Advice on beaching and grounding exploring estuarys

[JimC]

or a pea stick

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bamboo-Ca...807141?hash=item35e812b665:g:bQUAAOxykMpTIGgb

My twin-keeler draws over 4 ft and has about 3 ft freeboard over the coamings so I struggle to probe the bottom with a stick. Also I can't reach over the side from the tiller. I'd like one of those echo sounders that can see ahead of the boat (Echopilot?) but I've read conflicting reports on their usefulness.

 

[Solwaycruiser]

I'd like one of those echo sounders that can see ahead of the boat (Echopilot?) but I've read conflicting reports on their usefulness.[/QUOTE]
Had a Forward Looking Sounder on a previous boat which I sailed in the Solway as it happens. While it had its uses IIRC it looked forward at a certain angle from the sender which meant that the shallower the water the less distance you could see ahead. Therefore of limited use in a lot of the very shallow areas where the OP will be sailing.

 

[oldharry]

But you cant spot seahorses with a pea stick! Or rubbish thats waiting to pierce the bilges as you settle...

 

[Impaler]

Doing a low water recce is helpful as is Google Earth, sometimes you can get a really good view of the bottom. Never underestimate the amount of mud a pair of wellies can bring back onboard. Have some spare water to wash off. Probably not likely to happen to a small boat but don't get neaped by beaching at the top of the tide or you could be doing some serious shoving.

 

[C08]

Yes back to reality that is an excellent idea, I wrote a story about a little girl using a basket to help stabilise on mud so should have thought to mention it !

Also use the bucket / basket for maybe sensible shoes if you make the pub, but above all a protected waterproof mobile / VHF and torch.

Another idea for venturing onto possibly deep mud is to use a dinghy. What you do is sit on the transom legs aground and you push with the legs and as you push you jump a bit and the dinghy will slide behind you. After a while you can really scoot around. It works best with an inflatable but I have also done this with an 8ft GRP tender. Even in soft mood there is enough resistance to the feet to move around. I have never seen anyone else do this but perhaps an old trick!
Much safer than getting stuck in mud.

 

[steve yates]

The peastick looks like a good idea, thx.

Dylan, the link worked fine on the pc, the buggers! How far up the earn did you get?

And I'm confused how did you make it spin around like that? against the wind (not that there seemed much) too? Was the engine on? I couldnt hear it, but I guess you could have edited it out?

cheers

 

[dylanwinter]

The peastick looks like a good idea, thx.

Dylan, the link worked fine on the pc, the buggers! How far up the earn did you get?

And I'm confused how did you make it spin around like that? against the wind (not that there seemed much) too? Was the engine on? I couldnt hear it, but I guess you could have edited it out?

cheers

we got as far up as the bridge

I felt pretty chuffed but then some-one showed me a picture of a paddle steamer up there - and standing by it was a bloke smirking at me from back in 1910

I use the genoa to keep the boat in the centre of the stream as much as I can and only resort to the paddle when forced - it is a little game I play

here is the similar thing but slightly more risky because I am riding the ebb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSWf5QgO5Yc

 

[steve yates]

ah, so your just going with the flow so to speak very clever. I might try that in the spring.

 

[matthew99]

Hi Steve,

Hold tightly on to your peastick if you are going to Arnside [YouTube:'Sailing Morecambe Bay to Arnside'] the video shows them going in with the flood at 6.7 knots.

40 years ago they had quite a few boats at Arnside but I think they had withies regularly placed to aid navidation. Nowadays the sailing club has a couple of moorings according to the website [http://www.arnsidesailingclub.co.uk/dinghy-park-2/]. If you look on Google Street Map you can see a small boat on a mooring but I suspect it dries out and is just out of the channel.

Our family bought a Trident from there in the 70s (stored in what was Crossfields of Arnside). I can remember watching out and bracing ourselves for the flood tide and associated bore as the boat spun on it's trot mooring. Take a look at the bore on YouTube which presumably is a spring tide.

You obviously can sail there and back, but how to do is an interesting question. With no certain knowledge of where the channel is I'm guessing you'd go in and out with the flood as they did in the video, but they were only coming across from Morcambe (7NM each way). From Piel Island it'd be 23NM.

I'd love to know how you get on, please keep us posted.

Incidently there was a model of the Crossfields Boatyard in the Lancaster Maritime Museum which is well worth a visit.

 

[dylanwinter]

Hi Steve,

Hold tightly on to your peastick if you are going to Arnside [YouTube:'Sailing Morecambe Bay to Arnside'] the video shows them going in with the flood at 6.7 knots.

40 years ago they had quite a few boats at Arnside but I think they had withies regularly placed to aid navidation. Nowadays the sailing club has a couple of moorings according to the website [http://www.arnsidesailingclub.co.uk/dinghy-park-2/]. If you look on Google Street Map you can see a small boat on a mooring but I suspect it dries out and is just out of the channel.

