster to push us round. The bows were over the bank as we turned, and another inch would have made it impossible to turn. This corner mooring was a perfect fit for The Puzzler, although the field was extremely wet under foot.

We launched Mini Puzzle, and set off further up Mountain River. One of these swans flew ahead of us, in short bursts, for most of our trip. He eventually caught up with four more, who all paddled along in front of us.

We cruised on for over three miles before turning back, as the banks were closing in on us. The current was quite strong too, and we did not want to get too close to any thorn bushes.

This young beast was quite interested in our progress back downstream.

On approaching this "three spectacle" bridge, we managed to catch some weed on the propeller of the dinghy. It waited until we were nearly at the bridge before really taking hold, and stalling the engine! The current took us directly into the right pillar, so energetic fending off was needed. We finally spun through the smaller right hand arch, while Andy removed the weed, and all was well. We managed to hook the propeller on one rock beyond the bridge on our way upstream and another, or perhaps the same one, on the way back. It all added excitement!

However, we were quite glad to return safely to The Puzzler.