Harbour Master Sailing Challenge March 2019 to September 2023

Dunmore East

September 13, 2023
Dunmore East. My "port of refuge".

After a cracking sail from Cork, my crew (The Rev Philip) and I were nearing Dunmore East when we motored right over a small black lobster marker buoy. Instantaneously its rope wrapped around our propellor and brought our engine to an abrupt halt. There was a light north westerly wind and we were gently drifting south east towards Hook Lighthouse. Hook, as in "by Hook or by Crook" made famous by Oliver Cromwell when deciding how to attack Waterford. I digress.

My boat Good Dog is brilliant at many things, but tacking into a harbour in a light wind is not one of them, so being a fully paid up supporter of the RNLI I made a non urgent call to the coastguard and alerted them to our predicament. Within a few minutes Dunmore East's Shannon Lifeboat helmed by legendary coxswain Roy Abrahamsson (who did his first shout aged 7!) was on its way to collect yet another stranded yachtsman. When I spoke to the HM later, Captain Deirdre Lane did say she wondered who the "shout" was for and then heard me on the radio. I was very grateful.

Born locally, Deirdre was was a keen sea scout and so keen to join the Naval reserve, at 16 she faked her age as 17. However, described as "too wild" for the military Navy she moved to the merchant navy, her desire for sailing having been triggered by a passage on sail training ship Asgard II. She served as a cadet with Stena on their RoRos and tankers. Then her "dream job" came up with Irish Lights - as Chief Officer on the state of the art ship ILV Granuaile, servicing navigation marks and inspecting lighthouses as well as a desk job overseeing the "solarisation" of lighthouses.

In 2018 she was tempted to "come home" and took up as HM in Dunmore East. Deirdre is passionate about her job and takes no backchat from the fishermen in her harbour. On her first day at work she heard a voice say "F***, now there's a woman in charge!" so she immediately replied out of the window "Morning lads, how are you doing?" She has never had anymore comments!

The harbour is one of the six official fisheries harbours but also receives a lot of foreign fishing boats which are not as well behaved as the home fleet. She had to ban one Belgian boat for literally playing "bumper cars" with other boats. The harbour is also popular with cruise ships visiting Waterford Crystal and in a short time the population of the village can treble and cause coach traffic chaos. It was one of the first things she sorted out, building a brand new roundabout and a strict one way system. Deidre is very organised! Recently one small mishap did happen in her harbour during Storm Betty. A fishing boat sank while tied to the quay. Alarmingly four other boats were rafted up against it. Again RNLI Coxswain Roy was quickly on the scene and averted disaster.

Thank you Deirdre and Roy for a great stay with you and of course for helping us dry out so we could untangle our propellor. I think Deidre's next job should be to get all lobster pots properly marked.... I know she likes a challenge!

Postscript:

In the HMs office I saw a document from George III's reign and after a bit of Googling I found this interesting bit of history on Andrew Doherty's blog: tidesandtales.ie entitled: "A fit Situation for His Majesty’s Packets: building the Harbour at Dunmore"

I quote:

"The first plan for building the Harbour at Portcullin Cove (Dunmore) was submitted in March 1814 by 31 year old Alexander Nimmo to the Post Office.

At the end of June 1818 the Government announced that: “as the Packet Station has been changed from Passage (up the river) to Dunmore and a Post Office having been established in Dunmore it will be necessary for those residing in that area to have letters addressed “Dunmore East” to avoid confusion with Dunmore, County Galway.”

Dunmore was designated as one of five Royal Harbours in Ireland through which mail was conveyed. The others were Ardglass and Donaghadee in Northern Ireland, and Howth and Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) to the north and south of Dublin respectively."

Ends

Only after writing the above did I realise I had met Andrew, a well known local historian. We passed each other on the River Barrow which leads up to New Ross - a small world.

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