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The Lower Bure


kfurbank

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Last Monday I had reason to cross from South to North and due to the shorter days had to go when time rather than tide allowed. High water at Yarmouth yacht station was roughly 7:30am. There had been a high tide overnight and I came down the Waveney and across Breydon with a strong ebb current underneath me. I passed under Breydon bridge at 11:30 and was doing 6.1mph whilst barely on tick over. I wasn't looking forward to the struggle after I turned up the Bure. I made my turn just after the yellow post and increased the revs to counter the ebbing tide from the Bure and headed towards the first of the two bridges. I was surprised by two things. Firstly the ebb current coming under Breydon bridge and across the foreshore near Asda was doing it's best to take me towards the starboard quayside. Secondly I looked down to see that my speed had actually increased and I was now speeding towards the first bridge at 6.5mph? I kept the revs on to maintain steerage away from the starboard quay and once under the first bridge throttled back and passed under the second bridge with a fraction more than minimum revs, but still doing 5mph. The struggle against the ebb current never materialised and I managed to do 5mph at 1200 revs all the way up the Bure to Acle. Considering the Yare and Waveney were on a really strong ebb and there had been a high tide the night before, why wasn't the Bure ebbing noticeably?

I am of the opinion that the water flowing under Breydon bridge was actually to some small degree flowing past the foreshore at Asda's and hitting the starboard bank of the lower Bure and then pushing back up the Bure, or at least holding back the Bure from ebbing properly. Is there a need to install the equivalent of turntide jetty from the foreshore to the yellow post to help the lower Bure drain? Could this have a lot to do with the decreasing clearance under the bridges further up river? The Bure never gets the chance to drain properly. If I think back to the days when I hired a boat I certainly remember the stern of the boat being taken by the current on some of the sharper bends on the Lower Bure. I don't remember that happening for some 10 years or more now.

 

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Agreed. I am sure that the lower bure does not flow like it used to. Whether that is due to a lack of dredging, the current across its mouth from the southern rivers or just the rose tinted glasses used by some skippers (wink) I have no idea but something we have noticed is that anyone renewing quayheading or jetties etc 'up north' are automatically raising them by 6 to 12 inches. The southern moorings seem to be staying about the same...

 

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