Something for the weekend

PaulGooch

PaulGooch

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14 Feb 2009
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Home = Norfolk, Boat = The Wash
www.boat-fishing.co.cc
Well, we had planned a re-schedule of out formally planned trip to Ramsgate for the weekend, having previously cancelled the trip due to poor weather. But, reading about the lack of water, dredging, small ships thingy etc i've decided this is not the weekend to do Ramsgate. Still have the Thames trip outstanding and plan to do that in 4-6 weeks time.

The weather for this weekend keeps changing but is currently not looking bad. We're planning to drive down to Shotley Friday afternoon and spend the night onboard. Depart Sat morning for somewhere up to 30-40 nm (or less, no problems with saving fuel), have a few hours fishing and then spend the night onboard. Sunday, either a cruise around or some more fishing, or bit of both. Spending Sunday night on the boat again and returning to Shotley Mon morning.

Any suggestions for the two overnight stops ? Prefer somewhere with pontoon access, wheelchair friendly would be nice as we have a friend with wonky legs.
 
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Sounds like Pyefleet on Saturday night, poodle up to Osea Island for Sunday Night; Mind you you would fight a bit of tide back to Shotley monday morning unless you left early (ebb starts around 3am). Not that tide is that much of an issue?
 
Pontoon access is the limiting factor.

Fishing is supposedly good out by the Gunfleet wind farm - as near as you can get. I was talking to someone who caught a 12lb smoothhound and a good haul of bass there last week. Then you could go to Bradwell or up the Crouch to Burnham or Fambridge. All have pontoons with hostelries nearby.
 
If it's any help, I'm driving down to Ramsgate (only 20 minutes) on Fri afternoon to take a look prior to deciding whether or not to sail down for the weekend.
'Little Ships' shouldn't be a problem, they appear to have gone this morning (looking at the webcam) and are not due back until Monday.
So I can post on here during Friday afternoon regarding state of dredging and moorings.
 
MoodySabre said:
Pontoon access is the limiting factor.

Fishing is supposedly good out by the Gunfleet wind farm - as near as you can get. I was talking to someone who caught a 12lb smoothhound and a good haul of bass there last week.
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Bloody hell, it's one think people leaving their unwanted puppies with the RSPCA but leaving them out on a windfarm is close to actual cruelty. Glad your mate caught him safely, was it a Danish Smoothhoud?
 
Thanks for the suggestions so far. With the weather forecast constantly changing, still not sure about Ramsgate, but thanks for the offer of a report Cantata, much appreciated.

Been to Gunfleet sands a few times this year, had a nice 11lb Smouthhound a couple of trips ago. So that's an option, will look into the marina's mentioned by MoodySabre.

Might just make a passage plan for Ramsgate and another more local one and see how the weather shapes up.
 
OK, here we go. I've just been to Ramsgate, had a chat with the people there. It is certainly going to be very full if all who have said they are going, actually arrive.
There are no fingers between pontoons F and G, idea is that boats will raft in there. That area has (I'm told) been largely dredged. The scruffy pic (hopefully visible) below (sorry, no time to stitch pics together properly) shows the arrangement.
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In the meantime, however, the weather for later on Saturday is looking grimmer. SW going W F5-6, locally F7, and 8 'in the east' in the Channel, i.e. in the immediate area. I shall wait until tomorrow morning before deciding whether to go.
 
Cheers for the Ramsgate info, with the poor weather reports i decided it was not wise to embark on the trip this weekend. Decided to drive down Friday as planned and spend the night in Shotley. See what the weather actually turned out to be and play it by ear. Saturday wasn't too brilliant and Sundays forecast looked better, so decided to spend Saturday locally and if Sunday was better, to head to Burnham, with a few hours fishing on the way. Overnight in Burnham and return sometime Monday.

Saturday morning wasn't too bad, bit windy but bright. Thought we'd have a potter along the Stour and try to catch an early Bass. Not too many boats around as we left Shotley and Harwich looked almost deserted, so we thought we'd pop over there and have a walk around and grab some lunch. Never been to Harwich before, so we had a little walk around the pier area and along to where they keep the lightships, then a look around the lifeboat house. An all day breakfast in the cafe at the pier and it was time to go after that Bass. 12 knots of wind blowing the boat onto the pontoon and being squeezed between a sailboat and the nasty looking (unfendered) steelwork around the pontoon leg made for an interesting departure. You'd think they'd put something around the steel, the slightest contact would make a mess.

