East coast spots that are awkward but worth it

sailorman said:
we walked to snapealong the seawall
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It is a lovely walk from Iken to Snape across the saltings, reeds, birds, arable, big skys and views. However its important to watch the tides ( and the pints) as you may find your dinghy high and dry on the black stuff. I have been knee high pushing a dinghy out more than once. Messy stuff that you don't need it on your upholstery.
Anyone remember the Boyton Bell? ( Butley Creek). In the early 80's it was a popular haunt of the Americans from Bentwaters and a great evening to be had.
But unfortunately I ended the evening with black mud up to my a*se a few times.
There is a great ferry pontoon there now but no pub :(
 
Seashoreman said:
It is a lovely walk from Iken to Snape across the saltings, reeds, birds, arable, big skys and views. However its important to watch the tides ( and the pints) as you may find your dinghy high and dry on the black stuff. I have been knee high pushing a dinghy out more than once. Messy stuff that you don't need it on your upholstery.
Anyone remember the Boyton Bell? ( Butley Creek). In the early 80's it was a popular haunt of the Americans from Bentwaters and a great evening to be had.
But unfortunately I ended the evening with black mud up to my a*se a few times.
There is a great ferry pontoon there now but no pub :(
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Butly is a river
 
Leighb said:
You can get to much of the Waveney and the Yare with a mast up. We got up to Beccles and down to St Olaves entering at Lowestoft, and nearly to Norwich on the Yare, can also access the Lowe end of the Waveney, again as far as St Olaves.
Amusingly we were moored just below the road bridge at Beccles, and returning from a walk into town we overheard a couple of locals commenting on our boat. One said “What’s that boat doing there? It didn’t ought be here, that’s a seagoing boat.” The other replied, “I expect it’s come up from Lowestoft” , first said ” It still don’t belong here” We said nothing, but had a laugh about it once out of earshot.
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Not sure how much that much longer that will continue, Network rail regularly illegally close the rail bridges to river traffic for long periods when the weather gets warm, all dredging of the main river to Norwich seems to have stopped, now it's no longer a port. There are moves to weld shut the Carrow road bridge..
 
Seashoreman said:
It is a lovely walk from Iken to Snape across the saltings, reeds, birds, arable, big skys and views. However its important to watch the tides ( and the pints) as you may find your dinghy high and dry on the black stuff. I have been knee high pushing a dinghy out more than once. Messy stuff that you don't need it on your upholstery.
Anyone remember the Boyton Bell? ( Butley Creek). In the early 80's it was a popular haunt of the Americans from Bentwaters and a great evening to be had.
But unfortunately I ended the evening with black mud up to my a*se a few times.
There is a great ferry pontoon there now but no pub :(
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In the 70s we walked from the river to the pub early evening and sat outside waiting for it to open. After a while with no signs of life I asked a guy digging an allotment, what time the pub opened.
"when customers arrive"
"well, I'm here"
" OK, I'll open up then"
A bit later a bus arrived, no passengers but the driver unloaded several bags of shopping, which were collected later by pensioners. Good comunity service.
No gastro pub but scotch eggs were available.
 
The Q said:
Not sure how much that much longer that will continue, Network rail regularly illegally close the rail bridges to river traffic for long periods when the weather gets warm, all dredging of the main river to Norwich seems to have stopped, now it's no longer a port. There are moves to weld shut the Carrow road bridge..
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The Yare is plenty deep for us without dredging. I've taken my boat up to within walking distance of Norwich city centre (Trowse/Whiltlingham) with no depth issues whatsoever. There is (or was) a yacht club and boatyard there. (Do check for overhanging trees fouling the mast at some of the free riverside mooring spots though!)
 
LittleSister said:
The Yare is plenty deep for us without dredging. I've taken my boat up to within walking distance of Norwich city centre (Trowse/Whiltlingham) with no depth issues whatsoever. There is (or was) a yacht club and boatyard there. (Do check for overhanging trees fouling the mast at some of the free riverside mooring spots though!)
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At the moment..
 
DanTribe said:
In the 70s we walked from the river to the pub early evening and sat outside waiting for it to open. After a while with no signs of life I asked a guy digging an allotment, what time the pub opened.
"when customers arrive"
"well, I'm here"
" OK, I'll open up then"
A bit later a bus arrived, no passengers but the driver unloaded several bags of shopping, which were collected later by pensioners. Good comunity service.
No gastro pub but scotch eggs were available.
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Some time in the ‘80s we walked across the fields from the Brick Dock to The Bell on a very wet evening. We had spent the past couple of days in the Butley River waiting for a gale to blow itself out and had pretty much run out of supplies. They didn’t serve food but when we stood bedraggled and dripping at the door they kindly rustled up some toasted cheese sandwiches for us. They also served excellent home-made sloe gin, which made walking back to the boat in the dark even more difficult…
 
Kings Lynn is another possibility. Only really awkward in that it's a bit 'out of the way' and requires some tidal navigation, but once you get there there's a visitor pontoon on the river right next to the town centre.

Kings Lynn as a whole is generally rather run down and dull, but around the quay and in the adjacent town centre there's some nice old buildings and spaces, plus some passable eateries and drinkeries, a museum about the fishing community etc. a few hundred yards away, and much history from its days as a Hanseatic League port.

There's also a yacht/boat club overlooking the river, mainly a drinking den someone on here told me.
 
mrming said:
Now I’ve done a lot of the main places of interest I’m hoping to tick off a few of the slightly more difficult ports of refuge.

What places are a bit of a pain, but worth it?

A couple that are on my list (and at fairly extreme ends of the East coast) are Sandwich, and Wells-next-the-Sea.

Fin keel drawing 1.6m, happy to dry out in soft mud.

Any other suggestions? ?
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St Kats is very nice,if slightly a bit to the West.
Big advantage, not a hair shirt destination and always something do apart from sheltering from the semi permanent East Wind in the cabin constantly wondering if the waves have died down enough to make a break from the Crouch round to the Deben and spent few days hiding up there. ?
 
oldgit said:
St Kats is very nice,if slightly a bit to the West.
Big advantage, not a hair shirt destination and always something do apart from sheltering from the semi permanent East Wind in the cabin constantly wondering if the waves have died down enough to make a break from the Crouch round to the Deben and spent few days hiding up there. ?
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At £90 per night for a 10.01m vessel? Ouch....
 
St Kats, last year, haven’t checked this year, did a deal which worked out as staying for 7 days, but only paying for 4. They are worried about their lock and don’t want to wear it out with really short stay visitors.
 
LittleSister said:
For adventurous souls without the OP's 1.4m fin keel, there's also Gibraltar Point.

I've never been, but it looks an appealingly challenging prospect - I doubt they get many visitors! - for those not averse to a bit of creek crawling and improvisation.
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First and last time we’ve been there, this was the result of being 1m off channel

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