Sarfend pier!

moondancer

moondancer

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www.wisereach.co.uk
Somebody suggested to me yesterday that it is possible to drop people off and pick them up from the end of Southend pier.

This seemed a bit implausible to me - is it a realistic option?
 
I have never heard of or seen anyone do it in anything smaller than the Pocahontas or other trip boats. In a time of crisis this might be doable - there's a ramp on the end of straight part of the pier inside the hammerhead. No place to be in rotten weather. One of the big downs is the lack of pickup or drop-offs on the Thames. Bell Wharf, Old Leigh near the top of the tide is quite alright as long as you follow the buoys up the creek. Bilge keelers often take the ground on the western side of the Bell Wharf or the eastern side of Victoria wharf - the mud is very flat there. Tying up on the ends is OK is you are staying afloat but don't dry out there. Come and have a cuppa /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Ramp on pier (not current)
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/6122483.jpg

There is a jetty just east of the pier (on the Golden Mile) which the tripper boats use. I should think that you would get in there on springs
Southend-Jetty_20060524-002_900.jpg


If you zoom in on Google Earth there are photos of these locations.
 
I read this last summer, I think in Reeds or the East Coast Pilot, with a note that you should never leave the boat, sorry, both are on board the boat - a long way from home!

Might be worth checking with Southend Council.

Personally I've never been close enough to check and would not fancy the idea at all.
 
Back in the late eighties, walked to the end of the pier to join a friend who kept his boat on the beach, we (daughter and I) couldn't make it on time to avoid the surf - so he anchored off and used the dinghy to meet us on the end of the pier - he'd apparently done it quite a few times before. Don't know about now though if there's anyone out there from the old Halfway Yacht Club or Thorpe Bay they might be along to advise ?
 
Reeds says you can "secure at the end of the pier to obtain stores" but this is not feasible IMHO. ECP is judiciously silent on the subject of Southend Pier. I know that when I kept a boat on the mud at Westcliff the pier seemed to have a magnetic effect on fibreglass in the same way that ponds and golfballs do. Not a structure you would want a close encounter with.
 
If memory serves me correctly there have been quite a few close encounters some of which were spectacular /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Somebody suggested to me yesterday that it is possible to drop people off and pick them up from the end of Southend pier.

This seemed a bit implausible to me - is it a realistic option?

[/ QUOTE ]

I can believe that people would be desperate enough to try it to escape from sarfend!

Wouldn't want to end up in sheppey though! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I have walked out there many times. In fact I threw my wedding ring off the end of Southend Pier in 1987.
I used to regularly (guilty moment here) go to the RNLI station and buy this years sweatshirt and stuff a fiver in the box.
I have drunk alcohol there, and had fish & chips, not to mention burgers and breakfasts.
I have watched the Inshore Lifeboat being launched and recovered, and seen the Waver thingie turn up.
However, and this is important, I would not, even on a nice day, approach the pier closer than 200m.
Why?
Becuase the damned pier is festooned with Anglers every 4 feet, all of whom believe they have the god given right, like seals on a beach, that they are omniscient, and that only they may lay claim to the pier, the walkways, the lower structure, and anywhere else they can lay a bait box.
Following on from this premise, it follows that the anglers also own the water and sea bed surrounding the peir, to a manly lead weight casting distance, and ensure theat they carry out this orchestrated activity to best defend their rights.
Which is to say, you are the enemy, and you shall be denied the ground, it will be defended to the last hook, line & sinker.
If you tarry close in the area, you shall be granted a show of the Anglers Haka, where they will all go purple, make a fist with one hand, and shake a rod at you in the other. Fearsome stuff indeed.
As if this was not enough, you should also consider Southend Council's line of defence too. Over the years, they have contrived a cunning web of spikes and twisted broken spears of pier to catch the unwary mariner on final approach. They have managed this feat by not really clearing up after each accident or mishap to the pier, and by the simple expedient of not squandering rate payers cash on the structure. This may also promote chafing, which has a deleterious effect on warps and fenders, even if they survive the 30 seconds you leave the boat, when the concealed urchins rise out of nowhere to strip your fine craft of anything useful in less time than it takes a Ferrari F1 to have its tyres changed.

Finally, the Lord has arranged for crustaceans and sea weed slime to coexist in knobbly quantity on each and every pillar or support that is water covered at any state of the tide. A remarkable quantity of this final coating of defence is there to ward off the proud gelcoat owner of any vessel even thinking of tying up in the area.

In short, I can find nothing to commend the activity in the slightest.
 
Brian,

I watched Jon W. in Imothes pick up his sister and nephew off the pier a few years ago as we were all going to watch the Southend Air Show from the Ray. I must admit he didn't hang around and just went straight in when they arrived and picked them up.

Email Jon W. he will be able to give you the exact details. I can't remember the tidal state and he was worried about me running aground as I went in closer to the beach in Shear Stress and he had to tell me off. Can't remember any problems with fishermen. Nothing can be as bad as the fishermen at Dieppe who chase you along the breakwater throwing sinkers at you if you stick to the right hand side of the channel to avoid a ferry.
 
A few years ago I rang the Pier and Foreshore Dept of the local council to see if I could pick up people at the pier head. The man I spoke to said that it might be possible at the steps at the back of the pier head but it would have to be supervised by their staff and there wasn’t always someone available; he gave the general impression that I would be a bloody nuisance.

Southend Council claim to be supportive of leisure boating, but I have never seen any evidence of it.
 
Southend Council supportive of boating /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Where did you get that from? A councillor will tell you that if he wants your vote. Incoming from moorings, end of. There used to be two council patrol boats that kept an eye on things along the seafront, picked up the odd dinghy that had come loose of a mooring, shouted at kids not to get trapped by the tide etc. Both gone last year.

Southend Council seem to want to create jobs and attract people into the area - those of us who live here want completely the opposite as there are too many people already. Don't start me off /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif The seafront is our biggest asset but it doesn't produce council tax so it doesn't get investment.
 
In the good old days the pier was two stage with lots of fisherman and crabbers on the lower deck. There were signs written on the railings on the top deck:

"DON'T THROW PEOPLE BELOW" /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
My point exactly. I had quite a long correspondence with them when they started to lock Bell Wharf, but didn't get anywhere. At least it's open most of the time now.
 
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Last time I was there they wanted £2.50 just to walk down the pier. All they got was a hollow laugh...

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But you do get a free train ride back. On a fine day when you're not boating it can be nice to be 'offshore'.
 
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