Went along the Stour a few miles and chucked the hook down, by now the wind had picked up a little, it had turned decidedly chilly and was drizzling with rain. Was tempted to just go back to the marina, but decided to stay for a while. An hour or so's fishing yielded one small Pouting and a rather wet me, so it was time to give up. The wind was getting stronger and it was really chucking it down as i retrieved the anchor, visibility was getting quiet poor. Things deteriorated even more as we chugged along the Stour and by the time we got to Shotley there was quite a chop and it was rather windy. We had to wait while they turned the lock around after locking a couple of yachts in and two visiting yachts were also waiting ahead of us. We held back a bit, as the second yacht was fairly big and i wanted to be sure he went far enough forward to leave us room. As he went in, to tie up ports side to, the wind (which was blowing hard now and more or less straight into the lock) caught his stern and pushed him around, his starboard quarter hit the lock as he entered and after some squirming around he finished up going starboard side to. He got in a bit of a muddle and ended up more or less sideways in the lock, up against the stern of the other yacht. They'd more or less got things under control as we entered the lock, after standing off for as long as i dared, the wind was blowing us around a lot and the channel was quite shallow by now.

The wind was gusting through the marina by now at 18-19 knots SSE and made mooring awkward, plenty of fenders out. The smaller of the two yachts from the lock was trying to get onto the berth directly behind us, but the wind was blowing him around badly and he had to abort a couple of time, circling around to take another run. He'd tried a couple of times while we were getting in, but the wind was blowing him away from the finger. I quickly tied a couple of lines and left SWMBO to finish off while i grabbed his bow line and kept him pulled into the finger. They'd just sailed from Brightlingsea and said wind and tide were both behind him for the trip, which they made in very good time. The weather for the last hour had suddenly blown up into a bit of a storm and he thought it must have been blowing an 8 as they came by Walton, with building seas. I had a look on the Walton lifeboat station website and it didn't look pretty. The weather station there was reporting 30mph winds, gusting to 40mph. Funny, half an hour ago the forecast on the VHF was for 4/5 !! Glad we had cancelled the Ramsgate trip, although we'd have left earlier and should have arrived before the worst of it.

It was now thoroughly gloomy, cold, wet and windy. The forecast for today (Sunday) was not much better, so we decided we may as well head for home. Live data from the net shows 23kt winds gusting to 33kts NW at Landguard at the moment and Walton shows similar figures, with sea looking a bit choppy on the webcam.

Roll on some good weather.
 
Southerly winds makes for some interesting mooring at Shotley Paul !! You and I are moored the same way round and the main difficulty is getting the bow round. Do you have a bowthruster ? Fitted an SP40 on mine a few years ago. Best money I've ever spent. Makes close quarters manouvering a doddle. Don't listen to all the pr*cks who say it's all about seamanship. Yeah, I'd rather have a few rib tickles than a damaged boat.

Just wait 'til you get a strong easterly on your berth ....

Catch ya soon and thanks for the parts info by e mail.

CD
 
Seadee said:
Southerly winds makes for some interesting mooring at Shotley Paul !! You and I are moored the same way round and the main difficulty is getting the bow round. Do you have a bowthruster ? Fitted an SP40 on mine a few years ago. Best money I've ever spent. Makes close quarters manouvering a doddle. Don't listen to all the pr*cks who say it's all about seamanship. Yeah, I'd rather have a few rib tickles than a damaged boat.

Just wait 'til you get a strong easterly on your berth ....

Catch ya soon and thanks for the parts info by e mail.

CD
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Hi Chris. No bowthruster, i have to rely on seamanship :) Just had a quote from Fox's for one, but not sure i want to spend the money. The wind on Saturday was blowing the boat off the finger. Wouldn't be too big an issue, but the pile if ****e yacht beside me has a very nasty ally rail running along the side of it. The end of which is pretty sharp, like a big chisel. Have to be very careful that i don't catch that and no amount of fenders on my boat will protect me from it. Thinking of hanging a spare fender off of the corner of it, but not sure of the etiquette of doing so, although it doesn't look like it's been used for a long while, has a nice green beard around the waterline lol.

You're welcome to the parts info.
 
How strong was the wind??

As a matter of interest what was the wind on Sunday? We had a hell of a thrash from Levington up to Parkeston quay, turned round and ran up past Levington, Pin mill was all white water, so we dropped into Levington for the night.

A very nice trip home to Walton today at high speed, but cold.
 
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Shamal said:
As a matter of interest what was the wind on Sunday? We had a hell of a thrash from Levington up to Parkeston quay, turned round a ran up to Levington, Pin mill was all white water, so the dropped into Levington for the night.

A very nice trip home to Walton today at high speed, but cold.
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Not sure about Sunday, we left Shotley Saturday evening, decided we'd be better off at home. The weather stations at Landguard and Walton were both giving over 20 knots during Sunday.
 
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