Deben Entrance Update from John White

[Jan Harber]

Just to let you know that John White has recently updated his debenestuarypilot website with an amended chartlet of the Deben entrance giving details of a new transit mark, a red and white pillar with green conical topmark, on the Felixstowe shore between Martello T and the rocky bit.
He is probably fed up with getting people off the shingle to the west where they have been fetching up with monotonous regularity this year.
Hope to get a photograph on Sunday.

 

[Cantata]

Used it on departure this morning, Jan - it's very handy for getting out, but as John commented to me, it's unfortunately virtually invisible against the beach from a distance when coming in.
It's the easternmost of a line of existing posts with green triangle topmarks that stretch westwards along the line of the sea wall.
Coming in, the shore transit with the two buoys is the left hand end of the cottages, very obvious to those who take the trouble to look from outside before they start their run in.

 

[sailorman]

Used it on departure this morning, Jan - it's very handy for getting out, but as John commented to me, it's unfortunately virtually invisible against the beach from a distance when coming in.
It's the easternmost of a line of existing posts with green triangle topmarks that stretch westwards along the line of the sea wall.
Coming in, the shore transit with the two buoys is the left hand end of the cottages, very obvious to those who take the trouble to look from outside before they start their run in.

Bring back "The Meets" i say :encouragement: just like the old daze

 

[Cantata]

View attachment 43896

Here's a photo, grabbed this morning.

 

[sailorman]

View attachment 43896

Here's a photo, grabbed this morning.

Like The Meets but smaller

 

[curtius]

Having come in to the Deben late last yesterday evening I can confirm that the pillar is impossible to see in marginal light conditions. Also there was a new port hand 'can' between the mid and west knoll buoys which has been added since Tuesday. This is slightly to the east of the normal transit presumably as a means of warning of the proximity of the shingle bank to the west.

 

[Cantata]

John White told me he's laid that extra red can (about half-way between the two buoys and slightly west of the direct line between them) as an experiment to see if it makes any difference. So at the moment it's temporary and he's not going to 'announce' it yet in case he decides there's no point in it.

 

[Hadenough]

John White told me he's laid that extra red can (about half-way between the two buoys and slightly west of the direct line between them) as an experiment to see if it makes any difference. So at the moment it's temporary and he's not going to 'announce' it yet in case he decides there's no point in it.

I've said before that is just what's needed, let's hope it stays.

 

[Leighb]

I would certainly think it would show those who have not got a transit lined up that they were being swept off line towards the shallows.

 

[Santana379]

John White told me he's laid that extra red can (about half-way between the two buoys and slightly west of the direct line between them) as an experiment to see if it makes any difference. So at the moment it's temporary and he's not going to 'announce' it yet in case he decides there's no point in it.

Confession time:

Saturday 28 June, LW Harwich 19.51 BST 0.43m we arrived back from Ostende. Two choices - into the Orwell, pick up a buoy, and go into the Deben Sunday morning, or, sneak in to the Deben at last light, wake up on our mooring at Felixstowe Ferry, and get ashore first thing to attend to two and half weeks of laundry, post etc. before work on Monday.

You guessed it - in we went, under power having dropped the sails for maximum control / flexibility, just before 21.30hrs BST. Conditions were good - a Northerly 3/4 so the bar was sheltered and calm. I had a plan B if it went wrong - drop the hook, wait for more water, then head out and round to the Orwell as it would be too dark to proceed. Provided I was in the right place, there would be enough water. I knew the channel was narrower than I have ever seen it, and I had been out and looked at it in May in the dinghy at low water.

You guessed it again. I ran Santana aground. I went in ultra-carefully, concentrating, and constantly checking I was on line the whole way, albeit in fading light. Once we were aground I still thought we were smack on line, which I guess couldn't have been the case. Santana is a strongly built, heavy (7.5ton/33ft), long-keeler. She also has bilge plates which are great when you choose to take to the ground, but quite a liability when you do so by accident unless you decide to stay put until the next flood.

After a fair bit of moving very slowly and scraping the bottom we became stationary, unable to move, but rocking a bit (i.e. from bilge plate to bilge plate). I kept the engine going at close to cruising revs (praying I did no harm to the impellor) and the helm hard over to prevent the bows being turned by the tide and the boat being pushed westwards as the tide rose. After probably 15 minutes I was about to give up, and my wife was forward with the hook ready to drop, when I went for a final burst of throttle at 3,000rpm+ which took us into deeper water a few metres (10 or maybe 15?) ENE of where we'd been stuck, and to my eye starboard of the line between West Knoll and Mid Knoll buoys. We got safely onto our mooring, (which was mercifully not occupied by a visiting boat!), not a little relieved. I 'phoned Thames Coastguard is case they'd had any reports of a blue hulled sailing boat aground on the bar, which they hadn't. I wasn't too keen to broadcast my exploits on the VHF!

