Depths in Bradwell Creek - a little bit late in the season I know

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tillergirl

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I have finished and posted up a download of a PDF on the website showing depths in Bradwell Creek.

You will see that the deep water (deep water! ho ho ho) is no longer as indicated by the withy (yes I mean withy) and red cans. In fact ironically they mark the worse water!

Best route in is to use the red cans as starboard hand buoys and strike a line midway between the cans and the three/four moorings in the outer part of the creek. That will take you in a slight curve and lead you to the green can. Best water round the green can is by leaving it to starboard but if you got this far without touching you can probably leave it close to port.

You then have three 'avenues' between four lines of moorings. The southern (or Bradwell shore) of moorings dry. Don't go outside them! but best water of the three avenues is by leaving that first line of moorings to port. That does take you quite close to the post adjacent to the end of the slip (especially as like today there is a stiff NW'er holding yachts athwart the stream!). There is less water in the next 'avenue' and even less in the 'avenue' on the Pewit Island side. Again the outer line of moorings on that side dry as well.

We (me and Colin [the lurker ;)]) gave the Marina a copy of the chart today amid a few 'oh dear's'. The manager is away all week and so won't see it until next Monday and they will consider what they want to do. Not the best news for them as they have just refurb'ed the cans with a nice shade of red when best they were green. I am afaid, it isn't just a case of painting the cans green as Trinity House appear to be saying (at least this is what they have said to WMYC on the other side of the river) that green cans must be conical. Which is kind of expensive.

We'll wait to see what they do.

http://www.crossingthethamesestuary.com/page6.html

Frankly the difference in depth is only half a metre and really you can't go far wrong striking a course down the middle of the creek. I know Roger (Moodysabre) considers a line from the end of the baffle wall to the Marina Tower works.

Sorry it's a bit late for the season! And to be a real anorak, I have nearly finished Lawling Creek! Actually I had finished it but the 'something, something' file has disappeared! :D
 
tillergirl said:
I am afaid, it isn't just a case of painting the cans green as Trinity House appear to be saying (at least this is what they have said to WMYC on the other side of the river) that green cans must be conical. Which is kind of expensive.

We'll wait to see what they do.
Click to expand...

Relaying them further east would seem the logical move? Or perhaps remove them alltogeather and adjust the leading marks as they don't appear to be pointing anywhere useful right now.

Out of interest how does the depth over the cill compare with the soundings in the creek?
 
simon14b said:
Relaying them further east would seem the logical move? Or perhaps remove them all togeather and adjust the leading marks as they don't appear to be pointing anywhere useful right now.
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The trouble with keeping them as red cans is that they would have to be positioned rather close if not on top of the moorings. So they need to become starboard hand marks. Ok that's just a coat of paint - but they have just painted them red from their previous orange plus Trinity House appear to be insisting that they have th proper shape - well not insisting that Bradwell do that but in Mersea, the green cans are apparently not adequate for Trinity House and the Club has to consider whether it removes them or gets a conical shape to them - not too easy.

Personally I think the leading marks are not very helpful - well they help but leaving a red can to port and a green one to starboard on the way in ought to be suffiicent without some leading marks as well. I think the leading marks date back to before the marina when there were only some withies marking the edge of Pewit Island. In those days you skirted the withies and then headed for the leading marks.

As to the cill, there is no cill at Bradwell. Must confess to a blunder here. In the three visits for data, I stopped short of entering the marina channel to get depths. So I thought today, I would rectify that and then add it to the chart. Did all that, trolled around the entrance - in and out of the mooring just pst the entrance (not too easy on a blowing day with a long keeled old girl) and then went in to get diesel. Left laptop sucking up data, paid the bill (ouch) and on restarting the engine, the power spike shut down the programme. I restarted it and assumed that the autosave would have worked on both the Excel file and the log file. Alas no! So I lost all the data (d**n, d**n, d**n).

The short answer which I could have said a paragraph earlier is that if you get in the entrance to the creek, there is enough water into the marina. From memory as I entered, doing a mental reduction to Chart Datum, there will be at least a metre and probably more in the entrance. I suspect Roger can confirm that.

Thanks chaps for all the comments.
 
