Marking annoying rocks

Some idiot in essex put an acrow prop instead of a withy in a creek in st lawrence bay. It was there for quite a while i am told and got covered at half tide
but if you really want to have fun put a lobster pot on the rock marked with a five litre can and 100 yards of floating line
within a month there will be so many wrecked yachts trinty house will be obliged to mark it
 
Aja said:
"Coffin Rock?" I've known it as the "Coffee Rock" since early seventies as I was told it looked like a coffee bean!
Donald
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bikedaft said:
From the gaelic on the 1:25000 map. So i've been told...
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It is now known locally as Coffee Rock, but was indeed previously Coffin Rock. I'm not sure how true it is, but I'd heard that oarsmen (and maybe oarsladies!) stopped there for a rest, when taking the deceased to their final resting place on Eilean Mòr, MacCormaig Isles.

Edit:
Sgeirean a' Mhain This is in the centre of Loch Sween, and almost covers at high tide. Every boat looks out for it. It's known locally as the Coffee Rock (it's half way down the Loch, so perhaps a suitable prompt for boaters to have coffee) or perhaps more properly the Coffin Rock (dark, long and thin, and only just visible - easy to run into).
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sgeirean_a'_Mhain_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1370703.jpg
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I don't have the gaelic, but Google Translate suggests "sgeirean a mhain" means "reefs alone".
https://www.google.com/search?clien...ab..0.9.1287...33i160k1j33i21k1.0.qvOivSaUp3A

See also: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16&lat=55.9733&lon=-5.6481&layers=6&right=BingHyb
For an 1888-1913 map adjacent to a current GoogleMap
 
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ProMariner said:
If you're serious, have little engineering skills, and don't wish the paperwork or liability problems, could you set up transits? 4 or 6 cairns, painted white, are a lovely little luxury, god bless all the nameless ones who trudge about the midges with hoes and paint pots maintaining the current ones. You could even set them with solar powered lights.

Once had a lovely trip into Loch Tarbert, Jura, see Clyde Cruising Club Sailing Directions, a trip impassable without the unofficial transit marks.
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I think the transits in Loch Tarbert, Jura, were established or perhaps improved/supplemented by Blondie Hasler - perhaps assisted by some marines as an "exercise". I heard it elsewhere, but here's a post (from 2005!) that suggests it was true.
MacW said:
Blondie Hasler...
He kept a junk rigged Kingfisher 20 with which he cruised the West Coast.It was he who laid out the white painted stones marking the leading lines through the narrow passages and into the inner `sanctum` of West Loch Tarbert, Jura.
Cheers
Pete.
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A1Sailor said:
I don't have the gaelic, but Google Translate suggests "sgeirean a mhain" means "reefs alone".
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Since "mh" is pronounced "v", that would match Sinn (ourselves) Féin (alone)

Dwelly (http://www.faclair.com/index.aspx?Language=en) says that as well as "alone", "main / a mhain" can also mean "merely" or "downwards". I suspect that this is yet another case of locals taking the pee out of English cartographers:

What's that dark island called?
Eilean dubh
Thanks. And that that little island?
Eilean bheag
Excellent. And. finally, what's out there in the middle of the loch?
"Just rocks"
Thank you. You have been very helpful.

PS I am very taken with this usage example:
is ise an aon té a-mhàin aig a bheil armadillo sna Hearadh
she is the one and only owner of an armadillo in Harris
 
JumbleDuck said:
PS I am very taken with this usage example:
is ise an aon té a-mhàin aig a bheil armadillo sna Hearadh
she is the one and only owner of an armadillo in Harris
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Wow - who is she? We should know! We’re just back from Harris. I could have dropped in...
 
I remember a visit to a chandler in Stockholm in the late 90's and they where selling cardinal marks - to facilitate that you mark the approach to your private island as required....
 
The one I saw at Rodel is brilliant!
PassingPlace.jpg
 
Minchsailor said:
I'm trying to get some sort of mark for the 0.6m rock in the middle of north harbour, Scalpay/Harris
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If that's the rock I think it is, is there still room to anchor there between the shore and the new pontoon? Bearing in mind that the pontoon has BIG CHAIN moorings. I always used to anchor straight off the wee concrete slip - now you can't, the pontoon is there. Not knocking the pontoon, but I do normally prefer to anchor. I was in last month, and did berth at the pontoon, with a very warm and friendly welcome from Fred.
 
Amphitrite said:
I remember a visit to a chandler in Stockholm in the late 90's and they where selling cardinal marks - to facilitate that you mark the approach to your private island as required....
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When I used to go over there a lot they seemed to be frequently used as road signs in coastal villages (e.g. on roundabouts).

There was one pub had them either side of the door, but some wag had swapped them, presumably to indicate that if you passed between them you might get wrecked.
 
A1Sailor said:
The one I saw at Rodel is brilliant!
PassingPlace.jpg
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We went in at the top of the tide at neaps. Not to be recommended if you draw 2.1m and have a weak sphincter. Which I’m pleased to say I don’t. But it was tested that day! We exited via the not-recommended east channel, which seemed like a shorter time to rattle the nervous system.
 
NormanS said:
If that's the rock I think it is, is there still room to anchor there between the shore and the new pontoon? Bearing in mind that the pontoon has BIG CHAIN moorings. I always used to anchor straight off the wee concrete slip - now you can't, the pontoon is there. Not knocking the pontoon, but I do normally prefer to anchor. I was in last month, and did berth at the pontoon, with a very warm and friendly welcome from Fred.
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No, there really isn't, but there is room NW of the pontoons- fishing boat traffic to the pier is much reduced. Also room between the rock and the concrete hulk

Agree your comment about Fred, also his colleague Owen at Target.
 
Shuggy said:
We went in at the top of the tide at neaps. Not to be recommended if you draw 2.1m and have a weak sphincter. Which I’m pleased to say I don’t. But it was tested that day! We exited via the not-recommended east channel, which seemed like a shorter time to rattle the nervous system.
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Are the public mooring buoys still there? They were last year but not been this.
 
Take your mind back to a time before GPS and Plotters etc. "Someone" painted a couple of white marks on the seaward side of an above water rock, which when lined up with the old Manse on Eigg, gave a good safe transit, between the offlying underwater rocks, in to Poll nam Partan.

When the extremely " insular" inhabitants of the Island were made aware of the marks (some years down the line), they showed great annoyance, and threatened to report the painter to the police.:disgust:
 
JumbleDuck said:
The trouble with doing this is that you can end up with a situation like at the Burnt Isles, where a rock which was an occasional hazard to the deepest racers became a perch which is a hazard to everyone all the time.

Blow the bastards up, I say.
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Lots of these rocks are in submarine exercise areas - a bit of torpedo practice for the Navy perhaps?
 
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