Going South the Adventure

[senator]

Hi Phil, Shouldn't you be working?

[Antares_9]

Keep it coming Ian, all interesting stuff.

Martin, we'll keep a look out for you on our way round to Woodbridge / Ramsholt, I assume you are chartering one of the Beneteaus from Wolverstone.

[Guest]

Ian definitely keep it coming - though I hope you will fill us in in person at the RNSYC next weekend. If you do make that run up to Yarmouth we may very well come along for the ride, though we might be a little slow for you.

Personally as someone with some salty tendencies, but only very tame ones, it is very interesting to read about your transition from broads to salt.

Rod, just wondering why you could not have chosen a sea capable boat but continued to use it on the broads? That way you could keep your go anytime boating but have the additional option of going to sea if you ever decided to use it. Might be a bit of a busman's holiday for you though!

[Loops]

Keep it coming please, Ian.

As you know form Col's posts, although not going salty just yet it's still going to be a contender in a few years time

Lou

[senator]

Personally as someone with some salty tendencies, but only very tame ones, it is very interesting to read about your transition from broads to salt.

Rod, just wondering why you could not have chosen a sea capable boat but continued to use it on the broads? That way you could keep your go anytime boating but have the additional option of going to sea if you ever decided to use it. Might be a bit of a busman's holiday for you though!

Simon, Not so much a transition, more an addition. If we were always the other side then we would not be able to afford to run the boat, would spend all its life floating in a marina and we still love the Broads.

Rod, have to say I was thinking the same as Simon both as to the boat and the busman bit, then I thought as a professional you go where you are told, as a leisure boater you are free to explore all the inland rivers and places of interest along the way. Bit awkward explaining to your bosses why the container ship you were bringing in is aground in the Walton Backwaters.

Is it because you would not go to sea in anything that you did not consider a serious sea boat? as opposed to Clanny who gets stopped at any more than a force 6, and that these would not be suitable for the broads?

[Antares_9]

Is it because you would not go to sea in anything that you did not consider a serious sea boat? as opposed to Clanny who gets stopped at any more than a force 6, and that these would not be suitable for the broads?

Not Sure what Rod’s thoughts will be Ian but many boats that will take a good kicking at sea are actually more suited to the broads (excuse AA phrase please) than a sports cruiser like Canny, Channel Islands, Nelson, in fact just about any well found semi displacement boat with a bit of a keel gives the low speed directional stability required on the broads together with good seakeeping, add to that many are of the coupe design making bridge clearance less of an issue.

[pks1702]

Good to hear you had an enjoyable trip around 'our manor' Ian sorry we were not around.

Yes the Lobster Pots.... don't you just love em

With reference to locking it is one of the real fags when exiting the Broads via Lowestoft it is a breath of fresh air to have 24/7 lock access on demand as we also have at Shotley. Shame you did not make Shotley there were a couple of free berths

Your point on Neptune is right in my view Ipswich Haven is slightly better situated and if you don't want to sit with the Champagne and Salmon brigade in the restaurant there is always the Yacht club behind Burton Waters which does decent 'pub grub' and very cheap drinks.

The answer to "is anyone interested" is yes there are quite a number of 'salties' on this forum

Got a run up to Woodbridge ourselves planned tomorrow.

[goodall_m1]

Keep it coming Ian, all interesting stuff.

Martin, we'll keep a look out for you on our way round to Woodbridge / Ramsholt, I assume you are chartering one of the Beneteaus from Wolverstone.

You are right, I'll be out on Sandpiper, a Benetteau 343.

I would put the NBN flag up but it hasn't arrived from Aquaholic yet!

I picked up a weekend charter that was going on Ebay for a price I couldn't resist,

(like about 60% of their normal price).

Not going anywhere this weekend though, just two day sails out from Wolverstone going back into her own berth on Saturday night. (Spring tides and their timings make 24hr, all tides, access appealling).

I'll also have four novices on board, with two of them only 8 years old.

So they will probably enjoy anything, including just sailing round in circles.

Weather is looking great, South Westerly backing South 3 - 4, sea state smooth - slight.

Enough wind to get her moving well, no swell to upset anybody and mid 20's C,

we could almost be back in Greece!

That sort of weather should be good for you "planing" types as well.

Martin

[pks1702]

Have a good time Martin

[Guest]

Hi Ian

Keep it coming a good read is this.

