Meet my little friend Bob. We had some fun with him this afternoon doing some Man Overboard training. That’s just one of the things that I love about my job, every day is different but it always

involves boats and people and fun!

April is here and the weather is starting to improve a little now. And the good cheer this improved weather brings is also reflected in our bookings. We love it when the boat is busy and we love meeting new people. Like these lovely people who sadly had to leave their homes as well as their jobs in Ukraine and are currently living here in Roscommon.

The ESB were here this week removing some of the cables that cross the Shannon at Ballyleague/Lanesborough. It was quite a job and watching them work was a bit of fun. The disabled parking places had to be blocked off during the early morning operation. But they were off-site even before we opened our doors.

While people occasionally marvel at our boat, something that is getting a lot of attention lately is our superb toilet facilities. Officially known as a Changing Places Suite, our toilet has a full electric adult changing table, and an adult ceiling hoist that can lift and move anyone anywhere in the room, of course, it also has a shower, and even an electrically adjustable sink. And if you need to use our facilities you’re very welcome to use them, even if you’re not a customer on our boat, but we’ll probably try to sell you a cup of coffee!

It seems like everyone wants to visit our new National Waterways Accessibility Centre. I think that these guys wanted to use our coffee machine! They were very intent on coming in and had to be persuaded back out again with some sweet corn.

Our new National Waterways Accessibility Centre is open for business. Why not drop in for a coffee and sit back and admire the boats passing by? We have a lovely new seating area overlooking the beautiful river Shannon and the bridge linking Ballyleague and Lanesborough. 

On the May bank holiday weekend, all roads led to Ballyleague/Lanesborough and the Lough Ree Access for All Centre. And it wasn’t just cars and campers, nearly forty boats travelled from all over to be part of this great event, one that marked the LRAFA centre as a focal point for Ballyleague/Lanesborough. There were talks by Dr Harman Murthagh, Eanna Ní Lámhna, Les Saunders, and many more. The coffee and tea were flowing and the sun shone. All in all, it was a great weekend.

What a day we had recently when Vincent Woods from RTE Radio’s County Measure show visited us at the Lough Ree Access for All reception building and joined us for a trip out on the boat.

Lisa is one of our skippers here at Lough Ree Access for All, and she recently celebrated a birthday with all her colleagues.

There are many times when I come back off a trip with goosebumps. This was just one such trip, Enda, Chloe, Linda, Ian, Eric and Karolina from Enable Ireland in Limerick enjoyed their afternoon trip on the boat. Happy faces are what it’s all about because, behind every happy face, there’s a very happy person indeed.