Manorbier Ranges

[graham]

Heading west recently on a line between W Helwick and St Govans Buoys (8miles south of Caldy) I was informed I was in the Manorbier danger area .After some discussion they requested I alter 5degrees further south and make all speed which meant increasing from 5 to 6 knots in our case.

I have never been contacted by Manorbier before.does this mean Carmarthen Bay is completely unusable for us during firing ?

I know that legally you can demand right of passage but personally I dont wish to stop our troops training if I can avoid it.


Is there something unusual going on at the moment as I dont ever remembr vessels this far south (8 miles S of Caldy)being contacted?

 

[MoodySabre]

https://assets.publishing.service.g...ta/file/708193/WARNOT_-_JUNE_2018_AMENDED.pdf

They don't say what the area is but presumably broadcast it on the day dependent on what they are firing.

 

[graham]

I found that pdf myself but other than dates doesnt help at all with passage planning.
Theres also a prerecorded message covering Castle Martin ,Penally and Manorbier ranges but I listened twice and as its rattled off at great speed and covers huge areas I couldnt extract any usefull info and write it down quickly enough.

Going through early before 0900 is a good option but doesnt allways work with the tides.

 

[bitbaltic]

The rhumb line for that is more like 6 Nm south of Caldey so you were a bit further offshore as was (going outside the st Govan’s shoals?) seems a bit extreme but what can you do. Last time I did it was at night and outside firing hours anyway.

Wouldn’t be at all bothered about standing on my rights though unless the weather was very fine, but that’s a skipper’s decision.

 

[graham]

We were steering to stay South of the St Govans buoy in order to avoid interrupting the Castle Martin range.

.Have done the same route many times and never previously contacted by Manorbier.

Maybe they were using larger weapons than usual on that parti ular day. we still got into Dale before tide turned foul so it wasnt an issue on that occassion.

 

[Big Andy]

They actually stopped me just outside Milford marina to find out where I was going. As I was only going as far as Dale it was no problem. If I'd been on my way to Tenby I wonder what would have been said.

 

[bitbaltic]

They actually stopped me just outside Milford marina to find out where I was going. As I was only going as far as Dale it was no problem. If I'd been on my way to Tenby I wonder what would have been said.

I told you not to put that big steel crow’s nest at the top of your mast.

 

[Birdseye]

Not often its worth quoting what I said but:

There is no "will let" or "wont let" about it. Obviously yopu co-operate if its safe and reasonable to do so, but you are entitled to cross the ranges whenever you want and they have to stop firing. There is no legal issue about this, which is why the ranges are not show as prohibited areas on UKHO charts.

With Manorbier you can often go close inshore so they can fire over your heads. Castle Martin wont do this.

Not me "mouthing off" by the way. I had a spell on a liason group with UKHO at Taunton and the above is exactly what they said.