Jonny

[senator]

We may even be tempted by the dark side

But lets see

Sorry for the thread hijack Ian

Rod

no problem with the fred drift Rod, always nice to get the views of a profesional mariner and little knowledge being dangerous is something that I am well aware of and hoping to get through the learning curve without any major incidents and ignorance being bliss is most definately true if you were to listen to the whoops of joy that come from the passenger seats of Clanny when it cuts up a bit rough but as the dark side has raised its head in 2 posts now I think I should move on with the hol

days 6 and 7 were spent in Ipswich, we took a visit to the Cinema to watch the latest Harry Potter film, visited the swimming pool to continue Toms swimming lessons, he is up to 25 meters now and has learned to swim on his back in preperation for the first time he finds hinself being supported by his life jacket, we enjoyed a visit to Old Orleans for a nice meal, had a look round a Birchwood at Burton Waters, think it was a 370 which had a very impresive galley but fell short in our opinion by exposing far to much GRP inside and not giving us an island berth or twin beds in the second cabin We also did the shops thing but Heather showed impresive restraint.

Perhaps the most notable part of these 2 days was refueling the boat, Levington Marina has petrol but so we were informed they were asking £1.80 a litre. Now if passing Brooms where it is currently £1.20 a litre I am happy to top up the tanks figuring that a 20% surcharge over forecourt pricing is justifyable and worth paying to save the inconvienience, 80% in my opinion is niether justifyed or worth paying.

One of the reasons for going into Neptune was that the Almanac said that petrol was available localy but on enquiring I found that the nearest 3 petrol stations had closed and the new nearest forecourt was 2 miles away.

Clany does not have an aquired taste and prefers to drink quantity rather than quality so I was working on putting 160 litres into the tanks, for once heathers mobility problems had a positive as we have to carry a wheelchair on the boat, this was pressed into service along with a rope and a ratchet strap that allowed me to put four 20 litre jerry cans on it.

The walk to the station was uphill which fortunately meant that the return with 80 litres on board was down. Me pushing a wheelchair around the streets of Ipswich solicted many strange looks but in the chairs defence despite doing the trip twice over 2 days to transport 160 litres, so traveling some 8 miles, it never used a drop of fuel.

on Day 8 we pushed out before high tide at about 2pm we would have liked to wait for the ebb to take us down but this would have made us a bit late going out, the lock was on free flow and we passed swiftly through and instantly noticed that running against the tide down river was nowhere near as painfull as coming up with only around 2 knots between the paddle wheel and GPS and it wasn't too long before they both equaled out. half way down we left the channel to port to make room for a large cargo ship making its way up river and stay out of the watersports area on the other side of the channel and were very soon looking at teh container ships of Felixstowe.

Our next port of call was the Walton Backwaters and Titchmarch marina, again there was a sense of trepidation after hearing numerous warnings of difficult navigation but I can only assume that these warnings generate from those that like to sit in their boats in the marina telling others how difficult it is out there. Yes you have to follow the Bouys but it is basic navigation and clearly marked as long as you have the up to date chartlet.

First impressions of the Backwaters are that it is flat, Yes Norfolk is flat but not like this, there is hardley a tree to break the view accross the marshes and at first view it looks a diintresting place to be. Stone point at high tide looks unappealing which was a disapointment as we had been told it was a wonderfull place to anchor off and infact the only real point of interest was the numerous wrecks of barges around the entrance to the Walton Channel which I still don't know the story of.

As you proceed up the Walton Channel something strange happens, all of a sudden things start to look interesting, why I don't know but everything starts to take on a new look, maybe it is the numerous creeks that seem to shout at you to explore them by dinghy or maybe it is magic but by the time we reached the lovely Titchmarch marina we were enthralled.

Again we were well catered for as to access with them placing us stern to on row A, as close as we could get to the access ramps up to the facility's, the welcome in the Harbour masters office was very warm and points of interest were pointed out on a large free map of the backwaters that they happily handed out, even the promise of a seal spotting trip raised its head. A trip to the well stcked chandlers threw up a bargein pair of oars for the dinghy, something needed desperatley as there was only one on board to back up the aging Yamaha outboard we have. from a starting price of £35, which I didn't think bad I somehow ended up paying £22 just for asking if I could have a discount. The only downside to the marina was the afore mentioned expanded metal pontoons which are noisey to walk on, very nasty without shoes and I would imagine, although we were lucky enough not to expierience it, very slippy when wet.

By the time we had enjoyed a drink on the terrace of the bar/restaraunt we were sold on the place. the next morning we imedietley booked in for a further 2 nights and then pushed out to try our luck at anchoring off stone point.

