Help needed with first 'proper' cruise

[Tomahawk]

Always easier to lose time than make it up. I always aim to arrive at any tidal gate destination early so when the unexpected happens, I have time to sort it.

Plus one...

I always plan to arrive at a strange port on a rising tide... It is not that I don't trust tide tables and predictions.. but they are just that. "predictions". Weather patterns can change tide heights by up to a metre in 24 hours!! I have seen it happen.. Also in soft estuaries made of mud and sand, the charted depths can change after a particularly wet month with lots of river flow.. I have noticed that sand/mud spits can grow at the edges of channels... Indeed there is a recent growth at the southern end of the Swin Spitway on the landward side so you have to now keep exactly between the fairway buoys.. A couple of years ago I could cut the corner between the Crouch and the Spitway.. Nearly had a heart attack when I tried it again this year!! There is another Thread that mentions this particular change ion teh position of the sand bank..

So yes... plan to arrive at the shallow places on a rising tide.. with experience of the water you will be able to decide where it is OK to get close to the banks.

PS Thames CG give reports of Actual tide against prediction.. Good Luck and tell everyone about your trip!!

 

[nortada]

Currently having silting & channel changes in the Walton Backwaters but provided you stay within the buoyed channels & calculate depths from the latest data available, as the OGA race confirmed last weekend (when 40+ assorted vessels circum-navigated Horsey Island without mishap), it is all very 'doable'.