Ramsgate to Swale advice

[JasperII]

Evening all,

I keep my boat in Ramsgate, and am relatively new to sailing. I have been thinking about destinations for overnight stays at the weekends in the area.

I've sailed to Dover and stayed over then sailed back the following day last weekend, but have yet to venture further north.

I am fairly confident in terms of passage planning but know you all must have a vast amount of local knowledge which may come in useful.

I live on a ship for two weeks at a time, and sadly forgot to bring my copy of the East Coast Pilot which I'm sure will answer a lot of my questions but the more information the better

What's the craic with the mooring buoys in the Swale - how do I know what are available for use and which are privately owned etc.

Where would people recommend to moor - ideally a tender ride away from a pub / nice walk...

Is this a reasonable day sail each way, or will I be pushing it in terms of distance?

Of course I understand the above depends on weather etc.

The boat is a Jeanneau Fantasia 27 drawing 1.5 metres.

If anybody has any different suggestions I'd love to hear them.

Thank you.

 

[Paddy Layback]

Hi Jasper, the Swale has two ends, W and E.
You can easily get from Ramsgate into the E Swale on one tide, going south of Margate sands. Just two buoys to go between near Reculver.
You can take a turn for the night, unofficialy, on one of the buoys near Faversham Spit.
There is a pub in tender range..
It's a very satisfying run when you are learning the ropes on a small yacht, it seemed quite an adventure when I first did it on my little Hurley, but no major hazards really.
A long weekend would let you visit Faversham, a delightful, unspoiled, prosperous and ancient historic port, and go through the Swale proper to come out at Queenborough, also fascinating in a different way (being diplomatic )
Then one tide will get you back out of the Medway back to Rambo.
The Admiralty small craft folio will cover the route, essential in my view, and make sure your depth sounder is working for reassurance and to gain confidence steering by the depth.
A totally brilliant run, perhaps read up a little on the history of the area to get the most out of it.
I'm sure some locals will add to my comments, but.. go for it!

 

[JasperII]

Thanks Paddy Layback,

Some very good advice there.

East Swale is where we were planning on heading, as we don't want to overstretch ourselves. My partner unfortunately does not get as much time off as myself so we will only have 2 days at the weekend to do the trip.

I've been to Sheppey a couple of times for different reasons, and yes 'different' is a very good way of describing it!

Electronics are all fairly modern and working well on our boat so no issues regarding the depth sounder - but appreciate the advice.

Thanks again, I will be sure to do plenty of research before setting off.

 

[Paddy Layback]

Your welcome, if you can work the tides you can make it all the way up to Faversham, (engine essential) and tie up for the night on the Town Quay, free of charge, if you can dry out in soft mud. Lovely soft mud like chocolate pudding, which also kills your barnacles
Or there are other walls to port, just before the Town Quay where you can sit a tide in the mud, nobody will bother you, eg outside the black shed which was the sailmakers loft.
It's doable in a weekend if the tides serve.
Of course it's much more rewarding to do the trip in daylight, so only certain tides will be suitable..

 

[Tomahawk]

I don't have annup to date chart to hand so this might be out of date..

The sands are very flat once you go through the between East Last and Hook Spit heading in the direction of the Swale/Medway. The Spile which marks the approaches to the East Swale is not easy to see. You used to be able to point three fingers to the right of the power station... but some bugger demolished the chimney. Now you will have to watch for the cross tide flowing into the Swale.

Queenborough is a lovely place to visit and is probably not much different in terems of time taking account of entering the East Swale. The Monty, (Montgomery WW2 liberty shio still packed full of HE) looks very ghostly as you approach the Medway. Don't sail inside the ring of marker bouys unless you want to rebuild Southend.

 

[Cantata]

I don't have annup to date chart to hand so this might be out of date............

Certainly is and you haven't been that way for a while have you :encouragement:......
Hook Spit and East Last ceased to exist maybe 5 years ago now.
Jasper, approaching Reculver inside the Margate Hook Sand, you will find the Reculver port-hand buoy - pass this leaving it about 25m away, and head for a stbd-hand buoy nearly a mile ahead on 275deg, which is called the Copperas. With 1.5m draught you should be OK after LW+2. Continue W maybe 200m beyond the Copperas before heading for the Whitstable Street buoy, being careful to stay south of the buoyed area S of the windfarm. Then follow the stbd hand buoys into the East Swale. No need to go anywhere near the Spile.
All in ECP anyway.
You can usually find a spare buoy at Harty Ferry. If you want to go to the Ferry House Inn on the Sheppey shore, beware it can have irregular opening/closing hours on Bank Holiday Monday.