Anchoring is something else that I know the theory of but apart from throwing it out on a broad I had never done in anger. the first try resulted in total failour but the second time seemed to work, it was only after sitting for a couple of minutes that it was obvious that we were not holding. 3 more attempts proved fruitless, well apart from providing amusment to those more proficient watching from surrounding boats. We were almost at the point of giving up when all of a sudden there was no mistake, the anchor was holding and 10 minutes sitting watching confirmed success even in a decent 2 or 3 knots of flow.

We packed the beach stuff into the tender followed by Charlie the dog, Rachel, Heather and Tom for the transfer to the beach. once there Tom realised that he had no shorts to enjoy the sun, beach and sea in so it was back to the boat. Another check of the depth sounder showed that now the wind had shifted slightly we were fine for 95% of the time but on occasions we were swinging over a ledge which my tidal calculations showed was not deep enough to keep us floating, I made the decision to move Clanny over a bit and then proceeded to go through the whole anchoring thing again another 4 times but eventually she held and we could depart again for the beach.

The beach now was showing more and more golden sand as the tide receeded, giving plenty of room for the kids to play, the falling tide also appeared to have the effect of bringing warm water flowing down the channel and a lovely couple of hours was spent swimming in the warm water and taking in a few rays. As the tide continued to fall more and more sand came into view, walking accross the freshly exposed sand I can only liken it to walking in warm snow, your feet sink a good 3 or 4" into the sand but it is a really nice feeling, Charlie especially loved it, he was running around like a maniac having a whale of a time.

we eventually returned to the boat and enjoyed a meal sitting in the cockpit of Clanny and watching the sun drop down to the marshes. It was at this time that I realised I had commited a cardinal sin, everyone was enjoing themselves so much that I had managed to forget about the tide. Titchmarch is accesible 5 hours before and after high tide but we were now 5 and yet to start the engines at stone point, to add to this we were on an exceptionaly low spring tide with the tables showing just 0.2 above lat.

We waited for another half hour for the tide to turn and then I felt that it was worth gentaly making our way up rather than waiting for it to get dark first, the logic being that we were on a rising tide so if we did nudge aground then we would soon float off. The outdrives were lifted to plus 8 to get the props out the way and we moved off.

Clanny's depth sounder is set to alarm at 1.7 m bellow the keel and there is also 500mm left when it gets to 0 so there was the constant job of silencing the alarm to be done, as we made our way up the channel it soon became obvious that there was not a lot of water and with just 1 engine engaged we crept up towards the marina. the depth was showing zero for most of the upper reaches but we managed to avoid running aground.

Once in the Marina we witnessed a very strange thing, there is no fishing allowed but or probably because of the the fishing ban the Marina is full of very large Mullet, Rachel had been feeding them bread earlier and much of it had stuck to the bank as the tide had fallen, now on the rising tide there were 18" long Mullet throwing themselves up the mud bank behind the boat in order to get to the bread a good 6" above the waterline.

The kids were eventually put to bed and Heather and me spent another hour or so disscusing the things we had done while enjoing a drink in the cockpit to round of a fantastic day.

To be continued if you can stand any more.........

[goodall_m1]

Our next port of call was the Walton Backwaters and Titchmarch marina, again there was a sense of trepidation after hearing numerous warnings of difficult navigation but I can only assume that these warnings generate from those that like to sit in their boats in the marina telling others how difficult it is out there. Yes you have to follow the Bouys but it is basic navigation and clearly marked as long as you have the up to date chartlet.

Get there at the right state of the tide and as you say it is basic navigation, its just when you are coming in on the ebb that it gets tricky..

Try to get the maximum sea-time in outside and it is purely a case of how much of a risk do you want to take...

It does make a good test of your tidal curve calcualations, especially if you have a big keel that doesn't lift!

The Titchmarsh pub is great value and I can quite understand you deciding to stay longer using it as a base.

Given a good dinghy and outboard it becomes an exploration that brings back memories of "The Riddle of the Sands"

(if you are not an Arthur Ransome fan)..

[senator]

Well if you will use these things with flappy bits that need a lot underneath then you have to accept that by the time you get out of the marina it is time to come back

Truthfully though it was a bit of an eye opener for me talking to the yachting fraternity while on the trip. On the second night while in Southwold I was chatting to a sailor from Reedham marina who was going down to the Ore, when discussing departure times for the next day he said that he was intending to leave around the same time as us, I know the Ore is slightly closer than the Deben but I could not see how he was going to make the entrance in time, until he informed me that it would take him about 13 hours. He would have to wait until the next tide before he could get back in. At Tidemill another of the flappy orientation was telling me that they struggle to make the entrance bar on the same tide as they leave the marina on, their draft meant that they could not leave till an hour or so after us and needed to be at the entrance bar and hour or so before us to have enough water to go out.

