Deceived by a rill (or is it a gut?)

[rudolph_hart]

Went for a sail on Monday, lovely day, so headed up the Blackwater from Mersea. There we were close hauled on starboard closing the western end of Pewit island off Bradwell. As it was about an hour after HW, I decided 3.0 meters of depth was close enough (we draw 1.5) and tacked away onto port and immdiately slid to a full stop.

As the tide left us high & dry and uncovered the bottom, we could see that we'd sailed up this rill or gutway and when we'd tacked we'd piled straight onto the northern bank of it.

It's not marked on the charts or by withies (it doesn't lead anywhere, it just peters out further to the west).

We had plenty of time (9 hours) to take the following sequence of photos.

As we were in (distant) view of Bradwell marina tower, I was more than a bit embarrassed.


View attachment 35027View attachment 35028View attachment 35029

Bugger! it won't let me upload any more pictures. The rill runs all the way down to about 500 meters west of the BRadwell creek beacon.

 

[MoodySabre]

Could that be St Lawrence Creek? My Navionics also shows a patch with more depth east of that creek but not extending as far as the back door to Bradwell Creek.

 

[Athene V30]

I was more than a bit embarrassed

Back in 2009 about a month after I got Karouise I took some of the Cambridge Uni Royal Naval students sailing from Bradwell. We had all had a great night the previous evening (combined RNSA and RNVR YC meet with HMS Raider present) and I was somewhat hung over. I ran aground off the beach to the east of the baffles about 3 hours before LW. Once the tide had fallen enough the students walked ashore and back to ship in Marina. I went to bed! The Senior Training Officer still makes reference to it!

 

[rudolph_hart]

It's not as far upriver as St Lawrence creek, and nowhere near as wide - only about 20 meters wide for most of its length.

The 3rd picture in my original post showns the catamaran on the most western mooring in Bradwell creek.

Here is the view of the eastern 'entrance'. Note the concrete remains of the baffle wall in the background. All these pictures were taken at around low water. View attachment 35064

 

[MoodySabre]

Bet you couldn't do it again

 

[rudolph_hart]

Bet you couldn't do it again

If I did it again, I'd be chuffing angry!

 

[tidclacy]

Might find your answer here

http://creeksailor.blogspot.co.uk/s...ilor book Ready About On The River Blackwater

He describes all the ditches, creeks etc in this wonderful book. Well worth a read.

 

[BlackwaterLad]

Hi.

I didn’t find anything on the chart but the OS map has a couple of clues.
I think you are right to feel unfortunate that you hit such a small target