Shotley Marina feedback/advice

[Koeketiene]

The lock is the price you pay for the closeness to the open sea.

I found Levington and Bradwell an excellent compromise .

I agree, which is why we moved from Shotley to SYH.

SYH might be a tad further from the sea but sailing/motoring from Felixtowe to SYH takes 20-30 minutes at most.
About the time it takes you to lock in at Shotley (on a good day).

And you're not held prisoner for a month per year every February while they carry out lock maintenance.

 

[Daydream believer]

I must be very lucky to be in Bradwell. It is 4.4 miles from home & if I stood on the ridge of my house ( which I did when i built it to get a phone signal) I can see the marina. Not sure which is my boat though. It is great just to go there & chat to the boat when I am fed up. Most relaxing.

 

[johnalison]

I must be very lucky to be in Bradwell. It is 4.4 miles from home & if I stood on the ridge of my house ( which I did when i built it to get a phone signal) I can see the marina. Not sure which is my boat though. It is great just to go there & chat to the boat when I am fed up. Most relaxing.

Bradwell is also at the end of a long narrow road. This is fine for those who live not far away, such as my late friend in Cold Norton, but in the olden days we kept boats in Heybridge and Maylandsea when we had to drive from Hertfordshire. On the occasions we had to drive to Bradwell I found the last bit very tiresome.

I have only visited Shotley a few times. Although we enjoyed it, I can’t say that it was somewhere I could get excited about, though the view over the harbour is nice, as is a walk along the shore.

 

[Daydream believer]

Bradwell is also at the end of a long narrow road. This is fine for those who live not far away, such as my late friend in Cold Norton, but in the olden days we kept boats in Heybridge and Maylandsea when we had to drive from Hertfordshire. On the occasions we had to drive to Bradwell I found the last bit very tiresome.

That is one of the reasons I sold the house in Orsett & moved to St Lawrence Bay. The 50 minute drive on a Summer Sunday was always a nightmare. It made the sail home difficult because one could not enjoy coming back from a sail, knowing one had that journey afterwards
Now I can just sit in the cockpit for a while & just chill, whilst reminiscing on the days events. If I had cycled to the marina , then all the better because I could have a couple of beers as well. Often I just go to Stone sailing club & join members on the balcony to watch the sunset over the Blackwater, as that is only .2 miles from my house.
As for twisting roads;-
After a very late trip back from Ostend one year I had a crew (Tony Smith of Creeksailor fame) who insisted on driving straight home, instead of having a short kip first.
Unfortunately he fell asleep & put his truck in to a ditch, on a bend. This not only got him into bother with plod, but messed up his work as well.

 

[RivalRedwing]

That is one of the reasons I sold the house in Orsett & moved to St Lawrence Bay. The 50 minute drive on a Summer Sunday was always a nightmare. It made the sail home difficult because one could not enjoy coming back from a sail, knowing one had that journey afterwards
Now I can just sit in the cockpit for a while & just chill, whilst reminiscing on the days events. If I had cycled to the marina , then all the better because I could have a couple of beers as well. Often I just go to Stone sailing club & join members on the balcony to watch the sunset over the Blackwater, as that is only .2 miles from my house.
As for twisting roads;-
After a very late trip back from Ostend one year I had a crew (Tony Smith of Creeksailor fame) who insisted on driving straight home, instead of having a short kip first.
Unfortunately he fell asleep & put his truck in to a ditch, on a bend. This not only got him into bother with plod, but messed up his work as well.

you should try the A12 and M25 on a summer Sunday afternoon.......

 

[Daydream believer]

you should try the A12 and M25 on a summer Sunday afternoon.......

No thanks. I will leave that to you

 

[Daydream believer]

you should try the A12 and M25 on a summer Sunday afternoon.......

When I was a 17 year old student my father sent me to the Mid Essex tech College & School of Art( Now Anglia university) in Chelmsford to study construction for 7 years. I had a choice of going via Billericay or Brentwood- Northwards up the (old)A12, that route was only slightly preferable.
I used to think " When one day I get to be rich & famous, at least I will not have to go up this B..y A12"
When the M25 was built it extended the area I could supply joinery by a huge amount & Iwent round it several times a week
I never got to be rich, nor famous. Just a bit well known & shall we say "comfortable". But at the very end of my career I started doing freelance consultancy
Then one day I suddenly realised as I was travelling to a very regular client at 06-30 in the morning to miss some traffic that I was now travelling Southward down the b..y A12
So I spent 7 years going up it at the start of my career, Round & round in circles in the middle & another 7 years going down it at the end.
Then It occurred to me that somehow I seem to have got absolutely nowhere in my life.