Our family bought a Trident from there in the 70s (stored in what was Crossfields of Arnside). I can remember watching out and bracing ourselves for the flood tide and associated bore as the boat spun on it's trot mooring. Take a look at the bore on YouTube which presumably is a spring tide.

You obviously can sail there and back, but how to do is an interesting question. With no certain knowledge of where the channel is I'm guessing you'd go in and out with the flood as they did in the video, but they were only coming across from Morcambe (7NM each way). From Piel Island it'd be 23NM.

I'd love to know how you get on, please keep us posted.

Incidently there was a model of the Crossfields Boatyard in the Lancaster Maritime Museum which is well worth a visit.

the technique I use is to go up with the flood bouncing off the bottom as I go

I am laying down a track on the GPS

then when it is time to go back you follow the GPS track as closely as you can

In Wells where they have sand harbours you can walk the channel at low tide

D

 

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

Never underestimate the amount of mud a pair of wellies can bring back onboard. Have some spare water to wash off.

Or do what Charles Stock did and hang them off the stern --

Our family bought a Trident from there in the 70s (stored in what was Crossfields of Arnside) ... Incidently there was a model of the Crossfields Boatyard in the Lancaster Maritime Museum which is well worth a visit.

It was Crossfields of Arnside who built Arthur Ransome's original Swallow, for sailing on the estuary there.

Mike

 

[steve yates]

I know it's an older thread, but talking about sailing out of ad side, I found this.... http://wayfarer.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/049_Cruising_log_Blue_Streak_1966.pdf
from 1966, so there were obviously not only dinghies but cruisers sailing from there at one point.

 

[Channel Sailor]

with fully lifting keels on a cat' I used to try and reconnoiter the area at a previous low tide, at least peer over the side, prod about or slip on a wet suit and dive on the area. To avoid bumping about I would lay a kedge in deeper water on a long warp or re set the bower such that you can pull the boat hard aground as it dries out and similarly pull the boat afloat into deeper water as it rises. On sand and shell beaches I found it quite noisy drying and lifting which disrupts sleep for all on board.
I got it wrong once and came back from the pub with the catamaran balanced on a dried out ledge to a deep dredged channel. The sterns were in fresh air. Only one person could go aft at a time to get into the cabin with another on the bows to balance it out. We went to bed in the bow cabins and saloon that night leaving the aft cabins vacant.

 

[PabloPicasso]

Also if overnighting put an anchor light out. It will not stop fishermen taking a short cut from running you down, but you will have the moral high ground whilst filling in the insurance claim form.

All of these things I have learned about to my cost over the years.

Sounds like an interesting fireside story....

 

[SteveA]

I know this is an old thread but here is the log of someone sailing up Morecambe Bay to Ulverston http://www.ribc.info/index.php?page=gallery&g=12

 

[LittleSister]

And I also lnow it's an old thread, but on the subject of safely walking on/wading in the mud, I have a recollection of some old salt (Des Sleightholme? Maurice Griffiths? Charlie Stock?) talking about home-made 'shoes' for mud walking. As far as I can recall they were just a bit of wooden plank for each foot (?with a hoop of rope to put your foot through?) that performed like a cross between snow shoes and skis. (?Perhaps with longer length of rope attached to the front, with a knot at the top end, and with one in each hand you could lift the front of the ski a little by hand with that rope, then slide it forward with your foot?)

Can anyone shed light on such a thing? Or did I dream it?

 

[Tam Lin]

Splatchers, Arthur Ransome wrote about them.

 

[steve yates]

And I also lnow it's an old thread, but on the subject of safely walking on/wading in the mud, I have a recollection of some old salt (Des Sleightholme? Maurice Griffiths? Charlie Stock?) talking about home-made 'shoes' for mud walking. As far as I can recall they were just a bit of wooden plank for each foot (?with a hoop of rope to put your foot through?) that performed like a cross between snow shoes and skis. (?Perhaps with longer length of rope attached to the front, with a knot at the top end, and with one in each hand you could lift the front of the ski a little by hand with that rope, then slide it forward with your foot?)

Can anyone shed light on such a thing? Or did I dream it?

Yes, I found a tip in an old 70's pbo with them. Two bits of wood, 70x20 cm approx, rounded edges. Hole drilled in front and length of rope and toggle through, which you lift with your hands. And a simple band across the width of the plank to slide your foot under and hold it in place.

 

[Tam Lin]

Secret Water

 

[LittleSister]

Yes, I found a tip in an old 70's pbo with them. Two bits of wood, 70x20 cm approx. . . . .

Even if they'd had centimetres in them days, I'm sure Maurice Griffiths would have had no truck with them!