Sneem Harbour County Kerry Republic of Ireland

Lawrence Cove was just a night stop for us, particularly as we were wanting to progress north, so we wanted to move on Saturday. However, the forecast for Saturday 31 May wasn’t great, but it did suggest that the wind (southwesterly, of course!) would start off moderate and then increase. As a result, we set the alarm for 0600hrs which proved to be early, but not early enough because the wind was already ‘fresh’ just outside the anchorage. So, we made the decision to head 2nm back east around the island and then beat down the south side rather than beating along the north side and taking our chances in the unknown, fairly narrow channel at the western end of Bere Island against the incoming tide and wind.

The red line shows our route from Lawrence Cove to Sneem Harbour with a lot of tacking
to get out of Bantry Bay

That turned out to be the wrong choice! The waves and the swell in the main body of the bay topped 2m and we had about 25kts of wind across the deck as we beat into it. On the plus-side, the new staysail performed admirably and is a lot more useful as a headsail with a double-reefed main than the previous staysail as it is a lot larger than its predecessor. But we may regret that increased size in a decent gale in the open ocean - time will tell. As the bay opened out, the wind gradually decreased, so we unrolled part of the new genoa, trying different amounts of sail and playing with car positions and the such-like. Every now and then a big black cloud came past and dumped a load of rain on us, occasionally bringing up to 30kts of wind too. It was a generally unpleasant, bashing beat.

Tip of Dursey Island to our right (bottom). The Calf and the Heifer Rocks to our left (middle).
The Cow and the Bull in the distance on the right (top) 

Seven hours later we reached the tip of Dursey Island and then tacked a little to cut safely through the narrow channel between Dursey Island and the Calf and Heifer rocks, before bearing away to pass the Cow and the Bull and head into the Kenmare River.

Passing the Cow with its lighthouse and the larger Bull down our left side as we turned and headed towards
 the Kenmare River

Nicky had vetoed going through Dursey Sound (between Dursey Island and mainland Ireland), which would have saved us an hour or so because she was concerned about how the southwesterly swell would be funnelled into the narrow sound, complete with tidal rips and mid-tide rocks, unexpected back-eddies of wind and potentially dangerously rebounding swells in the northern entrance to the sound. The boat that followed us out of Bantry Bay went through the Sound … and emerged entirely unscathed.

Downwind along the Kenmare River 

But we enjoyed our longer downwind sail east along the Kenmare River with poled-out genoa and single-reefed mainsail. 

At anchor and the sun came out

Sneem’s Oysterbed Quay

It took us about 3 more hours to reach Sneem’s Oysterbed Quay, where we dropped anchor in good shelter from wind and swell, in beautiful, wooded scenery, surrounded by hills.  A resident seal colony obviously also likes the scenery and the smooth rocks in the anchorage too.

Sneem Quay

Again, the wind howled overnight and into the next day, and on the morning of Sunday 1 June we woke to the sound of rain hammering down as well. But we wanted to make the dinghy trip up to Sneem village and the forecast had been promising from late morning. Importantly too the tide was such that we had to go in the morning…….. So, with reluctance we hauled ourselves from our bunk. It was worth it. The rain dried out, though the wind increased, and the sun came out in patches too. We set off up-river at high tide, knowing that we had just 4 hours before the river would be un-navigable. It’s 1.5nm to Sneem from Oysterbed Quay, but there are mid-stream rocks to avoid. Happily, we managed to avoid them all (both going up-river and down) and we arrived at the quay just short of Sneem half an hour after leaving Blue Velvet.

Sneem Village

Sneem is a nice village with lots of community projects (wildlife gardens, allotments, sculpture trail, etc) brightly panted houses, green spaces, cafés, pubs, small shops.

‘Sneem Falls’

We enjoyed a wander around the village, walked the 2 short riverside paths, viewed some of the (unremarkable) sculptures and the 'Sneem Falls', which are rather pretty.

Sneem’s Pyramid Garden

On our way back to the quay we looked at Sneem’s Pyramid Garden, also known as “The way the fairies went”. James Scanlon, a Kerry sculptor, created the work with local stonemasons to celebrate Sneem winning the National Tidy Towns Competition in 1987.

And then walked a little further past the quay around the pretty coastal path which gave good views across the river.

There was even a local gig practicing on the river to add a bit of colour.

Sneem Quay

Despite our extra walk around into the next bay, there was still enough water for us at the quay and to get safely back down river to Blue Velvet before the receding tide cut off Sneem.

Seals basking as the edge of our anchorage

We returned to Blue Velvet via the preferred haul-out location of the bay’s large seal colony and then busied ourselves with boat jobs for much of the afternoon. Inevitably, the wind decreased at sunset but it was due to pick up again, this time to a W or SW gale overnight Monday into Tuesday. Some careful analysis of the weather forecast vs reality would be needed and possibly an extra day or two at the Oysterbed Quay anchorage.

Blue Velvet at the Oysterbed Quay anchorage

Sneem Harbour, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland