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- Category: East Coast cruises
- Hits: 3865
Wednesday 31st May Ref: 2017/4
The timings of this cruise were totally dictated by the need for leaving just as there is sufficient clearance over the Tide Mill sill to maximise depths at the mouth of the Deben and so the tides were adverse for most of the trip but the weather was excellent , warm with very little winds. The exit from the Deben seems to be shallower and trickier each year but we had 4-6m today at high tide. The cruise past Harwich and up the Orwell was straightforward with past waypoints as a guide and Ipswich lock opened us for us when requested
We negotiated the Tide Mill exit without difficulty and then had the problem of keeping to a poorly and sparsely-marked channel where red and orange mooring buoys competed with navigational markers to confuse even the most wary of navigators! Just like on the way in, I made at least one mistake and detour but fortunately the past tracks on my computer alerted me so that I could correct before we ventured in water that was too shallow. Being early on a making tide would have meant that we could have got off anyway, but we did not need that!
The exit at the mouth of the Deben was another concern. Years ago, my chartlet of the area showed around 1m on the channel at LAT but now it is only around .3m in places but, again, I was there just before High Water and we had around 3m throughout. Even so, the channel was narrow with only two port and one starboard buoys and you could see breaking waves very close.
Once beyond the Deben fairway buoy my new short cut across the sands at near high water had no less than 7m depth throughout until we joined the Harwich Small Ship Channel and then cruised along its length until entering the Deben and taking the rest of the voyage easily on a wide river with former tracks and waypoints under auto-pilot to aid me as I relaxed on deck with my feet up. The Ipswich Town lock opened for us upon request and we rose .6m and were soon cruising along to the Ipswich Haven Marina where we had been allocated berth K1. Unfortunately another sailing yacht was in our place but I manoeuvred Lady Martina into the shorter one next to it and attracted admiring comments from the onlookers, leaning on the rails and enjoying their beer and cigarettes!
We connected the shore power and then spent our customary first hour after a sea trip hosing down the boat before relaxing inside for the evening. Some serious work on my computer and in the bridge planning our trip for Saturday on to Ramsgate and then another late night to bed after an enjoyable shower, packing up my computer and other things to be right ready for our train trip back home
Temp 20>32degC, RH 66>30%, Pressure 1022-1021mb steady, good visibility, smooth/slight seas with wind less than 10 knots variable but mostly SEly
- Details
- Category: East Coast cruises
- Hits: 3895
Saturday 3rd June Ref: 2017/5
A good plan to make best use of the tides was frustrated today by a poorly-organised Ipswich Lock operation which delayed our departure and thus our arrival at Ramsgate by more than an hour. This meant that we were late for our reception for an inner harbour berth and were also punching an adverse tide for the last hour across the North Foreland and Broadstairs Knoll shallows for our final approach and had to increase speed and use more fuel for a comfortable entry. Despite that, the weather was benign, warm with a variable breeze of less than 11knots and so the cruise itself was very pleasant until the last hour or so
Before leaving, I could tell that the lock was going to be congested by the level of radio traffic and I wanted to leave earlier but nothing prepared us for the ridiculous delays that were to follow when we tried to leave Ipswich Dock. The problem was that there were two large trip boats, anxious to get their priority and the dock control lady was too generous in holding up traffic for them to exit the lock, go and pick up passengers and keep the same lock open for their return when the vessels concerned were plainly not yet ready to leave their moorings and proceed to the lock. This created frustration and delays and the traffic was backing up in both directions. Added to that the lock itself was poorly loaded with spare spaces unoccupied and seemed to be very slow, with apparently two sluices not working, so each ‘pen’ took ages.
All this made us a full hour late in starting our cruise down the River Orwell and I had to push the 6-knot speed limit a bit in reaches where there were no moored boats, but the delay had at least meant that there was a following ebb tide to help us. That soon disappeared as we left Harwich and went well out to sea in the Thames Estuary to avoid the Long Sand and Kentish Knock sandbanks. The flood tide helped us again once we turned south and headed towards Kent but that hour’s delay hit us hard in our final approach when we were late on the tide and fought an adverse 1-2 knot flow when approaching Ramsgate. The shallows off offshore produced their normal bumpiness when the tide was flowing and so I increased engine speed and sped in to the port.
The bridge to the inner harbour was still open, but the fuel berth had closed and the pumps were all locked up and we then had the problem of mooring. I had spoken to Port Control before leaving Ipswich, and they had said that they would inform the Dock-Master of my expected arrival at 6pm, but by now we were an hour later and, whether or not there had been a change of shift or whatever I was not sure, but our arrival came as a complete surprise to him and he resisted our entry with three red lights. He then appeared to get into an argument with port control over the situation, saying that there was nobody there to assist me and give me an entrance key etc and was getting generally upset with his Dockmaster role being bypassed. Perhaps there is now friction at ‘The Royal Harbour of Ramsgate’ where demarcation could be an issue now that the responsibilities have reduced with the demise of the Roll-Ro Ferries, even though the huge Wind Farms nearby should had led to more activity to take up the slack. We have Port Control, the Marina and also this Dock-master all with their own roles and communication becomes a problem.
There being no answer on my VHF call to the Dock-master, I ignored the red lights and took Lady Martina slowly through into the inner harbour anyway and a helpful young man on the ground waved us into a vacant berth, found us an electricity point and gave us a security key fob which he said was a ‘maintenance key’ which we had to make sure of returning. There were no hoses and so we used our own flat reeled one to wash down Lady Martina and fill her tank and then settled down for the evening and got things straight. Although I had said I was staying for 2/3 days there seems to be some huge storms coming in that time frame and so I might stay longer.
Temp 22>>33>24degC, RH 57>28>44%, Pressure 1013-1011mb falling slowly, good visibility (fair off of N Foreland), smooth/slight seas (occ sl/mod off Ramsgate) with wind less than 11 knots variable but mostly SWly