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tillergirl said:
The short answer which I could have said a paragraph earlier is that if you get in the entrance to the creek, there is enough water into the marina. From memory as I entered, doing a mental reduction to Chart Datum, there will be at least a metre and probably more in the entrance. I suspect Roger can confirm that.
Click to expand...

I have ploughed the shallow spot in the marked channel on several occassions - if you could get up the marked channel then there was always enough water at the marina entrance. Now we can get up the creek with even less water it remains to be seen :D I think the depth through the entrance remains much the same as it does coming through the trots passed the scrubbing posts.

Splendid stuff TG - I shall not hold my breath for prompt action from the marina - what with wifi, revamping the showers and the westerly extension all due and the relaid car park and new dinghy racks - time for a lie down :)
 
Thanks TG... thats incredibly useful info.

I went into Bradwell last weekend at LW+2, following the channel as bouyed, and got down to 20cm under the keel, so will confirm your observation of the marked channel being shallow!

The marina entrance I found, had shallower water in the first half entering, but by midway was a lot deeper again... it was however, at its shallowest, at least 0.5m deeper than the shallowest part of Bradwell creek , so if you can get into the creek via the bouyed channel, you can get into the marina.
 
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Yes, that was my recollection. Frankly though I was over confident in the software and didn't pay attention to the readings 'au dial'. I am contemplating whether I can nip over there on Sunday on my way up river to be lifted. I did retrieve some data but it was right on the extreme 'eastern' edge of the marina entrance by the posts which does dry slightly so it would not be a true representation of depth in the middle which was in the lost data.

The marina are concerned about silt coming out from the opening in the sea wall just upriver of them. That could explain the shallowness off the edge of Pewit Island and indeed the marina entrance. They said they had been at pain to point out to the Power Station deconstruction team that any trenching to remove the baffle wall must be done on the ebb or they would get the silt straigh up into the marina.
 
Thanks for that, Roger, very interesting. I shall have to rearrange my parking arrangements. Twice in the late summer, I moored BD in what turns out to be the channel, thinking I was keeping out of the way! Both trips involved a dinghy ashore for lunch in the Green Man. I rounded out of the marked channel and thought there was slightly more depth on the moorings side (the smack-yacht Merlin is outermost, and I anchored about 50 yards outside her).

The sea wall breach in Old Hall Marsh in Tollesbury Creek has played havoc with South Channel, which virtually dries out on LWS at the shram hill below Shingle Head, there used to be ten feet of water there post the marina being dug but pre the managed retreat. North Channel has been favoured by the headwaters emptying out of the breach, as it switches course above Great Cob Island, and has scoured a deeper channel that doesn't shoal until after the Halyardway (the south cardinal marked 'Indigo'), just upriver from the Quarters. Trouble is, the water gets very shallow at the top of North Channel, if one does try to get a keelboat into the Leavings early on the tide from the north-western end.

I suppose silting is going on all over the place all the time, but the man-made influences seem to exacerbate it.

All the best
Greg
 
Black Diamond said:
Trouble is, the water gets very shallow at the top of North Channel, if one does try to get a keelboat into the Leavings early on the tide from the north-western end.

I suppose silting is going on all over the place all the time, but the man-made influences seem to exacerbate it.
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I vouch for the shallow bit at the top of North Channel. Moving the neighbour's boat last week it seemed like the channel had disappeared at that point. Got reminded that I had set his shallow water alarm - rather loudly as it happens.

I supppose we changed things went we did the sea wall but the partial opening is going to give us a 'third state' rather than how it was before the sea wall.

Sorry about your neat parking space!
 
Thanks very much TG
A valuable warning

I see that Bradwell marina have updated their website but there is very little to help visitors find their way in.
In fact they still say "The Creek is marked with red can to port and withies to starboard. The deeper water is found closer to the withies, as the cans do dry out on some low tides."
Exactly the wrong advice.
If you zoom in to the Bing satellite map you can see a nice gouge through the mud from someone who followed their advice.
Have printed your new chart and put it in my CTTE book
Thanks
 
It strikes me that the simplest fix would be to cut two pieces of marine ply shaped to form a cone and slotted so they will slide together; like the folding anchor ball/motoring cone. Slotted at right angles they drop over the current cans and are held in place using binding straps used in the parcels industry. A heavy coat of green paint (why, oh why, did they change from black?) and Bob's your aunty all done.
 
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