{"id":2117,"date":"2016-05-07T17:56:58","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T16:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iwai.ie\/athlone\/?p=2117"},"modified":"2016-05-12T15:49:32","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T14:49:32","slug":"may-2016-cruise-in-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/branch.iwai.ie\/athlone\/may-2016-cruise-in-company\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2016 Cruise in Company"},"content":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m not too sure how I ended up heading up this event but it was a pleasure to do so once again and the passage to the Inny was its highlight for me. The event kicked off the season in the usual fashion and most of the intending cruising group were in The Lough Ree Inn at Coosan on Friday evening and we all got back to boats in reasonable time to be ready to cruise on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
Then on Saturday we set off North onto Lough Ree and had a lovely cruise to Portrunny, 19 boats in all making the trip. Others joined by car and there was one hell of a party in 80M (the barge owned by Liam Sherringham). There was a fantastic effort by everyone in the provision of food of so many varieties and with a spread of sweet items and wine and cheese this was truly a fantastic night finished off by the usual music session. The space and comfort provided by the barge made the event possible but the participation by all was superb. Thank you to Liam for the use of his barge 80M.<\/p>\n
<\/a>On Sunday we set off for the river Inny and, while we are advised that there was a cruise in company event to the Red Bridge before, this event certainly marks the start of the Inny as a destination for regular use by Athlone IWAI members. Once again we had the use of 80M as a mooring pontoon but we also MV Ross another barge supplied by Declan Farrell. Thanks to both for the assistance at this location. 18 boats made this leg of the trip. Here we were very pleased to meet with Chris Schaper and his wife Pia who have been generous to the branch recently in supporting a work-in on Ballykeeran jetty.<\/p>\n