Least Salty Water in the Solent.

[Mark-1]

Some of the discussion on the latest Antifoul thread got me pondering where the closest you can get to fresh water in the Solent area is in a boat of reasonable draught? (Say Centaur size.)

Somewhere at the top of Christchurch, Beaulieu, Chichester Harbour?

Chichester Marina is brackish and on a winters day when there's a lot of fresh water going in and not much going out gets pretty fresh - over Covid it was pretty much fresh water for a while, same when the lock gate's close for maintenance.

If I was asking 150 years ago it would be Chichester Canal by a country mile but that lock needs more than WD40 so we can't have that.

 

[Boathook]

Rivers Avon or Stour at Christchurch. I have also heard that Port Solent has brackish water.

 

[Martin_J]

How about the top of Southampton Water.. past the container terminal?

Many years ago I was led to believe the less dense fresh water flowing into Southampton water there would lie above the saltier water below..

Isn't that also why the tide apparently flows out for ten hours out of twelve on the surface in that area..

Let me know if that all sounds bobbins..

 

[B27]

Sometimes the fresh water running down the Arun floats on top of the sea water.
You can be in a rising tide, but the water is flowing out at surface level.

Otherwise, Yarmouth is quite close to Freshwater.

 

[Mark-1]

Otherwise, Yarmouth is quite close to Freshwater.

Go and sit on the thinking step and consider what you did and how it made the other children feel...

 

[Juan Twothree]

Otherwise, Yarmouth is quite close to Freshwater.

Very good.

 

[Martin_J]

Otherwise, Yarmouth is quite close to Freshwater.

I think you were first with the correct answer.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Sometimes the fresh water running down the Arun floats on top of the sea water.
You can be in a rising tide, but the water is flowing out at surface level.

Otherwise, Yarmouth is quite close to Freshwater.

Go and sit on the thinking step and consider what you did and how it made the other children feel...

actually he’s nearly right. There is actually fresh water to be found in Freshwater, and the Western Yar is an estuary. But the river flow is pretty limited, and, being someone who inadvertently tastes that water regularly, whilst scrubbing, it seems pretty salty to me. Up near our house, it's definitely fresh.

 

[lustyd]

Rivers Avon or Stour at Christchurch. I have also heard that Port Solent has brackish water.

The water in Port Solent isn’t pure seawater that’s for sure, but rainwater isn’t the main thing diluting it

Emsworth fills with fresh at low water and you see this on a winters day when the surface freezes

 

[jlavery]

And this is the result of some of that fresh/brackish water. Coral worm on friend's boat in Emsworth Yacht Harbour. Other boat are worse!

 

[Mark-1]

And this is the result of some of that fresh/brackish water. Coral worm on friend's boat in Emsworth Yacht Harbour. Other boat are worse!

View attachment 163982

Yeah, I was in Chichester Marina for 5 years and the Coral worm was something else. Bad enough that I think it should be mentioned to prospective berth-holders, it's beyond normal fouling. (IMHO)

I'd love to know if there was anything they could do to kill it off in the marina. It's growing off the pontoon floats, that seems like something they should try to kill off. (If possible.)

 

[Bouba]

The surface.
Seas are saltier at depth

 

[capnsensible]

Does the sewage pumped into the sea dilute the salty bit?

 

[SaltyC]

The problems of brackish water, Whitehaven in Cumbria has a problem with tubeworm.

 

[ashtead]

actually he’s nearly right. There is actually fresh water to be found in Freshwater, and the Western Yar is an estuary. But the river flow is pretty limited, and, being someone who inadvertently tastes that water regularly, whilst scrubbing, it seems pretty salty to me. Up near our house, it's definitely fresh.

But sadly no port to be found in Newport

 

[Chiara’s slave]

But sadly no port to be found in Newport

Sainsburys is only a short walk.

 

[ashtead]

I prefer the Lidl for my freshwater in Newport though.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I prefer the Lidl for my freshwater in Newport though.

Aldi sell a good port. Maybe Lidl will have some too. Fortunately getting milk in Cowes is much easier,

 

[ashtead]

But not if you want to travel to Waitrose to buy it

 

[Chiara’s slave]

But not if you want to travel to Waitrose to buy it

A floating bridge that can’t reach both sides is another wonder of the Island