 

[Tomahawk]

No help for navagation but., I always remember going that way in a lovely deep run under kite. all the way from Margate. As we approached the Monty a fleet of Dragons came out the Medway heading straight towards us.... also running under kite. I thought the wind is going to get "interesting" some time soon. We got to within about 500 yards of each other before it all wend pear shaped. We had to beat all the rest of the way to Upnor..

 

[JasperII]

Thanks again all, all very helpful. I'm really looking forward to this.

We will be doing it in 2 weekends time so fingers crossed for a bit of nice weather.

Cantata special thanks for the navigation advice whilst I don't have my copy of ECP with me.

 

[galeus]

A year or two since we went to Faversham, but really enjoyed a night there, moored opposite the town quay (used ECP for info) but finished up at an alarming angle, reckon town quay would be better, but a second choice possibly.
On the way back down stopped at Hollowshore? Shiprights Arms over night tied alongside a barge.
Obviously very tidal and ability to take the ground is needed, but very memorable.

 

[reginaldon]

A year or two since we went to Faversham, but really enjoyed a night there, moored opposite the town quay (used ECP for info) but finished up at an alarming angle, reckon town quay would be better, but a second choice possibly.
On the way back down stopped at Hollowshore? Shiprights Arms over night tied alongside a barge.
Obviously very tidal and ability to take the ground is needed, but very memorable.

Did the journey in reverse - Hollowshore to Folkestone(56 nm)- in thick fog with sails set - no wind, but the 5 hp outboard , left at 0630 arrived at 1700. with double tide assistance.

 

[Cantata]

A year or two since we went to Faversham, but really enjoyed a night there, moored opposite the town quay (used ECP for info) but finished up at an alarming angle, reckon town quay would be better, but a second choice possibly............

The bottom alongside that Brents jetty now looks a lot flatter, quite a bit of dredging being going on the last couple of years.

 

[Spuddy]

Probably a separate trip for you but north of the E Swale are the Red Sands Forts; somewhat spooky but well worth a look.

 

[Triassic]

If you can slot two weekends together you could probably leave the boat on a mooring at Queensborough over the week and that would give you the chance to explore the Medway while you're down that way. Stangate or Sharfleet creek are great overnight anchorages.

 

[JasperII]

Just got around to making this trip last weekend.

Thanks for all the advice, we had a great trip. Arrived around 1900 on Saturday evening, straight to the pub to celebrate and headed back at around 0900 on Sunday morning.

As had been said, it did feel like a proper little adventure

 

[Cantata]

Good-oh, where next?! :encouragement:

 

[JasperII]

Any suggestions for weekend / short trips from Ramsgate?? Looking forward to the next one :encouragement:

 

[Paddy Layback]

Any suggestions for weekend / short trips from Ramsgate?? Looking forward to the next one :encouragement:

Dover, visit the castle, and maybe the museum, and then have some pints in the super-welcoming Cinque Ports Yacht Club.

The marina will be redeveloped soon, so grab a chance to see it how it was!

The White Horse is a good pub with fine beers, a mecca for cross-channel swimmers, run by a couple of happily married chaps.

You might want to give Weathrspoons a swerve though (unless you need some class A drugs..)

The port control on VHF 74 are very patient with new visitors, and will efficiently talk you in between the ferries..

 

[Cantata]

For a short and very 'different' trip, you could run up the Stour to Sandwich and spend a night leaning against the town quay.

 

[JasperII]

Dover, visit the castle, and maybe the museum, and then have some pints in the super-welcoming Cinque Ports Yacht Club.

Thanks for the suggestion, we've sailed down to Dover a couple of times. Last time was in heavy fog and we got escorted in by the pilot which was good fun.

I find the staff at Dover marina extremely friendly.

It will be interesting to see how the new marina and redevelopment turns out.

 

[JasperII]

For a short and very 'different' trip, you could run up the Stour to Sandwich and spend a night leaning against the town quay.

We actually live in Sandwich so this would be fun, although the thought of drying out scares me a bit still!