Interesting Website Sharpness to Avonmouth.

[graham]

web page

found this while googling for something else. Loads of pictures of Sharpness Canal and passage down to Portishead taken from a narrow boat.

 

[DAVIDO]

Enjoyed that thank you. Dont know whether id want to do it in a narrow boat though.

 

[chrishelen]

Those photos brought back a few fond memorys of when i was a sea cadet way back,we used to spend weekends at sharpness for sailing and pulling,there used to be an old building we used as accomodation just up from the marina which was just an empty basin in those days,Also we used to dive in off the old coal loaders touch the bottom and come up with black coal sludge covered hands, /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gifOne day, i`ll never forget the look on our officers face when we were pulling up the canal in our whaler and a large tanker was coming up behind us,"Sir,sir we cried,theres a big ship behind us,"dont worry he said we have priority",then he looked around,"every one out on the bank at the double"that was the fastest we moved all weekend.Happy days.

 

[damo]

N/b's do it regularly in the summer, usually with a pilot for the Sharpness-Portishead passage. Most are naturally very apprehensive - it must feel incredibly exposed for a canal boater - and conditions need to be quite benign. A pilot told me that his limit is 15kn wind, but the sea must be smooth-slight.

One gung-ho know-it-all insisted on heading for Sharpness last year: 0400, dark, 15-20kn, channel chop, no nav lights. All you could see was an occasional faint glow from his handheld gps! VTS were going ballistic, because there was a ship departing Portbury, another swinging in the Roads, and several tugs around.

I bet he had fun in the Shoots /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[whisper]

Thanks for that - very interesting. I've often wondered what that trip would be like.
I must call in at Sharpness on one of my next trips down to Devon (by car I hasten to add).