 

[Dee Bee]

I might have gone to Levington but could never get a straight answer about the availability of a berth. They did not seem to run a waiting list.

 

[Dee Bee]

Quite.
And with a 44' I did more than my fair share of loitering.

One Sunday afternoon in August I was made to wait for 1H45 before I was called to lock in.

If Shotley Marina ever wondered when I decided to leave: that was the day.

I would say that was very unusual.

 

[johnalison]

That is one of the reasons I sold the house in Orsett & moved to St Lawrence Bay. The 50 minute drive on a Summer Sunday was always a nightmare. It made the sail home difficult because one could not enjoy coming back from a sail, knowing one had that journey afterwards
Now I can just sit in the cockpit for a while & just chill, whilst reminiscing on the days events. If I had cycled to the marina , then all the better because I could have a couple of beers as well. Often I just go to Stone sailing club & join members on the balcony to watch the sunset over the Blackwater, as that is only .2 miles from my house.
As for twisting roads;-
After a very late trip back from Ostend one year I had a crew (Tony Smith of Creeksailor fame) who insisted on driving straight home, instead of having a short kip first.
Unfortunately he fell asleep & put his truck in to a ditch, on a bend. This not only got him into bother with plod, but messed up his work as well.

Although Bradwell was a drive we did a number of times, my memory may have been coloured by being reminded of one trip we did to join our friend there for a 'Christmas Cruise' in early December. In those day we had four seasons each year and when we got up to leave our Herts. home it was snowing, which made the unlit M25 'interesting', and Essex was frozen over. The Bradwell road was largely sheet ice, which was even more interesting, but we made it in one piece and had an enjoyable weekend that would have been memorable if it hadn't been for the alcohol.

 

[Lucky Duck]

I might have gone to Levington but could never get a straight answer about the availability of a berth. They did not seem to run a waiting list.

Our enquiry for an 8m berth finally came to fruition after more than 10 years, meanwhile many people had seemingly been accommodated with nothing like that wait.

 

[Poecheng]

I might have gone to Levington but could never get a straight answer about the availability of a berth. They did not seem to run a waiting list.

I think you just have to keep asking.

 

[Daydream believer]

I think you just have to keep asking.

Put the wives on the job. They are good at that.

 

[Poecheng]

Put the wives on the job. They are good at that.

Haha, yes, that was exactly how it was achieved !
In fairness, SYH are pretty good at finding a place for people and keeping at them presumably weeds out the casual enquiry from the serious.

 

[Koeketiene]

Haha, yes, that was exactly how it was achieved !
In fairness, SYH are pretty good at finding a place for people and keeping at them presumably weeds out the casual enquiry from the serious.

I also found that turning up in person rather than email/phone call made a big difference.

 

[shanemax]

No one has mentioned the incredible noise all night from Felixstowe Docks with all the bashing and crashing of containers and vehicle horns and hooters going on 24/7. If you want to sleep on your boat or wish to sit on it and enjoy some peace forget it.

 

[PaulRainbow]

No one has mentioned the incredible noise all night from Felixstowe Docks with all the bashing and crashing of containers and vehicle horns and hooters going on 24/7. If you want to sleep on your boat or wish to sit on it and enjoy some peace forget it.

That could be because there isn't an "incredible noise all night from Felixstowe Docks". I lived aboard on J pontoon for several years, which is almost as close to Felixstowe as the pontoons at Shotley get and never found the noise to be bothersome, didn't hear anyone else complaining about it either.

Have you slept aboard in Shotley ?

 

[Sailing steve]

Well you can hear noise from the docks as far away as Erwaton Ness on the Stour if there's any east in the wind.

Whether the noise bothers anybody or not is of course a different matter.

 

[Leighb]

Well you can hear noise from the docks as far away as Erwaton Ness on the Stour if there's any east in the wind.

Whether the noise bothers anybody or not is of course a different matter.

We could occasionally hear it in Pin Mill Rd, probably only the big bangs when they drop the hatch covers, but not a problem for us. However residents in Shotley village often complained about the noise.

 

[shanemax]

Paulrainbow needs a hearing aid