Brightlingsea creek entrance

[MikeBz]

A word of warning to visitors to Brightlingsea. Until very recently (Wednesday or Thursday last week) the entrance to the creek was marked by the centrally-placed Creekmouth buoy. At low tide you passed as close as you could to the buoy to find the deepest water and then followed the leading lights from there.

Now the buoy has been moved northwards, and a post inserted south of the original buoy position, to create a fairly wide 'gate' across the mouth of the creek. If you navigate using the buoy as before then you will get a closer view of Batemans tower than before and will drive yourself onto the mud.

It seems daft to me - surely having a marker showing the deepest point makes far more sense than a wide gate across an area which only has a narrow channel with any depth somewhere in the middle. I predict that we will now see a lot more boats stranded for a tide at the creek entrance.

Mike

 

[Solene]

Thanks, I might be going that way this weekend, is it safe to assume that deepest water is in the middle of the "gate" ?

 

[MikeBz]

Somewhere in the middle yes, whether it's exactly in the middle I don't know (haven't been out there since they put the post in and moved the buoy). I believe that the 'correct' approach is to stay to the west of the 'gate' until the leading marks on the Brightlingsea shore are in line, and then keep them in line until you are approaching the 2 navigation marks in the creek, after which you just follow your nose.

Mike

 

[alldownwind]

Just found a note of this on the East Coast Pilot website www.eastcoastpilot.com. It says: "Visitors to Brightlingsea should find entry to the creek from the River Colne somewhat easier following the establishment of an additional SHM on the S side of the entrance to form a gateway with the Brightlingsea Spit buoy. That S Cardinal, which marks the end of Brightlingsea Spit, is left to port on entry, and a green post (Fl.G 3s) marks the opposite side of the channel.
The post will soon carry a tide gauge showing the depth of water over the bar. Entering between these marks should enable visitors to pick up the shore-side leading marks more easily too. (June 2007)"