How to anchor in Butley Creek?

Rivers & creeks

Rivers & creeks

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Hi. We spend every summer in the Ore/Alde/Butley. We have great ground tackle and we’re experienced. But we’re hopeless at anchoring in the Butley river.

We quite often end up aground on the mud close to the bank. We can’t seem to cope with even moderately strong winds. Basically we’ve lost our nerve. We want to get it right because it’s probably the nicest place on the East Coast.

Help is very welcome.

10m long keel drawing 1.5m
 
Once the ebb flow has eased off one is at the mercy of the wind direction swinging yiu to one bank or the other - not much you can do about that except using a stern anchor I suppose. Not a problem if you’re upstream of the dock and it’s a Northerly breeze!
 
You are not alone.
This may be a granny/eggs situation but this was our experience of the Butley.
I tried it when first using a windlass and got it completely wrong - I re-learnt how to do it and changed anchors at the same time (Kobra to Delta).
I found that by the time you have lowered everything down on the windlass, you have moved so far away from where you want to be that you have to start again.
So I was told that you had to have the clutch off and just dump it all down almost in one go so that it hits where you want it to in an instant. You probably do this anyway but would rather say than stay quiet.
I find it a peculiarly difficult place to anchor.
 
We're always looking for stress-free when anchoring - accordingly we don't go into the Butley - pretty as it is. At 13m and 2m draft it's not wide enough for us to anchor stress-free. Especially when a few hundred metres around the corner there's superb holding in the wider river where we've never dragged
 
Over the years we done a lot of anchoring so we stay head to waves in open bays .

we would drop a stern anchor with loads of scope enough to be able to drive forward far enough to drop the bower then drop back taken up the slack of the stern anchor as we drop back and set the bow anchor .
icant see any reason why this can’t be done in a river , a little adjustment as the tide drop may be needed although with enough scope you probably be ok depending on the tide .
I should add being full time live aboard and living 9 months each year on our hook we carried plenty of scope on both out anchors , a small weekend boat may not carry as much as we did , so may not have enough scope on their stern anchor to be able to set their bow anchor.
 
Thank you everyone. Glad to hear we’re not alone. Reading those replies I think we’re being too cautious. We’re very careful anchorers and gently pay out, having anchored hundreds of times and in some challenging places. But I can see how dropping the hook and measured scope in one go ensures the anchor is where we want it, then carefully dig so we don’t plough with it. We’ll give it another shot, thank you.
 
At high tide its a pretty exposed anchorage, there is nothing between you and the north sea in any sort of wind. Plus the ebb isn't particularly strong as its held in by the main river. My thought is a Northwesterly would be the best time to be there, should allow you to hang down stream nicely.

Personally i've never had a problem, I usaully go up a little further and grab a mooring......
 
I’ve never thought of using a mooring, surely the depth of water is very low at LW? All the boats there are very shallow draft.

As for sheltered it’s the calmest place on earth, no fetch at all in any conditions. Are we talking about the same place?
 
I think Aquaboy means it's not sheltered from the wind at high tide. We've anchored just upstream of the ferry crossing before the moorings start, but we can take the ground (or mud in this case). One day we will venture up past the moorings and have a day/night up there - I guess it pretty much dries out. Not sure how big a boat you could sensibily put on the moorings anyway.
 
It’s over forty years since I’ve anchored there, but we used to use fore & aft anchors and never had a problem, by which I mean two anchors from the bow.
 
Colvic Watson said:
Hi. We spend every summer in the Ore/Alde/Butley. We have great ground tackle and we’re experienced. But we’re hopeless at anchoring in the Butley river.

We quite often end up aground on the mud close to the bank. We can’t seem to cope with even moderately strong winds. Basically we’ve lost our nerve. We want to get it right because it’s probably the nicest place on the East Coast.

Help is very welcome.

10m long keel drawing 1.5m
Click to expand...
Kedge, no brainer, there is not enough room for any thing more than 8-9 m to swing And why would you want to when the blue fishing cat comes in at 10 knots? Which he does I understand to keep the channel dredged. We are 11m, 1,8 draft and have anchored there many times with no trouble. Main issue is getting the kedge (danforth) out of the mud!
 
We've been up there several times and used a vacant buoy above the ferry. Lovely place to stop a few days. And great to take a dinghy (rowing/sailing/but mainly outboard) up to just short of Butley Mills.
 
Colvic Watson said:
Hi. We spend every summer in the Ore/Alde/Butley. We have great ground tackle and we’re experienced. But we’re hopeless at anchoring in the Butley river.

We quite often end up aground on the mud close to the bank. We can’t seem to cope with even moderately strong winds. Basically we’ve lost our nerve. We want to get it right because it’s probably the nicest place on the East Coast.

Help is very welcome.

10m long keel drawing 1.5m
Click to expand...
IF YOU ANCHOR ONE HOUR AFTER HIGH WATER AND ONLY PICK TIDES WHICH ARE HIGH BETWEEN 19.00-23.00 YOU WILL BE AWAKE FOR THE NEXT HIGH TIDE SO WILL BE ABLE TO RE-POSITION YOUR BOAT IF NEEDED.. ALSO IF THE TIDES ARE GENERALLY ON THE UP EACH DAY THAT TAKES AWAY ALOT OF THE STRESS. IF YOU KEEP AN EYE ON
HHA.CO.UK " LIVE DATA " YOU CAN CHECK TO SEE IF THERE IS ANY KIND OF SURGE. ANCHORING DURING A SURGE IS NEVER GOOD. BEST GET THE TIDE TABLES OUT AND PLAN YOUR DAYS.
 
Colvic Watson said:
Hi. We spend every summer in the Ore/Alde/Butley. We have great ground tackle and we’re experienced. But we’re hopeless at anchoring in the Butley river.

We quite often end up aground on the mud close to the bank. We can’t seem to cope with even moderately strong winds. Basically we’ve lost our nerve. We want to get it right because it’s probably the nicest place on the East Coast.

Help is very welcome.

10m long keel drawing 1.5m
Click to expand...
SORRY BUT I FORGOT TO ADD, I PRESUME YOUR BOAT SETTLES UPRIGHT. MINE DOES 95% OF THE TIME. IF YOUR BOATS LAYS OVER ALOT THEN i DO NOT SEE AN ANSWER TO YOUR PROBLEM UNLESS YOU GET DYNAMIC POSITIONING PODS LIKE FLOATING OIL RIGS HAVE.
 
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