I for one welcome the new red can!

With the benefit of hindsight, with the flood tide sweeping across the channel from the NE, it would have been better seamanship to aim to pass down the starboard side of the channel, not down the centre. That way, if I ran aground it would be uptide of the channel, and the rising tide would have to float me back into the channel, and pretty soon too - no need in that case to drop the hook, just keep the engine idling in readiness.

 

[Hadenough]

After probably 15 minutes I was about to give up, and my wife was forward with the hook ready to drop, when I went for a final burst of throttle at 3,000rpm+ which took us into deeper water a few metres (10 or maybe 15?) ENE of where we'd been stuck, and to my eye starboard of the line between West Knoll and Mid Knoll buoys.

Which is where the new transit would have put you I think.

 

[Cantata]

I found least depth 3.3m on the direct line between the buoys last week at half tide.

 

[Santana379]

I found least depth 3.3m on the direct line between the buoys last week at half tide.

Dick, I was 1hr 40m (actually 1hr 30m when I left the Fairway buoy) after low water springs, and I was (just) in the wrong place. My problem wasn't lack of water, but the narrowness of the channel, and the fact I don't think it was quite where I thought it was. That seems to have been the recurring theme in Deben Bar forum posts this year, a width problem rather than a depth problem.

 

[Capt Popeye]

Bring back "The Meets" i say :encouragement: just like the old daze

Ah 'the meets' eh!

View attachment 43934View attachment 43935

found an article on the Deben bar entrance with drgs of 'the meets' and (if it can be read) a pilotage information; all this when the Newson family were the Pilots

 

[Hadenough]

I found least depth 3.3m on the direct line between the buoys last week at half tide.

And there lies the problem I think. A direct line between the bouys keeps you in the (narrow) channel but the oft quoted transit, "green with the left edge of the Martello, or as I was told earlier this year, left edge of the Martello plus a Martello width!" places you to port (going in) of the channel. Whatever, the extra red is a good move and I for one hope it stays.

 

[Hadenough]

Another thought and genuine question. What is the logic behind the position of the Deben safe water buoy? The Orford SWB is (currently) on a line with the red and green so creates a good transit line. Could this be done with the Deben SWB?

 

[Cantata]

And there lies the problem I think. A direct line between the bouys keeps you in the (narrow) channel but the oft quoted transit, "green with the left edge of the Martello, or as I was told earlier this year, left edge of the Martello plus a Martello width!" places you to port (going in) of the channel. Whatever, the extra red is a good move and I for one hope it stays.

The line with the Martello is SO last year!! As mentioned in my earlier post, the transit on the buoys in this year's positions is (or was, last week) the left hand end of the cottages. Quite a way left of the Martello, as can be seen from the current chartlet at http://www.eastcoastpilot.com/Deben2014v3.pdf. You would have to drift to the left to line up on the Martello and perhaps therein lies the problem for some folk this year.
The question about a transit with the Haven buoy is a very good one!

 

[sailorman]

The Haven By will be on a longish scope so liable to move on the tide

 

[Hadenough]

The Haven By will be on a longish scope so liable to move on the tide

Granted but that also applies somewhat to the current advice to use the green as a transit. It would be better than nothing and what is the logic for the current position of the Haven Buoy anyway? A quick look at the chart suggests that it could be moved onto a transit line.

 

[Santana379]

Granted but that also applies somewhat to the current advice to use the green as a transit. It would be better than nothing and what is the logic for the current position of the Haven Buoy anyway? A quick look at the chart suggests that it could be moved onto a transit line.

It really is a very good idea, as a transit behind you, with a strong cross tide and a boat (or potentially a few boats) coming the other way, is very hard to stick too, especially when there's so little margin for error.

The fairway buoy, a waypoint no doubt in lots of Deben visitors' chartplotters, would potentially be subject to quite frequent changes of position though.

In previous years when of course it hasn't been so critical, I've had a frequent problems with boats off line (i.e. steering at the next buoy and ignoring or at least not properly compensating for the tidal effect). I have often elected to go starboard to starboard with them rather than be forced away from the correct side of the channel.

For various reasons we haven't crossed the bar much this year, but as it is I wouldn't like to be between the buoys on a falling tide with anyone coming the other way who wasn't fully aware of where they should be.