RCC off to Tichmarsh .

http://www.rochestercc.co.uk/
Est 1905.
We have around 100 motorboats on our moorings(and the odd yacht).
The really big advantage of being in the club is that everything that is possible to go wrong with a motorboat will have gone wrong with a club boat sometime in the past 100 years and there will be available at least six different opinions on how to fix it.
Seven of which will be totally wrong.
Pretty certain some of our members were there when the club opened in 1905, but as they have not been seen moving recently, reluctant to disturb them.
Alleged that somebody under the age of 60 did come into the clubhouse once.:)

If you are visiting the Medway with a boat that can get under Rochester Bridge I cannot recommend RCC high enough. We called there last year on our way to the Thames and Oxford and they were brilliant, so welcoming and helpful and the Sunday roast in the club was to die for. We still just feel slightly guilty about Harry, who had been so helpful getting us round to the fuel barge and topping us up on a Sunday evening and then locked his keys in the fuel hut!

We will definitely be back next time we are down that way.
 
Is Pye End still around? :) I only ask because I seldom go near it. If coming from the south, you can almost always head straight for No4 buoy, saving nearly a mile with very little loss of depth, maybe a foot or so.

I don't know the current situation at the Harbour Lights. We haven't been avoiding them, just that we prefer to eat on board, but the WFYC is good at present.

If strangers to the area want a flavour of the place, they could anchor at Stone Point and make sandcastles on the beach, or have a lunch stop in Hamford Water and possibly take a dinghy trip into Bramble Creek to see the red seals. This is better near low tide, when you might see about 70 sun-bathing, but a sensitive approach should be made slowly on the opposite side of the creek, where there may be a trip boat.

RED seals? Essex socialists?
 
Certainly is. Not the same shape as the one in East Coast Rivers (tenth edition). Chartplotters take all the fun away from getting in and out of the Backwaters.
Only joking, but it doesn't have to be on the route unless you are coming from the Deben. The whole area is pretty flat E of No4.

I have a chartplotter but I found coming in in the dark quite interesting.
 
Only joking, but it doesn't have to be on the route unless you are coming from the Deben. The whole area is pretty flat E of No4.

I have a chartplotter but I found coming in in the dark quite interesting.

Understood and I agree - I regularly could not find it when looking for it, but also came across it when not trying to find it. However, those were also the days when I had a swing keel, so coming up from the south was a matter of cutting the corner till the channel was found (hopefully by taking a bearing on Pye End) - and if I cut a bit too hard then the keel would start swinging on the bottom. Just wind it up a bit and head a bit more to the right till it stopped.
 
Could I recommend as a club visiting Titchmarsh & wanting to eat you try (in advance) to arrange something with Walton and Frinton Yacht Club. It's a good 20 mins walk from the marina so best to taxi it, but many clubs go there & I believe you will enjoy it a lot more than the Harbour Lights. If brave you could go into the pond & then be based right in the centre of town & next to the yacht club. Only can get in immediately before HW, and again you'd need to ring Bedwells to gate the gate lowered.
 
RED seals? Essex socialists?

Yes, Marxist seals


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There was a programme about them a while back on Look East AFAIR, apparently the reddish colour comes from a high concentration of Iron salts in the mud locally.
 
Alleged that somebody under the age of 60 did come into the clubhouse once.:)

I have been in the clubhouse a few times and I'm still a long way short of 60. First time I went in was probably still in my 30's. Trouble is, every time I go in, there is always one old boy sitting in the corner grumbling into his pint of warm ale. I never really hear what he says, but I'm sure I've heard him mention soap dishes, egg whisks, and tents, so he must be a culinary camper with a cleanliness OCD. Surprising really, cos he gave off an aroma of diesel and moth balls. :D
 
I have found Hamford Water a delightful place to anchor either for lunch or overnight, watch the seals and enjoy a G&T.
Follow the creek west as far as it’s possible to go, anchor then take dinghy for the last half mile up to Landermere Creek. The stone Quay is made from bits of the old London Bridge. I recommend East Coast Pilot or Arthur Ransomes Secret Waters for pilotage.
 
The London Bridge stones are at Beaumont Quay nearby. There used to be a stone plaque noting the fact but the last time I visited it had been removed, presumably for safe keeping but I don't know where it is. I have a photo of the plaque somewhere.
 
Pick up a copy of the Walton Backwaters Guide from the Titchmarsh Marina HM Office and you will have all the local history, nature and navigation tips to hand for reference.
 
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