Navigating the THAMES

[alan17]

Possibly not strictly East coast but I hope close enough.

I am thinking of making a trip up Thames in my Southerly 100. Can anybody tell me how far up the Thames I can go without having to worry about bridge clearance. I draw 2 metres and have an air draft of 14 meters.

As a second question I would make St K's in 2 days. En route I would anchor in adverse tide Where is the best place to anchor?

I know that I can work out most of this from almanac but I am at home at the moment and the almanac is on the boat.

Thanks in advance for info.

 

[Pye_End]

You can get under Tower Bridge if you want (when it opens) but you are a bit limited on what to do when you get to there. Really St Kats is the realistic limit unless you take the mast down.

St. Kats is achievable on one tide from Queenbrough if you want a mooring, or go for Stangate if you want to anchor. Could also go for Southend area. From Brightlingsea you probably wouldn't get much further on one tide.

 

[MoodySabre]

P_E has it. If you anchor on the Southend side then come into the Ray Gut - a mile West of the pier. It will be more sheltered there than on the edge of the main channel. Early season you could grab a buoy at Queenborough without getting caught for dues. Eat on board though as the jetty is not a secure place to leave a dinghy (from experience /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif)

 

[MrCramp]

When I sold my last boat, a Macwester 30. I delivered it to London. I left Shotley about 3 hours before low water and fought the tide for a bit. I then took the flood down the Wallet, Wallet Spitway to the West Swin Bouy , round Foulness Sand and then straight up the Thames to moor at Gravesend.

I cannot understand why anyone would want to cross the estuary and go miles out of your way to Queenborough. From all reports it is a crap place and if you land your dinghy gets nicked.

Macwester 30s don't go fast so anyone should be able to reach Gravesend on the flood. Gravesend Yacht club is very welcoming but watch out for the mud downstream of the wharf. If you go up a bit further past Tillbury there are good moorings at Erith.

There are plenty of moorings at Gravesend, just inside of where the tugs moor. It is an interesting place as it is just short of Tilbury and you can watch a great assortment of ships go by.

Have a good trip. It is definately worth doing and is a doddle to any competant yachtsman.

 

[MoodySabre]

The Thames Barrier closings schedule is now on eastcoastpilot website.

 

[FullCircle]

Queenborough just offers protection from a greater range of wind directions.
Suggest you invest in 6 bottles of Spitfire ale, and a couple of Fray Bentos Pies, and cook at anchor or on the mooring buoys.

I last did the trip in 1992 just as the QE2 bridge was opened. No air draft issue there. Its a real wow moment going under it.

Goint through the Thames barrier also excellent. We upset the barrier bloke by sailing through it, but at least we took down the kite while we went through.

There are also bankworks and restricted areas aorund Mucking. Cahrtlet also on Eastcoastpilot.com In fact, why not invest in a copy? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Cantata]

Queenborough is perhaps the most accepted start point for a run up the Thames on one tide which would, I suggest, be easily accomplished - the tide runs so hard up the river that each time I've done the trip I've ended up ambling the last few miles so as not to have to wait long outside St.Kats for the lock. Incidentally, there are mooring buoys outside St.Kats which are preferable to hanging aound under power - there's a lot of traffic and wash around there and I always find the waiting quite stressful.
Gravesend has been mentioned as another stop-off point, but not in the marina if you are heading upstream - you can only leave the marina near HW. Other possibilities I could suggest are moorings off Thurrock YC and Erith YC.
As a destination, St.Kats is pretty and central and I always get a smug feeling sitting in there in the mornings watching folk rushing to work. But don't ignore Limehouse, a bit further out but very close to a DLR station and cheaper than St.Kats, or, across the other side, South Dock Marina, which has excellent bus links, good eateries and retail therapy opportunities nearby.

 

[Pye_End]

[ QUOTE ]
I cannot understand why anyone would want to cross the estuary and go miles out of your way to Queenborough.

[/ QUOTE ]
From say Blacktail Spit, the Medway does not put very many miles on the trip. Compare that with extra miles due to fighting the tide and you will end up doing less. Doing Gravesend instead might work if you have ideal conditions (eg a good north wind), but less than perfect weather will leave you fighting the tide, probably for several hours. Queenborough area also gives you a good chance of getting a good night's sleep. Can't comment on Southend as never tried to overnight there!

[ QUOTE ]
From all reports it is a crap place and if you land your dinghy gets nicked.

[/ QUOTE ]
But the OP did not ask about going ashore....

 

[Cantata]

It's a real shame about Queenborough. Once it was a fairly grand place with close associations with the Navy. A stroll up the main street reveals some really impressive architecture. The churchyard is fascinating. There are decent enough places to eat and the club is a friendly place. It's just these problems with the chav population that get all the prominence. I agree, I wouldn't leave a dinghy at the ALT without someone on guard. You can, however, get ashore and back at weekends in season, the club will run a trot boat service.
Sadly the local council seem uninterested in boaty people - pick the place up and put it down in the Netherlands and it would be so different.
General opinion is that the new fixed road bridge to Sheppey will, in the long run, make a big difference to prosperity of the island, but no doubt the recession has put that off for even longer now.

 

[Athene V30]

There was a good exhibition of HMS Wildfire III, the WW2 minesweeper base there in the little museum. I managed to attend the Sept commemmoration and get HMS Raider there a couple of years ago. Big turn out at the parade.

 

[davidfox]

I also managed Gravesend in one tide, from Woolverstone. It was a bit of a struggle getting ashore, we had to clamber over some high barriers at sun pier as the tide had gone out a bit by the time we had had a doze, on springs it fairly tears out there, you wouldnt want to fall in after a few pints!

 

[Athene V30]

Do you particularly want to be in St Kats?

I spent 2 nights in Limehouse last summer - very peaceful and quite a bit cheaper BUT you are a little bit further out for the attractions and need to use the tube / DLR (3 minute walk).

 

[ianc1200]

We've done Bradwell to Teddington serveral times in Straight Across, and can take one tide all the way up from the Spitway buoys to Teddington running at 6.5-7.0 knots, in fact sometimes we're too early for the lifting of Richmond sluices, so getting to St Kats from Brightlingsea should be no problem. Getting back (because of the way the tides are earlier as you go out) can be more of an issue and you might want to stop overnight/between tides. Queenborough wastes too much time, we use one of the lower buoys off Erith Yacht Club, much more convenient.

IanC

 

[wingdiver]

The last time we went up the Thames to St Kats, we went all the way from Ipswich to Gallions Point Marina (next door to Excel) and then up to St Kats from there the next day.
On the way back, we went from St Kats to Burhham YH and then on to Ipswich.

 

[MrCramp]

We went into Gallions Point Marina which is not very busy at all. We had a right job getting hold of them to open the lock. In the end we put a chap onto the ladder in the wall and he found someone. They had not heard the VHF or the telephone. It is a bit desolate.

The marina is (or was) not manned all the time.