Southwold..... first timer

Southwold is lovely but it does have one or two downsides.

The HM is undoubtably great and helpful but the mooring fees are adventurous to say the least, especially as the loos and showers are locked out of office hours (!!) although the sailing club sometimes kindly opens it's facilities to visitors - but it isn't always open. Many berths have no water or electricity and these are where you'll end up if the main visitors pontoons are full which they often are in summer. You may also end up on a fixed pontoon and need to keep adjusting your mooring lines. Full service marina rates are, imho, not appropriate where there is no marina and no services are provided.

The Harbour Inn is horribly overpriced and at my last (ever) visit of very indifferent quality.

Southwold town (40min walk from harbour) is lovely but again suffers from greedy pricing due to the hordes of tourists it attracts. Cruise liners, God help us, can only make this worse. The town also gets very crowded in summer. Rather like Aldeburgh the whole place takes rather too much care to mulct as much money as possible from visitors instead of offering good value which is a pity.

It is a beautiful little harbour though, interesting to negotiate as it is just a bit out of the ordinary as already described.

The little museum past the lifeboat station is very interesting as is the Sailors Reading Room (?) on the clifftop in town, a lovely, quirky little oasis of calm with newspapers provided by an ancient bequest iirc. (It was set up by the temperance brigade in the 19th. Cent. to give sailors and fishermen somewhere to socialise instead of the pub so may not appeal to all forumites!)

The pier is free to enter and is worth a look too, even if it is a bit touristy!
 
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Unfortunately the above is true, pricing is down to Waveney borough council who frankly do not have a clue, and is based on their equally expensive pricing of their section of the broads.
When the new south bank pontoons were put in it was the intention to run water and power across the river but the current capacity of the electricity line from the north side is not up to it so it's been shelved until next years budget.

If the harbour inn is too pricy for your tastes there is a new venue near the beach called the sail loft which is good and the Bell in Walberswick a 15 minute walk away, though you won't save much money.

Trouble is the food and drink businesses need to make hay when they can as out of season the harbour gets very quiet.
 
Yesterday I was in Eyemouth. It reminded me of a stone built version of Southwold, without the tourists. There were two visiting Norwegian yachts in the harbour - neither of them large and the smaller of the pair was wooden. I was impressed.

Eyemouth is now on my Round Britain bucket list. Southwold is not.
 
Minn said:
Yesterday I was in Eyemouth. It reminded me of a stone built version of Southwold, without the tourists. There were two visiting Norwegian yachts in the harbour - neither of them large and the smaller of the pair was wooden. I was impressed.

Eyemouth is now on my Round Britain bucket list. Southwold is not.
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If Southwold can be compared with Eyemouth, I want to visit Southwold! Eyemouth is great - I knew it as a teenager, and renewed acqaintance last year when bringing Capricious south. Fortunately, it is still the quirky fishing port I remembered from my youth!
 
A traveler came upon an old farmer beside the road. "What sort of people live in the next town?" asked the stranger. "What were the people like where you've come from?" replied the farmer.

"They were a bad lot. Troublemakers, the most selfish people in the world, and not a one of them to be trusted. I'm happy to be leaving." "Is that so?" replied the farmer. "Well, I'm afraid that you'll find the same sort in the next town.

Disappointed, the traveler trudged on his way.

Some time later another stranger, coming from the same direction, hailed the farmer, "What sort of people live in the next town?" he asked. "What were the people like where you've come from?" replied the farmer once again. "They were the best people in the world. Hard working, honest, and friendly. I'm sorry to be leaving them."

"Fear not," said the farmer. "You'll find the same sort in the next town."
 
I was the Southwold - First Timer and I have to say that on balance it was a good experience. The Harbour staff were brilliant, helping me tie up, rafted, out side the Pub on the North Side. We ate at the Harbour Inn which I concur was pretty expensive, but no more than anywhere else, typically the Shipwreck or some of the Ipswich waterfront venues, but perhaps the menu is geared towards the Tourist trade....

The second night, forced on us by the weather, we moved to the South side (my inside boat wanted an early start) and walked to the Bell in Walberswick which was much more to our liking, although priced to match the Harbour Inn offered a much better quality menu well prepared...

I definitely will come here again, but perhaps when the season is drawing to a close, or even just starting...

I won't pretend that the River on Max flood or ebb is not awesome, it is, especially to a weekender, but you learn by experience and in the end, by a bit of forethought and assistance we managed rather than coped..... It just deserves a bit of respect (the River that is)
 
Glad you enjoyed it, it's absolutely FTB this weekend, I've never seen it so full, four deep on the visitors pontoons, almost as popular as Weymouth- though not quite the eight deep we saw there!
 
When doe Southwold quieten down? end of the school holidays or later? We are Orwell based and quite fancy making a weekend visit but we have a couple of nippers so sole occupancy of a berth is preferred (for the neighbours sake as much as ours).
 
I was there second week of Sept last year and the visitors pontoon was full (unrafted - one deep) so the HM put us on an empty private pontoon 50m upstream of the pub. Even so I'd avoid weekends cos if the cloggies visit they often come in groups but call the HM and ask, he's very helpful and should know if a mini fleet is coming.
 
RivalRedwing said:
When doe Southwold quieten down? end of the school holidays or later? We are Orwell based and quite fancy making a weekend visit but we have a couple of nippers so sole occupancy of a berth is preferred (for the neighbours sake as much as ours).
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You might find this link helpful....
https://www.schoolholidayseurope.eu/netherlands.html

I wouldn't worry to much about the Kids; they shouldn't be a hindrance

we enjoyed the weekend we spent there ..... but if you are sailing to a deadline, think about your departure as well as your arrival. The Ebb and Flow in the River is certainly awesome :)
 
Boz said:
You might find this link helpful....
https://www.schoolholidayseurope.eu/netherlands.html

I wouldn't worry to much about the Kids; they shouldn't be a hindrance

we enjoyed the weekend we spent there ..... but if you are sailing to a deadline, think about your departure as well as your arrival. The Ebb and Flow in the River is certainly awesome :)
Click to expand...

It does run strong doesn't it! Quite an eye opener at first but I guess by now we've gotten used to it. I always prefer exerting on the ebb so that it's a simple stop at the pontoon but that can drop you down to 4 knots.
 
Came back across the pond today, 14 hours, 85nm from Cadzand-Bad
Motor sailed the whole way as we had no more than 5 knts apparent up our chuff all the way.

We arrived at Southwold at 20:10 this evening,
4 hours after HW, on a big tide and we draw 2.1m.
 
Yes, for some reason 5am departure from Orford was voted as better than 5pm departure and as I was the skipper for the trip apparently I had no vote.
 
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