Jean's Journal: Boats, baptisms and more

by Jean Farrell

We are advised to always associate with positive people – people who give us a lift and leave us smiling.

Yet, most of us have a ‘Negative Nellie’ in our lives. My ‘Negative Nellie’ wasn’t impressed with all the cleaning I had to do on our boat, before we set sail!

“I don’t know why you bother!” she exclaimed. “All that hard work just to go and live in such a tiny space!”

She definitely wasn’t impressed when I told her that our first trip, on the boat, would be to Coosan Point, for the weekend. “Nothing happens out there,” she told me. “It’s the most boring place!”

How wrong she was!

Athlone Boat Club held their annual regatta, on the inner lakes, that Saturday. Crews came from 36 clubs all over Ireland, north and south. Hundreds of people, of every age, assembled in Coosan Point, to take part and to observe.

It was a wonderful place to be, with SO much happening. My husband met (old!) men from various boat clubs that he had rowed against, back in the 1960s and 70s. And it was lovely to see the teenagers interacting with each other, without a phone in sight! The place was packed and buzzing. The weather was fine, which was a big plus.

There is great credit due to the committee of Athlone Boat Club who organised this massive event. And, remember, that their work, and their coaches’ work, is all voluntary. Well done to them.

We slept soundly on board, that night, after all the excitement.

I was awoken, on Sunday morning, by the shrieks of swimmers jumping into the lake beside us. I admired their courage, as I watched them, in sunshine (thankfully!) Then, I spotted a small black caravan on the shore and set off to investigate!

As I approached it, two women in swimsuits shouted, “Hello Jean”. They were friends I worked with, and we had a chat.

They told me that five of them come out to Coosan Point every weekday morning, at 7am, for a swim. They have been doing so since Covid times. At the weekend, they come at 10am.

The women are delighted that is there is now a mobile sauna in Coosan Point. It comes every Saturday and Sunday morning, from 10am until 3pm. They said that the five of them don’t have time to chat on weekday mornings. They are hurrying to work, after their swim.

Now they sit in the sauna, each Saturday and Sunday, and have a great chat, in the heat. I watched as they came out every few minutes, ran into the lake and then went back into the sauna. “You have no idea how marvellous you feel afterwards,” they all assured me. I’ll take their word for it!

I saw other people going in and out of the sauna, during the morning, people of all ages. I spoke to the owner. He is a very pleasant man called Jason. The cost is €15 for 50 minutes. I’m adding his phone number here, in case you could like to have his mobile sauna visit your area. It is 083 3652467.

And that wasn’t the end of the activity in Coosan Point at all! As I ate my lunch, I heard singing coming from the shore. I set off again to investigate!! (This was in the interest of research for you, dear readers!)

About forty people were singing hymns, accompanied by guitars. They were all ages and all nationalities. What struck me immediately was how joyful they seemed to be, as they sang songs, praising the Lord, loudly. I spoke to one woman.

She told me that five baptisms were about to take place. They are a Pentecostal church called ‘River of Life.’ Their place of worship is in the Diskin Centre, on Grace Road (known to many of us as Gentex.)

Their website states, ‘We are a community based Church for all the family. Our goals are to know Jesus, to be like Him and to make Him known.’

The baptisms were a wonder to behold. Two men (pastors?) walked out into the lake, fully clothed. When they were waist-deep, they called a young girl’s name. All the group cheered and sang louder. A girl waded out to them, also fully clothed.

What happened next was like we see in pictures from the Bible. The two men held her and then ducked her under the water, as they looked Heavenwards. They called on God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The crowd cheered and sang.

This happened five times, as four more adults, waded out, one by one, to be baptised in this manner. I watched, fascinated. Afterwards, the happy group had a picnic to celebrate. More rejoicing and singing took place.

Later that evening, we headed back towards Athlone, in our boat. I thought how very wrong my ‘Negative Nellie’ was. We hadn’t a dull moment in Coosan Point!

Now, I’m going to be a ‘Negative Nellie’ myself. And I’m going to be honest. Isn’t old age awful? In order to live on a boat one needs to be agile and nimble, as well as supple and sprightly!!

Sadly, we are none of these things any more, at all, at all. Our old joints creaked as we climbed aboard, last weekend. We groaned as we climbed up and down the steps inside. We moaned as we made our way around the narrow decks.

Our days afloat may be numbered, I feel!

jeanfarrell@live.ie