Newtown Creek - w/e report on the action

mjf

mjf

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Well, finally made it to my favourite anchoring spot in Newtown Creek on Saturday.

The show did not disappoint in the slightest….


Good F4 out of the South and a spring tide caused lots of issues – I reckon by mid afternoon there were over 70 boats on the East side.

· At low water 5 boats were aground
· Some poor chap minding his own biz on a S34 ahead of us was attacked by a raggy who collected his anchor cable – in sorting this mess out his own anchor (which up`till then was fine) and he set down fast towards us. Upshot was he had had enough of the malarkey started engines and took off
· Guy in a Targa 40 heaved up and set off with his Delta cock-a- bill with the pointy bit winking at him over his bow roller – mud and all!
· Then a raggy cat managed to collect a Laser on his way out whose mast promptly wrapped itself around the cats forestay – the sight of the Laser crew hanging on to the side of the cat as they cruised serenely out of the creek with all parties crew waving nicely ay each other was a joy to behold.
· A MBO charter boat with loads of ‘ RYA approved’ sort of adverts on its canvas dodgers came in and managed to fail to anchor at least 10 times (not enough chain down when dropping the pick)


All in all a wonderful day. In my previous experience all this happens at night so it was a real change to see all the action in lovely sunshine.
 
Went over there for lunch yesterday, which was quieter and less breezy, so there weren't any jolly japes - well, not in Clamerkin Lake, anyway.

There was an "RYA Approved" RIB that came in at one point: he stooged round looking baffled for five minutes, and then left. I wonder if they are related?

The tides were very low over the weekend, just over a foot of water under the boat at LW on Saturday afternoon, at our mooring, which is unusual /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif.
 
The best sport on the planet, watching other boaters making a right pigs ear of it, whether it is in a marina, the open water or an anchorage like Newtown. (except when you are the sportsman not the spectator /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif )

We were at Dolphin Quay all weekend in Poole and had some entertainment at others coming in Friday and Saturday when the wind was making things .......... erm ............. challenging, I managed to get in all right (thankfully) but had to bully Marvin into doing what I wanted him to do, not what the wind was telling him to do, I won in the end ....... phew.

But we came back yesterday morning on a near millpond, it was great
 
ah - looked over Dolhin Saturday night but didn't see anyone I recognised or flying the forum burgee.............I assumed everyone had had too much fun last weekend!

Wasn't Sunday a pleasant surprise - wind forecast S/SE for 3 days then it goes round WSW and gives us a nice break.
 
Re: Newtown Creek Survey Auxiliary

Excellent report, mjf, but could have done with some pix. Perhaps these will accompany a more detailed report later?

I did take a largish boat in there a season or two ago, about 8am Sunday. Loads of people scrambling up on deck, gawd what the hell's he gonna do near me and/or oho this looks like a masive disaster in the making. Partly cos it was all a bit tight, and bearing in mind all your stories I left without anchoring...
 
np - once upon a time I (felt) I could relate many on here to their boats on the water / marina - now there are just so many!

found Geoffs at Swanage tho - winning bet with myself that he would be there!
 
Re: Newtown Creek Survey Auxiliary

Yes, thought about the camera and then opined it better to protect the anonymity of others....


Its a wonderful spot as you know, but I think its very tricky indeed on Springs as the tide fairly rips in/out and thro the anchorage and the water level sort of just goes. Couple that with a brisk wind and lots of boats and bingo! What amazes me is that peeps seem to think handling boats is a bit like driving your car into a supermarket car park - loads even drop the anchor remotely and appear to have no idea where they intend 1. to place the hook on the bottom 2. where they will lie after the boats brought up. 3. Go and look at how the boat is riding

I was reliably advised this w/e that during the week the Yarmouth (?) Lifeboat came in andthe skipper promptly stuffed it ashore on the bank just S of the enterance coming in. Had to use significant HP to extract himself. This area seems to have silted up quite a bit over the winter months.


I will always treat the area with heaps of respect as nearly every visit I have a close shave - either self induced or third party intrusion. I away deploy full fenders on both sides once anchored

On the question of paying, now Davie's guys ask for contributions to NT as opposed to charging for anchoring. Seemingly the peeps who made a fuss being charged are now giving more by way of contributions........One lady on a yacht near us stuck her head out of the companion way hatch and shreaked ' I think we are NT members - does that make a difference?' Classic stuff.
 
Thank god I'm no longer in the solent! Still I usually avoid Newton Creek bewtween May and September when I am there.

Anchored in Valencia island las tweek - 26 deg Sun dolphins and we were the only boat apart from the ferry! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
I disagree abou the dolphins but over here they say "If you can see the hills it's about to rain and if you can't it's already raining"

Newton is great in thew winter when I often have the whole place to myself /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
It continued into the night as well, was up at 4.00 am (6 week old on board), and there were a number of boats getting up close and personal with each other, mind you it was so calm at that time I don't think anyone on any of the boats had even been woken up.

Have photos but no time to post them now, will do later with some pretty sunrise pics as well.
 
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