East Coast Circumnavigations

LONG_KEELER

LONG_KEELER

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The Stour thread set me thinking.

How many islands on the East Coast can you circumnavigate in a lift keel yacht ?

Has anyone done the lot ?
 
LONG_KEELER said:
The Stour thread set me thinking.

How many islands on the East Coast can you circumnavigate in a lift keel yacht ?

Has anyone done the lot ?
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No I have not done them all, although it depends on what you define as an island. I assume you mean bits of land that are not covered at mean high water. There are quite a few that are circumnavigable.
Hoo
Burntwick
Sheppy
Rushley
Potton
Foulness
Bridgemarsh
Pewet
Osea
Northey
Horsey
Skippers
Honey
Havergate

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
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Also depends on how far your definition of East Coast extends -

Thames
Lower Horse and Upper Horse (Holehaven Creek)

I have a vague recollection that Charlie Stock may have circumnavigated Canvey Island.

Isleworth Ait
Brentford Ait
Raven's Ait

Presumably many in non-tidal Thames.

The Broads
Quite a few if you can get your mast down to get under low bridges.

North Norfolk
Scolt Head Island - I think someone said on here recently could be circumnavigated (but perhaps only by dinghy?)

Terra Incognito
Continue up to Northumberland and Scotland and there's a whole host more.

Could take you a while, but a very noble cause!
 
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Pewet Island (best one avoids the acrow)
Sunken Island (by launch -does that count)
Skipper's Island (took three consecutive tides - does that count as a circumnavigation or is that a circummistake?)
 
tillergirl said:
Pewet Island (best one avoids the acrow)
Sunken Island (by launch -does that count)
Skipper's Island (took three consecutive tides - does that count as a circumnavigation or is that a circummistake?)
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I think any circumnavigation attempted counts as a hit. Even if you didn't make it. I ran aground on the causeway at Northey and had to reverse off. I'm claiming it. Made both ends of Mersea on different days and going to claim that as well.
 
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johnalison said:
I suppose there is Rat Island if you're not afraid of rats.
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Ah. Rat Island. That's somewhere I've been aground as well. Perhaps we should also have a 'who's been aground' thread (we can tell we are not going out today!). Always managed to get over the Northey causeway. How about a phantom 'almost about to go aground'? Once upon a time, before GPS, we were planning to get to Ramsgit. T'was misty/foggy and we had come round the East Barrow when the vis dropped. We thought we were in the Barrow Deep heading for the SW Sunk beacon (gosh, this is an old anecdote) and we had then one of those echosounders that spun around and around. But we had the high-tech one with a digital 'readout'. In the middle of nowhere all of a sudden the digital reading was reading 0.9m. Eek. We thought we were in the Barrow Deep. We put her into neutral (there was no wind) and looking around we could just see the pair of red and greens either side of us. But we've got 0.9m. Eek. Out with the sounding pole - you all have one of those I suppose. But we can't find no bottom. So we ssslowly advance and the sounder all of a sudden says 15/16m. Phew ok. And then Eek. 0.9m again. In a disorientating non GPS, no chart plotter, no vis, no depth panic we thought perhaps we are over the Sunk Sand and the red buoy is on the Black Deep and the green buoy is on the Barrow Deep. No that can't be they are the wrong way round. And now we can't see the buoys anyway. Sounding pole - nuffin. And then one of the ladies asked what the button on the echosounder was for. Oh, that's for the range x 6. Oh turned that and now we have 20.9m! Bingo. There was a time when Phil (are you lurking Phil) tried to circumnavigate Northey in deep fog instead of heading for Bradwell. But that's another time.....

Oh the garden swing has just tried to sail. Saved by the hedge.
 
tillergirl said:
Oh the garden swing has just tried to sail. Saved by the hedge.
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If I remember correctly, our Seafarer depth panic was somewhere off the Whitaker, and may be responsible for some of my hair loss. I don't suppose people today can understand what it is like to not know one's exact position.

Our grounding occurred when crossing the Sunk in the last year of owning our Mystere. In the night I sent the navigating officer below to tell me if we were sufficiently over the sands to turn south. That person assured me that it was OK, so we did, and came to a halt just before LW. The said person then told me that it should have been alright because the chart showed blue water. After an hour or two of bumping a bit we went on our way, only to get confused again by a flashing red light that didn't seem to correspond exactly to the E Margate buoy. It was another hour or so before it became evident that were were in the previously-unconsidered red sector of N Foreland. The following day we found the bilge full of water. Fearing damage from the grounding I cleaned the 14yr-old bilge and found nothing after a whole day, until I saw water coming down from a hole in the cockpit drain pipe which was next to an often hot dry exhaust.
 
Tam Lin said:
So, which rivers would you use? Is there a route through East Anglia from say, The Wash to the Thames? I may be showing my ignorance here but have got to an age where that doesn’t bother me!
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I think it’s the idea that if your willing to drag your boat across roads.... but I guess you could go up to wetherden on the ore/ grippe, then drag you boat across to elmswell and join get into the black Bourn there, And thus into the little ouse, then great Ouse, and out at kings lynn.
 
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