13 hours to do 20 miles seems a bit extreme to me let alone 12 hours to get out of a 9 mile river, somehow I can't see myself being drawn by the dark side.

Ian

[pks1702]

Exactly so Martin

When the tide starts to drop the secrets start to be revealed, a tender and outboard is a must on the Backwaters.

Ian I'm not sure who gave you your information regarding Harwich HSS but is has not run since January 2007 but the 'scare stories' would have no doubt be based on a number of fatalities, see link.

http://www.maib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cf ... /purdy.pdf

The area can be very benign and it was good to know that you had good weather but in the wrong wind direction things can soon change (as we found yesterday) there is very little depth across the Pye End area which if the wind is NE through E soon builds. It just a case of being sensible and living to fight another day. Thankfully your prayers to the weather gods were rewarded

Fox's would have been your best bet to call in for a night as the Petrol Station is virtually next door.

Look forward to hearing about the rest of your holiday

Edit to say: I admire your fortitude with the wheelchair on your Petrol run. In these days of high security who knows who might have stopped you

[senator]

Perry,

The info on the ferry was correct in that it used to be a monster but now no longer runs. I did notice how fast the water chopped up all around the Pye End Area and even the other side of the shipping channel and up towards Woodbridge Haven.

On our day of departure from Titchmarsh we had taken the dinghy up to the town to pick up a few supply's, after walking to the shops, nearly killing Heather into the process we took a break for an Ice Cream on the beach, there was not a breath of wind and the sea was as flat as a pancake, By the time we left about an hour and a half later the wind had picked up to a 4-5 and there was a fair old chop once out of the Walton Channel.

Luckily it was South Westerly's so was being mostly blocked by the land but I would think a North Easterly would be a nasty piece of work around the area.

Do you know the story behind the sunken barges?

Ian

[pks1702]

Hi Ian,

They are old Thames Lighters that were put their as an measure to stop erosion

With the retreat of Stone Point, Horsey Island has become increasingly vulnerable to wave attack. In 1988 a barrage breakwater of sunken barges was put in position. Since then, in a near-desperate attempt to ‘hold the line’ nearly half a million cubic metres of material dredged from the Harwich deep water channel has been deposited to the north and south of the Walton Backwaters entrance and onto the vulnerable northeast corner of Horsey Island during the past fifteen years (source: Environment Agency 2005). Due to natural wave action, much of this material had simply been carried back out to sea!

http://www.saltmarshmanagementmanual.co ... harge1.htm

[senator]

Thanks for that Perry, always interesting to find out these snippets.

Looks like a case of visit while you can then for the backwaters although I am sure with the increased dredging activity that the BA are going to be doing since the takeover of May Gurney there could be a simple solution.

Put the millions of tons that BA are going to dredge from the broads and can't dispose of, on to a coaster and dump the lot at the entrance, is bound to be much more than they could ever take out of the deep water channel at Harwich

Ian

[pks1702]

Hi Ian,

We are waiting patiently........

[Jupes]

Yes, I quite agree Perry. Come on Ian, some of us have a lot to learn from your travels

[Antares_9]

I’m not waiting patiently, I’m drumming my fingers and tutting, come on Ian.

[senator]

Ok, as it seems some are able to withstand even more of my tales I will add the next instalment

Day 10 was the day we had planned to go seal spotting, we woke to the first grey skies of our Holiday and the wind had decided that it wanted to put in an appearance too, blowing a good 4-5 but not to be beaten we set off to anchor up on Hamford Water.

Leaving the Walton Channel and rounding the buoys in Reverse order we turned to port into Hamford Water, at this point an impromptu man overboard practice materialised to collect a fender that I had forgotten to take in and had taken the opportunity to go for a swim. The wind was blowing the fender into shallow water and after it was missed on the first two attempts it was the final try with only 0.6 showing on the depth sounder that retrieved it, must make a note to practice this more as it was an important lesson in how things change in open water compared to the last time we did it for real in Oulton Broad, where we picked up an exhausted canoeist, who was unable to drain his flooded boat.

