I miss the East Coast

[DoubleEnder]

We had a couple of land based days in Brightlingsea and Mersea, and I really miss the East Coast. We kept our boat at Faversham, and though it was not the best access it was always a pleasure sailing across to the Essex and Suffolk shore. For a while too we were at Pin Mill, which was great, on a Kings mooring. Then we started going down south in the summers, and I always got a thrill after going round the foreland in to proper blue coloured water, made a lovely contrast to the Estuary's browns and greys. Also made pumping the loo much more satisfying.

My old boat was designed and built in Scotland, I always thought she was a bit wrong for shallower waters, but we seemed to manage fine. Now I have a boat designed and built on the Blackwater, moored in the Solent. Ha. It's an easy drive from where we live now to the yard where she is, but honestly though I could be tempted back East I think, a nice little half tide mooring up the creek somewhere . . . . .

One day I will get it right.
I guess the grass is always greener/seas are always smoother/wind is always fairer on the other side

 

[PaulRainbow]

Can you please refrain from posting this sort of thing on a public forum. Before we know it Southerners will spot it, realise how good the East Coast is and invade us.

 

[Puffin10032]

Can you please refrain from posting this sort of thing on a public forum. Before we know it Southerners will spot it, realise how good the East Coast is and invade us.

... and promptly get their deep keels stuck in the mud

 

[veshengro]

I wintered on the River Blackwater once in my 6 foot draught steel boat. I found the East Coast folk take great delight in scaring deep keelers.
" We can sort you out a mooring out there somewhere " says the bloke from the Boat Yard.
" Looks a bit shallow to me, those Gulls are standing up" I said.
" Shallow! Nooo, you can only just see their knees "....

I ended up on a Buoy alongside the old Packing Shed and spent a very happy, if cold, winter there.

 

[Malish]

I recently brought a yacht round from Salcombe, I couldn't get use to the depth being greater than 15 m... only felt like I was home when the water depth was <5 meters and there was no land to be seen

 

[Daydream believer]

I recently brought a yacht round from Salcombe, I couldn't get use to the depth being greater than 15 m... only felt like I was home when the water depth was <5 meters and there was no land to be seen

5M ??
I assume that was high tide

 

[GEM43]

I sail in Scotland. I start to panic at 5m, I'm used to 100m.

 

[LittleSister]

One day I will get it right.
I guess the grass is always greener/seas are always smoother/wind is always fairer on the other side

But only on one side is the mud muddier!

 

[dolabriform]

After sailing on the east coast for so long , I started to get vertigo when we moved the boat to Dover and started seeing 25m straight outside the harbour!

Around here they get scared if there’s less than 5m below the keel.

 

[johnalison]

The deepest we recorded was about 250m somewhere off Sweden but in spite of the plentiful water the Swedes have no fear of the bottom. Over there, if you haven’t hit a rock in the last year you really haven’t been trying.

 

[The Q]

If I miss the east coast I'm in trouble,
I can see it from my bed, or come to that from this chair..
My echo sounder used to read up to 200 Metres. ( In the Hebrides)
If I fitted one now it's more like 2M ... Or 1M.

 

[westhinder]

The deepest we recorded was about 250m somewhere off Sweden but in spite of the plentiful water the Swedes have no fear of the bottom. Over there, if you haven’t hit a rock in the last year you really haven’t been trying.

I got the badge in my first summer in Sweden. It takes no more than a minute’s lapse of attention.
If it’s vertigo you’re after, try Biscay, where you go from 300 to 3000 m in a matter of miles.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I made in retrospect an error in moving from Plymouth to the Orwell spurred on by memories of my childhood messing about in my grandfathers converted ships boat. ( 1950s) Whilst the weather was generally good and I had no great fear of the lack of water under my long(ish) keel and having ticked off not without some trepidation the crossing of the Thames, the entrances to Ore Alde and Blyth, Ostend a little of Holland I longed for the blue waters of the South West and points south. It was in it's own way a pleasant interlude but didn't live up to my nostalgic memories of my childhood.

 

[Concerto]

I have just left the East Coast as I now live in Cheshire. I am so used to sailing in shallow waters that you cannot see the bottom. Approaching Pwllheli last night as the sun set with hills all along the coastline and some rocky islands nearby, plus having seen 2 pods of dolphins earlier in the day. It will be such a different sailing area.

I will miss the East Coast as I loved sailing on the Medway and visiting places like Brightlingsea, Woodbridge, The Deben and Orwell, even Ramsgate. So many memories.

If anyone wants to read about my delivery trip to Pwllheli, this is the thread.
Concerto is on the move