moving sand/ gravel / mud banks - solent, portsmourth & selsey?

[jema]

as solent resident & regular sailor we've noticed the "cockle bank" at browndown (solent) has moved significantly north westerly over the winter,
the historic line of gilkicker point to the fort as safe deep water, is no more & we've seen the navy boys ( smallish yacht ) grounded there weekend before last, when theoretically there should have been 2.5m ish, ( calcs for high pressure included in that figure), and we ourselves took some very low depth soundings on the solent end of the outer swash transit...
we did have some big prolonged winds over the winter....( they nearly had my roof off )
can any of you update us all to other affected areas, especially owers / selsey / chichester / yarmouth areas...
lets all pool our collective knowledge... that way there'll be less suprises all round.... over to you guys.. J.

 

[dulcibella]

Port Solent lock approach channel is currently being dredged, so the spate of LW groundings in recent weeks should cease.

 

[fireball]

Thanks for the warning - we quite often just scoot across there if we're aiming for main passage from Cowes... will have to keep a better eye out from now on!

 

[Twister_Ken]

I'm convinced the whole shore from Hillhead past Lee on Solent to Gilkicker is slowly getting shallower. Either that, or my echo sounder needs recalibrating.

 

[Chrissie]

Hillhead just removed several tons of gravel that had built up in the entrance to the harbour, I guess that has spread its self out by now! Seriously though, a report was commisioned through a University to look at the errosion of the land along that bit of coast, which resulted in many tons of shingle being placed along the coast as part of a long term plan to be put in place, its an interesting read, you could Google it.

 

[boatmike]

That's right. As a long term resident of Lee-on-Solent I have watched the shoreline changes since the building of the Groynes and dumping of the gravel. It has certainly changed the current along the stretch from Stokes Bay through to the Osborne View pub and it seems to me that at low water springs there is now a lot less water up to about 100 yds from shore at some places. On peak 1/2 tide flow, especially on the ebb the current used to be quite strong. Now the tidal stream appears to have turned into the deeper water leaving the bit off Lee quieter. Over the last 4 years the gravel has eroded a bit at the bottom of the beach too.. It must have gone somewhere. Happy to sail a cat with less than 3ft draught!!

 

[boatmike]

Looked again at your post and the chart. Can you be clear what you are calling "cockle bank" please in relation to browndown bouy? Also if you mean Spitbank fort in line with Gillkicker, this should lead you inside two marked wrecks north of browndown bouy in clear water, but I wouldn't mind betting that a lot of the gravel dumped on Lee beach has migrated to Lee point where I think you mean..

 

[arfa]

I have scraped along the bottom on my way in to sparkes nr HISC pontoon. Supposed to be 1.4m there with 1m of tide at low water. As I draw 1.8m my echosounder must need recalibrating!