Notice to Mariners Week 38

[tillergirl]

Permanent

1. Reduction in depth at LAT to 1.9m in Limehouse Reach, Chatham;
2. Wreck in 10m of water LAT at the Blakeney Overfalls. Not likely to affect Leisure craft;
3. Removal of the designated anchorage at Bow Creek in Bugby's Reach in River Thames;
4. Couple of depth reductions in Caister Roads on the approach to Great Yarmouth;

Temporary

1. Replacement of Overhead Power Cables for the Railway over Vange Creek, 9th to 19th October which will hinder passage;
2. Some changes to buoyage in Sea Reach. This is notified by the PLA but will no doubt become permanent in UKHO notices shortly. Work due 11th and 12th of September. The East Blyth will be changed to a North Cardinal Buoy with Q, the South East Leigh will be changed to a starboard hand buoy with QG and thereafter called the Sea Reach No 3 North (sync with its southern partner), and the West Nore Sand Buoy is going to be moved 114m north. There is a handy downloadable illustration by CTTE on the web site http://www.crossingthethamesestuary.com/page9.html (Select Temporary Notices)
3. Piling operations on Berth 9 in Felixstowe - pretty much out of the way for us;
4. Medway (Peel Ports) have started a major buoy refurbishment or service programme. List of buoys affected is in the notice - pretty much all of them!

That's it.

 

[Bru]

If I may be so bold as to add... Watch out for two moored metal containers slap bang in the middle of the Wallet off Clacton marked by red and yellow (as seen from a safe distance!) and lit (isophase). Sorry I haven't got the lat long (I'm in the bar!) But it's being announced on the MSI broadcast

The buoys are not particularly obvious if you're not looking out for them

 

[tillergirl]

That's there. In the temporary notices for week 37, work on the sea defences off Clacton. There is a chartlet included with the notice but no word in the notice about anything 'permanently moored' (or any lat/long) so worth mentioning.

 

[AliM]

There was a large lighter loaded with rocks anchored close to those buoys on Sunday - it did not have AIS, by the way. It was exactly on top of the charted undersea cable from the windfarm. I wondered if they were protecting the cable by loading rocks onto it. We had noted the position of the buoys from the VHF nav notices, but did not see them from (maybe) 2 miles distance.

 

[tillergirl]

Spot on. Just found a Dong NtM. I am in the process of posting it up in the list of Temporary Notices on the web site.

 

[tillergirl]

OK. It's up now at http://www.crossingthethamesestuary.com/page9.html (Select the Temporary list, top item.

Work starts on 15th September (!) until mid-November. Images are lousy quality :ambivalence: but it looks like rocks are needed around the turbines on the Swin side of the Farm. So I guess we can assume that scouring around the monopiles is becoming a worry.

So that two lots of work in the Wallet at the moment.

Thanks to the NtM Patrolling Team :encouragement: (Dong don't have a regular outlet for their NtM).

 

[tillergirl]

Err well, it should be up. Summat's broke!

 

[tillergirl]

It's there now!

 

[Bru]

I think, and wouldn't it be useful if it was nice and straightforward, we have three separate temporary issues in the Wallet

1. One or two ships will be lying to anchor in the Wallet and transferring materials to the shore via a barge towed by a tug (see Week 37)

2. A whole bunch of barges and workboats will shortly start work in the Gunfleet Sands windfarm

3. For reasons as yet unknown two large metal containers are moored in the Wallet to the South West of the beach work transhipment area at 51d45'.89N, 001d12'.97E

And in about three hours time I shall be attempting to sail down the Wallet against a foul spring tide with a gentle breeze from the North East. Yeah right, I suspect the donk will be getting a good workout today!