FulmarJeddo
Well-Known Member
Our club held its annual Round the Island race (that’s Sheppey) yesterday. As we can only start near the top of a tide due to our drying moorings, it’s normally pretty shallow when we’re round the back of the Island. But yesterday there seemed to be less water than normal. We were at the shallowest and narrowest stretch around 1 ½ hours before low water. The predicted LW was 1.2m and looking at the charts the least water is shown as 0.5. With my 1.2m draft I wouldn’t have expected to see anything less than about 0.7m, but saw 0.3 under my keel in a few places. I have a Garmin plotter that has got me safely through there many times in the past. Maybe the tide dropped further than predicted yesterday, or has last year’s cable laying for the London Array wind farm speeded up the silting further round the Swale?
Alternatively It could just be natural silting that is reaching a critical point and approaching the non-navigable stage at low water for all but the smallest boats. Silting has been going on here for ever, this was a major route for trading vessels in years gone past.
Apart from a few heart stopping moments when we were expecting to come to a stop it was great to be out on the water in some warm weather at last, and another trophy to collect dust!!
Alternatively It could just be natural silting that is reaching a critical point and approaching the non-navigable stage at low water for all but the smallest boats. Silting has been going on here for ever, this was a major route for trading vessels in years gone past.
Apart from a few heart stopping moments when we were expecting to come to a stop it was great to be out on the water in some warm weather at last, and another trophy to collect dust!!