London Wind array, do I need to sail around it?

[thumbsupsyd]

Hi Guys,

Can anyone help me with this quandary..

I was taking a 38ft Bavaria from Titchmarsh Marina to Sardinia, via the Thames obviously.
According to the charts, I was required to contact the 'guardship' I can't recall her name, in order to check whether we were allowed through foulers gat.

She denied us the request and so we had to beat up and then through fishermans gat. It cost us 3 hours.

What was frustrating was that 3 others yachts, who didn't call in. Just sailed right through the array and disappeared off into the distance around North Foreland. They were in plain sight of the guardship but there were no repercussions.....

Can anyone give me more info on this? Next time, shall I just not call in? Is the call in there just to ward off inexperienced sailors,but in fact its fine to proceed without it?

I'd really appreciate any information you could give me as I deliver many yachts to and from the Thames.

Cheers

 

[MoodySabre]

There has been much discussion about this on the East Coast forum. It seems that you can go through Foulgers unless there is actual work going on there which effectively means you can't honour the exclusion zone. Some have been dissuaded by the guard ship but told them hard luck and gone through any way. Challenging the guard ship seems worthwhile.

Keep an eye on Crossing the Thames Estuary website for info on current workings

 

[thumbsupsyd]

Okay fantastic. Thank you. I'll be taking foulers gat next time!