Up before 6 AM today, and with a forecast of reasonably light winds out of the south, I decided to anchor off of Dalkey Island for breakfast and to see what it’s like to sit through a tide swing here – it could be a very nice place for the night with the right wind and waves.
The first observation is that despite low tide being 0806, the tide was already on the flood through the channel at 0700; barely on the flood, but on the flood none the less. I don’t have a working speed log at the moment, but looking at the water surface, I’d guess it’s doing 0.5 – 1 kt less than 30 minutes after the low tide time; Blue Opal is sitting into the tide, and I can steer her towards and away from Dalkey Island by moving the rudder in the tide stream.
At low tide, I had about 1.1 metres under the keel – plenty. Wouldn’t want to swing towards Dalkey though. I’ll need to keep paying out chain, as it’s a 4 metre swing on the tide today.
Beyond that, have some photos, straight from the camera with no editing.
Morning sun behind the clouds 
Silhouette 
Morning fishing 
At anchor 
Forty foot 
My neighbour 
Another neighbour, blown out 
That neighbour of mine 
Still there 
Seaweed in sunlight, from the galley porthole 
Lazing around 
Stretch! 
Morning goat 
Relaxing