1. Warning for Fambridge residents 2. SW Sunk

[tillergirl]

1. The Crouch Harbour Authority NOTICE TO MARINERS No 13 of 2015

RIVER CROUCH - Fambridge Yacht Haven Limited

Please be advised that a mooring service barge with lifting gantry has sunk off of the North Fambridge Yacht Station whilst moored to its swinging mooring in position:
51 38.05N 001 40.25E
The barge remains attached to the swinging buoy but is completely submerged. Mariners are to give the mooing buoy a wide berth and to proceed at slow speed with caution whilst navigating in this area.

2. SW Sunk swatchway

The UKHO has published a new edition of Chart 1975 which is the Thames Estuary - Northern Part. This includes the February survey by the PLA of the SW Sunk which shows that the swatchway was still there in February exactly as per my survey last year. I have made a minor adjustment to the Eastern recommended waypoint which is in my Update No 3 (http://www.crossingthethamesestuary.com/page6.html) or on the downloads page (http://www.crossingthethamesestuary.com/page29.html).

 

[Bru]

Oops! No wonder everybody is laying low. I shall have to go round on my way out and take the mickey... I mean take a piccie!

 

[Bru]

Excellent about the SW Sunk, and credit where it's due to the PLA for carrying out a survey which is only of relevance to leisure users

 

[tillergirl]

Yes, a very positive response from the Port Hydrographer (John Pinder) at the PLA. They have been very taken up with all the necessary work for the London Gateway project and now are returning to a more normal survey programme and were interested in what was of interest to us.

 

[AliM]

Strange. I thought I replied yesterday querying the position of the barge off N Fambridge. At least it would be off N Fambridge if the position was ....N 000 40.25E, but the position you gave is about 35 miles east of N Fam! But my post disappeared.
We sailed through N Fambridge moorings, and back, today, without hitting any sunk barge, despite me forgetting to note the position. There didn't appear to be anything to mark the hazard, though.

 

[tillergirl]

Well clearly a rogue '1' has crept in at the HM office. I didn't have a time to plot this like I do on Monday evenings so just cut and pasted the NtM in. Looks like it is south side of the Crouch. Not quite where the verbal description has it.

 

[Cantata]

Ooops you're quite right. I'd posted those details in the News section on our website the other day, and for once didn't check them first. That longitude is obviously wrong. Now corrected assuming it's 000deg, not 001deg, and that the rest is correct. I'll email the HM.

 

[Bru]

I *think* the barge has sunk on one of the buoys about half way up the trot on the South side of the river roughly opposite the pier (but I don't know that for certain)

As all of the moorings are operated by Yacht Havens as part of their (North) Fambridge Yacht Station operation, the NTM is technically correct if not all that helpful

 

[Tomahawk]

I wonder how they are going to get it out? it is very heavy.... being full of chain..

 

[rubberduck]

Anyone know exactly where it is, going out tomorrow in shiny serviced & polished boat, don't really want a hole in it

 

[Bru]

Anyone know exactly where it is, going out tomorrow in shiny serviced & polished boat, don't really want a hole in it

See above for my best guess but it might be wise to ask one of the staff (assuming they haven't got it up by now)

 

[tillergirl]

This is where it is on the assumption that the 1 should be a 0.

 

[Bru]

Interestingly, if you plot the same coords in Google Earth you get a result pretty close to where I thought it was (I get the same result as Tillergirl in my chart plotter software and it;s definitely not there!)



'Scuse the stupidly small thumbnail, that;s the forum software

That puts it in the southern trot of moorings just upstream of the pier as I thought

Anybody want to save me the brainache of trying to work out the datum error between UKHO (WGS84) charts and Google Earth (which I thought was WGS84).

(I'm hazrding a guess that somebody got the lat/long by using Google Earth to pick roughtly the right spot in the mooring field by the way)

 

[rubberduck]

Thanks all, I shall avoid both !!

 

[Gargleblaster]

This is where it is on the assumption that the 1 should be a 0.

I think that is exactly where I ran aground once when doing the winter series with Brandy Hole YC. Very soft mud as we were able to sail out of it with some effort. So maybe the barge has sunk into the mud. I assume that would dry at low tide.

 

[AliM]

On Thursday, we sailed up river along the fairway - well, to the south of all the moorings if that is what you might call the fairway, and back down river between the buoys - between the first and second rows counting from the pontoon, I think. It was close to HW, and we had no problem.

More worryingly, there was no mark, that we could see, to show where this sunk barge was. If you do contact them, maybe you could suggest they put a bright red fender or something so we know what to avoid!

 

[Burnham Bob]

My Google Earth Plus puts it - by eye admittedly- where Tillergirl's chart plotter shows it. The program says this is a screenshot link......

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5e0rs6rn1gsnb44/Screenshot 2015-04-06 20.08.03.png?dl=0

 

[rubberduck]

We could see nothing today, & we had a good look.

 

[tillergirl]

Seems to me if peeps stay in the 'Fairway', everyone will be ok.

 

[Bru]

My Google Earth Plus puts it - by eye admittedly- where Tillergirl's chart plotter shows it. The program says this is a screenshot link......

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5e0rs6rn1gsnb44/Screenshot%202015-04-06%2020.08.03.png?dl=0

Interesting

I said Google "Earth" because that's what they call it but I was actually using the satellite imagery from the online Maps facility at https://www.google.co.uk/maps

Aha! The penny droppeth!

The correct position is not 51°38.05'N 0°40.25'E

It is actually 51°38'05"N 0°40'25"E

Or to put it another way, it isn't in degrees and decimal minutes, it is actually in degrees, minutes and seconds (but has been wrongly given as decimal minutes)

The barge is definitely sunk in the middle of one of the mooring trots and that degrees, minutes, seconds position is right slap bang where I could see a missing buoy and a small orange float in the middle of the southern trot which I assumed to be where the barge had been moored and sunk