Fender back on board it was time to go through the anchoring test again. Spotting two boats already anchored on the port side and none to starboard I thought it would be wise to follow suit and dropped the anchor fairly close to shore, perfect first time, only problem being the tide was about to turn so waiting to make sure the anchor was going to hold, as we were leaving the boat, the stern again swung a little to close for comfort to land so I moved over a bit and surprisingly got it right again first time. We sat on board for anther 10 minutes or so to make sure all was well and once satisfied that it was made our way to the tender.

It was at this time that we realised although 18"-2' waves were not going to bother Clanny it was a different matter in our Quicksilver 270 dinghy. As we crossed Hamford water to make our way over to the creek on the other side, where we had been told we would find seals, the spray was making it's way over the tubes and into the boat, not in a dangerous way but in a way that was getting everyone very wet, with hindsight anchoring the other side would have been very sensible as Hamford Water is a little wider than Oulton Broad is long, by the time we got to the other side and into the creek the wind and water had dampened the spirits of those on board.

These same spirits were soon lifted as we rounded the first corner of the creek and came across first one then two seals in the water, as we continued around the corner suddenly there were seals everywhere. There is a colony of around 70 seals on the backwaters and I would say they were all in the little section we were exploring. There were Seals all over the bank, Harbour and grey complete with Cubs, and plenty made there way into the water to come and investigate who would put 2 adults 2 kids and a king Charles into a Dinghy and sit out in the cold just to invade their stretch of water. We spent a good couple of hours floating around, enthralled by the seals that were playing around the boat as close as 4' away.

Unfortunately the pictures I took were absolutely useless, the seals seemed to delight in sitting looking into the boat for exactly the amount of time it took to find them in the view finder before disappearing under water just as the shutter was activated, one particular photo would have been worthy of any glossy nature book if there had been a half decent photographer behind the lens as Two seals 8' from the boat decided it was time for a kiss and a cuddle, rubbing noses and planting what looked like a tender kiss on each other. The only downside was that the wind was making it almost impossible to hold station with the oars necessitating the starting of our old and rather noisy 2 stroke outboard all the time.

It was only the cold that drove us back towards Clanny in the end, as everyone on board, even Charlie, would have been happy to sit and watch for a good while longer. Even so it was a great relief to round the corner and find Clanny exactly where we had left her, a quick cuppa soon warmed up the boat and everyone despite being wet and cold put the trip down as the highlight of the Holiday.

The Journey back to Titchmash was a lot more relaxed than the day before with a full tide under us but the mooring in the marina was far from straight forward, Clanny has no keel so side on to the wind she likes to go sideways, the wind was howling straight down the marina and the boat in the mooring next to us to leeward was a gleaming example with freshly varnished wood everywhere, they were doing it as we pulled out so it was less than a day old, five or six abandoned attempts bought the staff of the harbour office down to catch ropes and I have to say I was very pleased to see them.

finally in and tied up we sat for 20 minutes having a cuppa only to find by the time we had drunk it the wind had suddenly dropped to nothing more than the slightest of breezes but even the weathers vendetta against our day could not dampen the wonderful memories we took from it.

The day was rounded off with a lovely carvery in the Marina restaurant served up at only £5 per head.

[Jupes]

Excellent Ian, thanks.

We would love to see those seals.

[senator]

Thank's Jupes,

Wish I could show everyone the pictures but unfortunately the photos were taken on a Sony Cybershot Phone, which got wet in the dinghy on the way back, although I did eventually get it to switch on long enough to get them onto the PC you can hardly make out any seals, the ones I did get were a decent way from the boat and a grey head over dark water against a grey sky is virtually impossible to see, I managed to miss all of the close up seals.

You are very welcome to join us next time we go down that way though, you can see them for yourself, Adam could even make sure that every else could have a look at them too.

Ian

[Jupes]

Sounds good, thanks.

Although I don't think Adam would be too pleased if his camera got waterlogged in the dinghy

[goodall_m1]

h I don't think Adam would be too pleased if his camera got waterlogged in the dinghy

Take a look at http://www.ewa-marine.de/index.php?id=7 Jupes...

Waterproof dive housings for most cameras, but possibly not for the "pro's"

unless they take the zoom lens and filter holders off...

Mine worked great for my little Minolta Z2.

Unfortuntely I took it out of the housing to show some friends my photos...

I then fell in getting from the dinghy back onto my boat when returning from the Pub.

(with the camera around my neck!)

Martin

(One advantage of digital cameras!

The camera was dead but the memory card dried out OK

so I still had my photos, I just couldn't take any more)