Notices to Mariners Week 52

tillergirl

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That's it, the year's over. Happy New Year.

UKHO can cut out notices like this week; took ages.

Permanent

1. Slight reduced depths in Chatham Reach of the River Medway. Perhaps worth noting if you are Kentish Man or Man of Kent, or indeed the fair Maid of Kent (allegedly of Honi Soir qui mal y pense fame);
2. A real pot pourri of depth changes and AIS and buoy moves and so on around the Cutler and Bawdsey Banks. Worth looking at. Took three images to cover! The fitment of AIS to half a douzen buoys and things between the Southwold Light House and the Varne Light Float is probably worth noting for those of you (not me) who have that sort of thing on board and actually look at it! Who'll need radar soon (just kidding)!
3. Some nasty reduced depths at the Long Sand Head and one nasty at the Sunk Head and one with not much in the Middle Sunk (but out of the way). For the sake of convenience I have repeated the earlier reductions in depth at the Long Sand head from week 49 so that they are all in one image. Seems like the Long Sand head is shallowing - more quicker than before? Could that be of the crud displaced from the London Array?
4. Some slight fiddling to the deep water route and a slight movement of one of the marker buoys on the way into Europort (Hook of Holland).
5.The Mermaid Statue yellow buoy off Dunkerque has been removed.

Temporary

1. London Array - all the turbines are now in position! underwater cable work in progress infield and rock dumping continuing on the Kentish Flats. That's the third week of rock dumping - or is it 4? Might not need a lot more to turn it into an island!
2. Gunfleet Wind Farm Demo extension is planned for completion by Feb, 2013 so is in progress. Not that the curiously named starboard hand buoy GFS-WF5 has been moved slightly and that rock dumping adjacent to the site of the two new super turbines has reduced the depth by around one meter - if like me you cut across the Spitway diagonally, you might now choose to go outside the green can.
3. And finally passage underneath the Noordkasteel bridge on the way to Antwep is currently restricted.

That's it for this year.
 
..........London Array - all the turbines are now in position! underwater cable work in progress infield and rock dumping continuing on the Kentish Flats. That's the third week of rock dumping - or is it 4? Might not need a lot more to turn it into an island!...........

Not much dumping been going on at all when I've looked, I think the ship just turns up occasionally and does something. Probably very restricted by weather (as well as depth! :eek:)
 
I am tempted to ask them if they just open the bottom and dump the rocks which seems a bit risky for the fancy new cable, or whether they have a sort of patio style placement. I guess they need enough rocks down there that when something large hits them, the rocks don't move and damage the cable. Would be a bit pointless else.
 
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