Swell time in Roaringwater Bay

Go Sea Road:In the next stage of the Sea Road series GARY QUINNchills out in Roaringwater Bay, Cork

ROARINGWATER Bay: it’s a name that conjures storms and shipwrecks, evoking a sense of power and temptation in equal measure. I’ve been talking-up a trip here since the first day I took to the sea but unconsciously avoiding it, lest my skills wouldn’t meet expectations. The people of Cork know the water and the boats that travel it, I figured, and being ferociously skilled, wouldn’t suffer fools with paddles gladly.

Well, more fool me. West Cork is one of the calmest, most laid-back parts of Ireland I’ve visited. And Roaringwater Bay? It turns out it’s named after a stream.

I arrived in west Cork late the first night and joined Jim Kennedy of Atlantic Sea Kayaking on one of his night paddles off Union Hall and Castletownsend. It has become a speciality of the region and one that was recently listed in Tripadvisor.com’s top 10 things to do in the world. It’s a bitter night and I feel slightly sorry for the pair of young American honeymooners who have followed that thread to join us on this rain-soaked pier. But they aren’t sorry at all, grinning from ear to ear, wrapped around each other both on and off the water. Love’s young dream paddling their own canoe under jet-black Irish skies.

As a cushion against the weather I’m booked to stay in the four-star Inchydoney Island Lodge and Spa. It’s possibly the most luxurious accommodation I’ll get on this series and I lap up the great food, soft sheets and sheer hedonism of being a scruffy cold-water kayaker in such beautiful surroundings, right at the water’s edge. Inchydoney runs sea kayaking packages with Atlantic Sea Kayaking.

The next morning, perfectly rested, I join Kennedy again, this time in Baltimore, to hear the roar of that bay. It’s a majestic sight. Standing with the village to my back and “Carberry’s hundred isles” offshore there’s an urgency to get on the water. But Baltimore doesn’t work that way. There’s a wooden boat festival in full swing and currachs and hand-built wooden boats getting under sail. I meet the locals, visit Bushe’s Bar, chart our course at sea and where we’ll watch the rugby back on land. It’s that kind of place.

My plan is to get to Cape Clear, a lengthy open-sea crossing from Baltimore, but the weather isn’t going my way. Instead Kennedy charts a route between and around islands that will shield us from the worst of the weather but also give me a sense of the scale and excitement of the bay. We pull away from the shore, heading for the sound between Sherkin and the mainland. Despite the rain, the sense of calm continues on the water as Kennedy talks us past landmarks along the way.

Lot’s Wife, a beacon that resembles the biblical character, stands guard over the entrance to the harbour, looking across at the small lighthouse on Sherkin. The coastline strengthens here, rising into steep cliffs and tumbling rockfalls. Looking east, the rock bounds towards the horizon, helping create the conditions for the rolling waves that are lifting us now and tempting us out further.

We pitch south with Sherkin on our right, to test the waters – the rise and fall giving Kennedy a reading of the conditions ahead. The water strengthens here, the first real open sea conditions I’ve experienced in this series and the strong swell is seductive. But with it comes a warning. The winds are set to grow even stronger later in the day and, despite our enthusiasm, venturing out into open sea could be a mistake. We turn the boats and come back along Sherkin, heading for the shelter of the inner bay.

There’s lots here to entertain us. Sherkin is a huge attraction, with its deep caves and fingers of rock casting themselves out beneath us into the sea, but the many other islands also create their own excitement. Heading for Heir Island we are cosseted from the wind and wrapped up in that mysterious calmness again. A wooden boat under scarlet sail, manned by local teenagers, coasts past. Seals dip and turn in the water nearby and even the donkeys tethered on Spanish Island seem chilled out.

Jim Kennedy has been introducing people to all this for 16 years. He’s the only level-five sea coach in the country and was the first sea kayak trainer to set up professionally in Ireland. He also specialises in the training of efficient kayak techniques, a skill that has given him an international reputation. He spots my paddling errors at a glance and as we travel he offers some great coaching tips.

We continue to coast the inner islands and return along Ringarogy and into Baltimore. By accident or design, Kennedy has timed our trip not only to suit the tides and weather but also, as we approach via the gap between two islands, the wooden boat festival parade. Dozens of beautiful sailing boats, their huge sails unfurled, coast past.

We push harder now to get among them and realise yet again the absolute privilege of being in a kayak. No other craft, not even the small ribs that are shepherding the route, can get as close as we can. Sitting there in the water, almost able to reach out and touch their wooden hulls, hundreds of years fall away as I imagine that this is how the bay must once have been every day. Looking beyond Sherkin and towards Cape Clear I think of all that I have yet to see and, not yet off the water, I start to plot my return. I learned my lesson: for beginners and experienced paddlers alike, if you haven’t been to Roaringwater Bay, you really don’t know what you’re missing.

Stay

– Inchydoney Island Lodge and Spa (Inchydoneyis land.com).

– Stone House B&B in Baltimore (Aquaventures.ie).

All about Roaringwater Bay, west Cork

SEÁN PIERCE

VISUALLY THIS is a beautiful trip. You’ve got tremendous island variety, more exposed sea passages and for the first time in the Sea Road series you’ll be in the southwest Atlantic. Be prepared for complicated swells and southwesterly winds.

This is whale and dolphin country so you can expect lots of sea life and, as with lots of these trips, the seabird passages are spectacular. Sea birds filter down from the Kerry colonies on the way to the Celtic Sea to feed, returning in the evenings. Sitting on the water off Cape Clear or Sherkin Island you can literally watch thousands upon thousands of gannets, Manx shearwater and storm-petrels passing on their way back to the Kerry colonies. It’s a sight that most people never see because it happens towards evening.

The route is one of those trips that progressively gets more exposed the further southwest one goes. If the day is good you should follow the summer ferry route between Sherkin and the Beacon and follow this really beautiful coastline out towards Cape Clear. If you’re going to circumnavigate you really have to be a level three or four sea kayaker with previous Atlantic swell experience.

However, the inner route along the western edge of both Sherkin and Cape Clear is nearly always navigable.

Seán Pierceis a level five sea kayaker and selected the routes for this series