Have gore Bridge

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Snowgoose-1

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I intend making the trip from the Roach to London via the Havengore Bridge . Excellent info from Crouch Harbour . The only info I need to complete the trip is a chartlet from the bridge to Blacktail Spit or S. Shoe bury to find the best water. Checked the local clubs websites but can't find the info. Thanks for any assistance.
 
The Roach Sailing Association (?) used to have guide on their website - quite old but very useful, but I can't find it online just now.

There's a line of posts south of the the bridge indicating the best water over the sands, though as you exit the bridge it's initially hard to distinguish the first ones of that line from the various other posts near inshore (they're easier to distinguish coming the other way).

The helpful woman operating the bridge mentioned these as we were transiting, and then called us up a couple of minutes later to say we were heading for the wrong ones, and the live firing going on she'd previously warned us about - and we could hear - was close by in the direction we were mistakenly straying :oops: .

Should be no problem if you have a chart plotter, even without the posts as a guide. I found the creek from the Roach / Crouch direction more challenging depth-wise, though obviously the Shoebury Sands can be a much more inhospitable place to get grounded. We went aground in the creeks, despite shoal draft (just under a metre). The echo sounder was reading 2.5 metres (from surface) both before and while we were aground - obviously a lie. I suspect the water was so muddy, and the bottom so soft, that the sounder was getting confused.
 
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LittleSister said:
The Roach Sailing Association (?) used to have guide on their website - quite old but very useful, but I can't find it online just now.

There's a line of posts south of the the bridge indicating the best water over the sands, though as you exit the bridge it's initially hard to distinguish the first ones of that line from the various other posts near inshore (they're easier to recognise coming the other way).

The helpful woman operating the bridge mentioned these as we were transiting, and then called us up a couple of minutes later to say we were heading for the wrong ones, and the live firing going on she'd previously warned us about was in the direction we were mistakenly straying :oops: .

Should be no problem if you have a chart and plotter, even without the posts as a guide. I found the creek from the Roach / Crouch direction more challenging depth-wise, though obviously the Shoebury Sands can be a much more inhospitable place to get grounded. We went aground in the creeks, despite shoal draft (just under a metre). The echo sounder was reading 2.5 metres (from surface) both before and while we were aground - obviously a lie. I suspect the water was so muddy, and the bottom so soft, that the sounder was getting confused.
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Very helpful. Thanks.
 
Snowgoose-1 said:
I intend making the trip from the Roach to London via the Havengore Bridge . Excellent info from Crouch Harbour . The only info I need to complete the trip is a chartlet from the bridge to Blacktail Spit or S. Shoe bury to find the best water. Checked the local clubs websites but can't find the info. Thanks for any assistance.
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In my store of useful information I have the following note although I have no record of where I copied it from:
"Height of tide in metres at Southend-on-sea gives the same height in feet over the shallowest part of the Havengore crossing. Thus 4 meters of tide height at Southend gives 4 feet of depth over the Havengore route. "

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
Could I express a different opinion as why I have never used the Havengore Bridge. You can only pass through the bridge close to high water and if heading towards London as the OP is planning, you are punching the full tide to get anywhere in the Thames or Medway. I prefer to take the tide down the Crouch to Whitaker for low water and then take the tide south west for 6 hours.
 
Page 105 in fifth edition of ECP - but I agree with Concerto, never fancied popping out into the Thames at high water.
 
Plum said:
In my store of useful information I have the following note although I have no record of where I copied it from:
"Height of tide in metres at Southend-on-sea gives the same height in feet over the shallowest part of the Havengore crossing. Thus 4 meters of tide height at Southend gives 4 feet of depth over the Havengore route. "

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
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Good to know thanks.
 
Concerto said:
Could I express a different opinion as why I have never used the Havengore Bridge. You can only pass through the bridge close to high water and if heading towards London as the OP is planning, you are punching the full tide to get anywhere in the Thames or Medway. I prefer to take the tide down the Crouch to Whitaker for low water and then take the tide south west for 6 hours.
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I am doing Havengore mainly for fun and as an East Coast tick box item What you say makes sense. I draw 5'6" with the keel down and 16" up so I have some flexibility . If I don't fancy things after getting through , I would probably take the ebb and head for somewhere else like Brightlingsea.
 
Concerto said:
Could I express a different opinion as why I have never used the Havengore Bridge. You can only pass through the bridge close to high water and if heading towards London as the OP is planning, you are punching the full tide to get anywhere in the Thames or Medway. I prefer to take the tide down the Crouch to Whitaker for low water and then take the tide south west for 6 hours.
Click to expand...

I've been beaten to it by Snowgoose. It's not especially 'convenient', but it is good fun. It makes for a great little adventure. I hope to do it again sometime.

I can also well understand that lining up the tides to make best progress is very often important, but it's not necessary every time to prioritise the speed of a journey. If I wanted to get somewhere quickly, then car, train, plane or commercial ferry would almost always win out over sailing. I put up with a lot of cost and aggravation to spend time sailing, so why would I always aim to make every journey as short as possible? I will sometimes get up at silly o'clock to catch a tide, another time I might enjoy both a lie-in and also an extra few hours actually sailing. Similarly, I will sometimes go a longer distance/duration route for more or different scenery/interest.

It's quite a while since I did the Havengore, but IIRC we departed from the Orwell, anchored for a lovely peaceful night in the River Roach, made our way up to and through the Havengore the next day, and then turned down the Thames and back up the coast to the Orwell, arriving back well after dark. We had a great and very memorable time. Had we wanted to minimise sailing time, we would never have cast off at all!
 
I went through Havengore bridge a couple of weeks ago on my way back to Walton on the Naze there is not a lot of water I only draw about a metre and it was pretty scary. The best water is probably on the port side of the creek on the way out? I agree with the previous posts not a lot of point using that route for the Thames/Medway but if you are heading north it's worth doing for the novelty value and to tick a box.
 
I have done this trip quite a few times as it works well if you go out early as you can (I draw 2'6'') you can get into the Medway and punch the ebb to wherever or anchor in many of the creeks.
Another favourite is to get round to Holehaven and pick up a buoy for the night or tide and then take the flood up to London.
I like to anchor in Narrow cuts, but be careful not to pickup one of the power cables, which are clearly marked (I missed them) and cost me a tide to sort it out.
 
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