off next week around the east coast

We're lifting & scrubbing at Shotley Monday early, then up to Woodbridge PM, back to Waldringfield or Ramsholt Wednesday PM, Backwaters/Titchmarsh Thursday PM, back to Mersea Saturday PM...
 
dabsolute470 said:
still not brave enough to sleep on the hook... will do one day..lol
i know it would be ok but dont think i would sleep a wink
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Oh, come on. Our first night ever cruising was at anchor at Osea. I still remember the alarm caused by the anchor chain growling on the stony bottom but we slept some of the night, and the children all of it.
 
The Yokesfleet is perfect, for first anchoring, depending on your draft, you may well even settle into the mud at LW as well. I must admit, I don't think I'd do Osea overnight, the way the tide runs through there.
 
Erbas said:
The lump that attached itself to my anchor in the Yokesfleet the other day wasn't soft! Proper clarty stuff it was, took a bit of persuading to get rid of it too!
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On the subject of Anchoring in the Roach ..... CHA have put a nice notice attached to a buoy asking passers by to be considerate, excellent. :) Jubilee has moved of course and the West bank anchorage, is definitely affected by the new Wallasea flood inlet......
 
Boz said:
On the subject of Anchoring in the Roach ..... CHA have put a nice notice attached to a buoy asking passers by to be considerate, excellent. :)
QUOTE]

Excellent my bottom! Damn things are a right nuisance

I nearly clattered into the stupid "Quay Reach Anchorage" buoy coming out of the Brankfleet (am I right or am I right that Quay Reach is actually further up the river?) in the pitch dark 'cos it's unlit

And the stupid "Potton Island Anchorage" buoy (erm, why isn't it called the Yokesfleet?) got right in my way tacking out of the anchorage having sailed off the anchor

Mutter, mutter, grumble! (You can probably tell that I'm not impressed by 'em!)
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Well at least, it's acknowledged as an anchorage.... one night last season I leapt for a torch as a local fisherman came charging at us out of the dark. Yes I had a very bright anchor light and a ball (not much use in the dark). He swerved at what to me was the last minute. But I got the impression that there might have been some resentment at the half a dozen boats at anchor ......

You're probably right about Quay Reach, but that's what we call it anyway. The new warning buoy is actually in the way of that deeper bit just inside the entrance to the roach..... I think they should have some sort of reflective tape affixed as should all those racing marks up the Crouch. They caused us much consternation on Sunday night after our Wallet adventure :) (Note to self..... much brighter torch required
 
To my knowledge, which I grant isn't by any means comprehensive, both the Brankfleet and the Yokesfleet have been acknowledged as anchorages since before the dawn of time. I can see that the presence of the buoys could be argued to reinforce that against future encroachment but to me it's the thin end of the wedge of excessive "signposting" (something that over my time on the canals became an ever increasing blight on the landscape)

I suspect the fisherman was just an 'arris and that the buoy will make no difference at all to his behaviour - encountering yachts and mobos anchored in the Yokesfleet would be the norm and any local fisherman would know that full well (and I must say that the local small fishing boats that have passed us at anchor there have always been no problem at all)

Just checked on the chart and, as I thought, according to the Admiralty Quay Reach starts upstream of the quay on Foulness Island. The first stretch of the Roach from the Branklet to the quay is the Brankfleet which is what I've always known it as (it's a very unimportant piece of pedantry I will freely admit but then I'm an old pedant at heart :) )

I never, or I should say hardly ever, use a torch underway in the dark by the way. It restricts your vision to the beam of the torch. On all but the very darkest nights the unaided eye, if given a chance to adapt to the low light conditions, will see further without the aid of artificial lighting (unless you have a specific medical night vision problem of course). I'd argue that rather than needing a brighter torch, what you need is no torch at all :p
 
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