Passage Grimsby to Dover

we left the Humber and came down stopping at Lowerstoft and Ipswich.
My sons wanted to go to London and I was a bit hesitant of the trip there.
We went to Queensbrough overnight and took the tide up to St Kats. We ended up staying 11 nights there. It is expensive but sailing your boat up the Thames next to London Bridge is an experience that should not be missed.
Most of the Thames is boring as Hell but it does get very interesting once through the barrier.
There is a website giving sailing directions up there with the various channels.
Has to be done, you will regret it if you don't.
 
Hey again,
I wanted to confirm my passage planning for the trip regarding tides...

We'll be staying inshore so leaving Grimsby just before HW, which hopefully gives us a decent run across the bay onto Great Yarmouth to catch the next tide around Lowestoft towards Harwich...is that broadly doable?
 
Without working it all out and only having sailed down that coast once I don't know but you are relying on a lot over that distance depending on if you are sailing or motoring to make the tide gate and the weather. If you are in no rush then make the most of it and break the journey up a little. You will enjoy it more.
 
Hi All,
A quick update...we managed to get to Lowestoft...passage from Grimsby to near Great Yarmouth was choppy with the wind continually on the nose..could have gone offshore further but decided to motor sail (we also wanted to test engine for an extended period of time)...overall yacht performed really well but nearing Great Yr we experienced a total nav system failure...we had a laptop plotter system and the transformer blew on us about 12 hrs into the sail, not too worried as we had a boat gps (older garmin 128) and a portable etrex garmin gps plus a chart so we could see where we were...and we had a tracked path on the GPS also

N/E of wind farms off Grt Yr both of those GPS systems started spinning around not giving any direction for track and location was changing/resetting (including the speed and other info)...it was fairly hazy and sun was going down but we did spot a couple of wind turbines which seemed that we were in the wrong place as we're meant to avoid this...plus it seemed we were in cross tides...

Decided to call the coastguard for assistance and they suggested recovery as the area we were possibly in comes up to very shallows and banks have extended out to sea etc...we (gladly) agreed and got picked up to Grt Yr by the Caister Life boat service, I must say its a very professional outfit and the lads were extremely helpful...we checked GPSs and still not functioning...the lifeboat chaps were saying that about half mile further and we would have been grounded in rather nasty waters, banks have extended about a mile east and you would not know unless you had latest charts/corrections (our chart was about 10yo)...hence the reason for the cross swell also...

None of us could figure out the reason for this GPS failure...and after an overnight 'break' the boat GPS started to function again...talking to a few ppl someone said that there was sun flare activity or the wind farms caused nav failure...

So anyway, got a new charger for the laptop, GPS now working and we were off to Lowestoft for the next day as we were advised by coastguard that they are expecting a N/W 4-5 gusting 6, a wind direction which apparently is the worst for the area.....we were planning to stay in Lowestoft for a day until weather clears (next day) but the weather persisted with rain and a s/w then n/w 4-5 with moderate seas etc so decided to leave the yacht in Lowestoft and attempt for next week

So a few lessons learnt...glad that everything turned out ok...overall yacht performed very well bar the GPS problem, she is sea kindly and whilst some improvements are needed it is a safe offshore yacht.

I'd like to thank Caister Lifeboat service once again for their extremely fast response and help afterwards and look forward to hopefully sailing my yacht back to London next weekend (weather permitting), this time a lot more prepared :)
 
tomdmx said:
Hi All,
A quick update...we managed to get to Lowestoft...passage from Grimsby to near Great Yarmouth was choppy with the wind continually on the nose..could have gone offshore further but decided to motor sail (we also wanted to test engine for an extended period of time)...overall yacht performed really well but nearing Great Yr we experienced a total nav system failure...we had a laptop plotter system and the transformer blew on us about 12 hrs into the sail, not too worried as we had a boat gps (older garmin 128) and a portable etrex garmin gps plus a chart so we could see where we were...and we had a tracked path on the GPS also

N/E of wind farms off Grt Yr both of those GPS systems started spinning around not giving any direction for track and location was changing/resetting (including the speed and other info)...it was fairly hazy and sun was going down but we did spot a couple of wind turbines which seemed that we were in the wrong place as we're meant to avoid this...plus it seemed we were in cross tides...

Decided to call the coastguard for assistance and they suggested recovery as the area we were possibly in comes up to very shallows and banks have extended out to sea etc...we (gladly) agreed and got picked up to Grt Yr by the Caister Life boat service, I must say its a very professional outfit and the lads were extremely helpful...we checked GPSs and still not functioning...the lifeboat chaps were saying that about half mile further and we would have been grounded in rather nasty waters, banks have extended about a mile east and you would not know unless you had latest charts/corrections (our chart was about 10yo)...hence the reason for the cross swell also...

None of us could figure out the reason for this GPS failure...and after an overnight 'break' the boat GPS started to function again...talking to a few ppl someone said that there was sun flare activity or the wind farms caused nav failure...

So anyway, got a new charger for the laptop, GPS now working and we were off to Lowestoft for the next day as we were advised by coastguard that they are expecting a N/W 4-5 gusting 6, a wind direction which apparently is the worst for the area.....we were planning to stay in Lowestoft for a day until weather clears (next day) but the weather persisted with rain and a s/w then n/w 4-5 with moderate seas etc so decided to leave the yacht in Lowestoft and attempt for next week

So a few lessons learnt...glad that everything turned out ok...overall yacht performed very well bar the GPS problem, she is sea kindly and whilst some improvements are needed it is a safe offshore yacht.

I'd like to thank Caister Lifeboat service once again for their extremely fast response and help afterwards and look forward to hopefully sailing my yacht back to London next weekend (weather permitting), this time a lot more prepared :)
Click to expand...

