The seals pop their heads up and the music strikes up on board, banishing images of darker days when the coffin ships set sail, writes Mary Russell
It's not often you get the chance to have a dance at 11am, but on board Donegal's new waterbus, the Dún na nGall, fiddlers Ronan Galvin and Mick Brown whip into Shoe the Donkey, and I get carried away. But when they move on to the complicated mazurka - a dance for which you need three right feet as well as a sober partner - I stand back to watch 87-year-old Kitty-Seain (pronounced Kitty-Shan) give it all she has.
As the waterbus pulls out, we can see the landmark anchor on the jetty, a trophy from the French brig, the Romaine, when she sailed in as part of the French attack on Tory island, in 1798. Around us, the sun sparkles on the waters of the estuary and it is easy to forget the coffin ships that tied up here and the Co Donegal people who waited to buy a ticket that they hoped would take them to Newfoundland, with its promise of a better life.
Skipper Billy Bustard gives passengers a running commentary on the historical sites along the estuary: "Over there to your right is the booking office where people bought a ticket for £2. One way. Scraped together by their families. That was just for the boat, mind you. Food was extra, so they'd bring what they needed to get them from one side of the Atlantic to the other - oat cakes and dried fish - though sometimes even that wasn't enough. One boat had been gone four weeks but the head winds were slowing them down so much that the captain turned back fearing he wouldn't have enough food and drink to last the voyage."
The estuary is dotted with islands, some of them connected to the mainland by a causeway. The Green Isles they are called, for the sea-salt wind from the Atlantic keeps the frost away and the grass sweeter for the sheep that live there.
Then we glide past the deep waters of the Hassans, where the big coffin ships docked. On the headland is a memorial stone to the many people who, weak from hunger, died even as they waited for their salvation. Of the ones lucky enough to board a ship at all, it is estimated that some 50 per cent died before making landfall. One ship, the Alma was within sight of Newfoundland when it foundered with the loss of 140 lives. Overall, the Donegal population at that time decreased by 14 per cent.
But that was then and this is now and below deck the craic continues to be mighty with the crowd from Carrick making most of the noise.
Away from it all, Donegal man Patsy Kelly, former tanker captain and currently piloting boats coming into Sligo, guides the Dúna nGall through the shallow waters of the estuary while explaining the state-of-the-art wheel house.
Though, to call it a "wheel" house is just too yesterday, for this boat has no wheel, just a grand little joystick that you might have at a PlayStation and which allows movement back and forth but also sideways for easier berthing. Then there is the emergency phone. Pick it up, and before the skipper has even spoken, it will have automatically transmitted to the radio station at Malin Head information about the boat's position, its destination and the number of passengers on board.
But the thing that pleases chief executive officer Sean Quinn most is the wheelchair access: "Before, when we operated a much smaller boat, anyone in a wheelchair had to be left behind. We'd see them up on the jetty waving to us as we left and they'd still be there on the jetty when we came back. It was terrible to see it. Now, we have lots of people in wheelchairs and no one gets left behind."
The €1-million waterbus project was thought up by a group of Donegal people who wanted to enhance the town's image as a tourist destination. An approach to Ulsterbus resulted in Donegal being included in the company's tour itinerary.
A major supporter has been the International Fund for Ireland. US Senator John McCain, critical of US dollars being spent in this way, has now been invited to come to Donegal to see for himself this hugely popular and cost-effective venture.
"We averaged 150 people on each of our tours yesterday," Sean Quinn says, "and don't forget too that this waterbus has been built in Killybegs and everything else to do with it built in Donegal."
Below, Kitty-Seain, still on her feet, shakes her head when I ask if she's ever been away from her home in Bun Glas: "I'd never leave my own ditches," she says.
Happily, unlike her forebears, she won't ever have to.
• One-and-a-half-hour tours depart twice a day from the pier in Donegal town. Adults €15, children €5, under 4s free. www.donegalbaywaterbus.com or tel: 074-9723666