Sailing north from Lowestoft to Whitby in 2005 with up-to-date charts just bought in Lowestoft ,none of the buoys corresponded. It appeared they'd all been moved SINCE the last corrections were published. Gps at one point(but only briefly) showed SOG of 20+knots:eek:
 
Ludd said:
Sailing north from Lowestoft to Whitby in 2005 with up-to-date charts just bought in Lowestoft ,none of the buoys corresponded. It appeared they'd all been moved SINCE the last corrections were published. Gps at one point(but only briefly) showed SOG of 20+knots:eek:
Click to expand...

We also found that the buoys off great Yarmouth were not where they were supposed to be. One of the starboard hand markers appeared to be in the wind farm itself.

Oh, glad you had a pretty mundane and uneventful journey.
 
Yes that sounds about right...(buoys in different places), infact we've had that throughout the journey but put it down to the chart being old...

At night going across the wash we came up very shallow and got a rather nasty swell with small waves breaking but that and the gps prob was as exciting as it got...

I did get a bit frustrated at first as we missed the window and it meant paying some marina silly money to have her parked as a visitor but very glad that all turned out well for the situation...:)
 
Ludd said:
Gps at one point(but only briefly) showed SOG of 20+knots:eek:
Click to expand...

Our probs was location was showing correct, then suddenly 5 or 10 degrees off then all reset and back again to what we though was correct...our speed was showing 0 then 5 then 0 again, direction on tracked path was spinning around and distance to next w/p was anywhere between 5ish miles (which was broadly correct) to 9, then 0 etc...

To top it off the etrex garmin was doing exactly the same thing...I never experienced such an incident nor have I heard of something similar for an extended period of time...we tried resolving for about 45 minutes before calling the Coastguard and I'm very glad they got us...don't want to think what would have happened if we run aground in those swelly, choppy seas (we were being thrown about a fair bit but it was all manageable)
 
Hi All,

We'll we're off this weekend (infact probably setting off this evening) to sail her from Lowestoft to London...seems the weather is decent so fingers crossed :)
 
And we made it safely to London...no dramas enroute, a very pleasant sail on Sat (if anything not enough of wind at times)...

Entering the Thames at night was an experience with all the ships around but very pleased with the overall trip...:)
 
Yep that's right...our plotter failed 12hrs into sail, then both onboard and personal GPS stopped giving position, course etc...(unknown problem lasted till next day) we tried to resolve for a couple of hours, tracking where we though we were and as it happens we were out 6 miles and after we spotted wind turbines we were concerned that we are way off thought track...

As it happens we were on course for being grounded about half mile further..

Not sure what other course of action you would suggest?
 
Quote from above

"N/E of wind farms off Grt Yr both of those GPS systems started spinning around not giving any direction for track and location was changing/resetting (including the speed and other info)...it was fairly hazy and sun was going down but we did spot a couple of wind turbines which seemed that we were in the wrong place as we're meant to avoid this...plus it seemed we were in cross tides...

Decided to call the coastguard for assistance and they suggested recovery as the area we were possibly in comes up to very shallows and banks have extended out to sea etc...we (gladly) agreed and got picked up to Grt Yr by the Caister Life boat service, I must say its a very professional outfit and the lads were extremely helpful...we checked GPSs and still not functioning...the lifeboat chaps were saying that about half mile further and we would have been grounded in rather nasty waters, banks have extended about a mile east and you would not know unless you had latest charts/corrections (our chart was about 10yo)...hence the reason for the cross swell also..."

I know the area and if for some reason you don't pick up the right buoy above Gt Yarmouth you can end up heading for shallows eventually. I reckon you did right making the call to the Coastguard. The waves come at you side on with a hell of a hight/speed in some states of the tide and you can end up rolling around like a pig.

I also lost my position once in this area when the bloke who was navigating got it wrong some how and didn't admit it immediately. That was over ten years ago and ever since I have used a Yeoman plotter so I always have a recent position marked on my chart. I do use a GPS but like looking at the names on the side of the buoys as I go past them! Doing the trip Grimsby to Harwich in a few weeks time, but thankfully the daylight hours are extending rapidly so we just need another decent spell of weather.

PS. I have just bought new charts for the trip, £36 well spent.
 
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MrCramp said:
I know the area and if for some reason you don't pick up the right buoy above Gt Yarmouth you can end up heading for shallows eventually. I reckon you did right making the call to the Coastguard. The waves come at you side on with a hell of a hight/speed in some states of the tide and you can end up rolling around like a pig.

I also lost my position once in this area when the bloke who was navigating got it wrong some how and didn't admit it immediately. That was over ten years ago and ever since I have used a Yeoman plotter so I always have a recent position marked on my chart. I do use a GPS but like looking at the names on the side of the buoys as I go past them! Doing the trip Grimsby to Harwich in a few weeks time, but thankfully the daylight hours are extending rapidly so we just need another decent spell of weather.

PS. I have just bought new charts for the trip, £36 well spent.
Click to expand...

Yes indeed we were rolling badly and all over the place but took it on the chin as we experienced similar going across the wash the night before ...I've never used a Yeoman plotter, must investigate this..

PS if you're heading down then I would highly recommend the inside of sand banks passage (starting N of Grt Yr down to Lowestoft) ...it is a lot more smoother than going outside of them and you have plenty of depth and width keeping about half mile off coast (we made the mistake of going outside not knowing the area but Coastguard lads did recommend the inside route for 'next time'...a much more smoother and comfortable ride down)...the banks have extended quite a bit east and its not even on the latest charts (again advised by Coastguard)...so either well offshore or the inside track :)
 
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