Southwold harbour

[MoodySabre]

We are just back from my favourite place on the whole East coast. Beautiful weather and a pontoon mooring instead of the stagings. Heaven.

Anyway, the eastcoastrivers chart tells you, when inbound, to turn back into the centre of the channel once abeam the yellow bollard. Due to the ongoing extensive rebuilding of the harbour entrance wall there is no yellow bollard.

 

[Leighb]

Useful info, thanks. We had hoped to go up there this week, but don't fancy the forecast of 2-3 days of rain.

It is definitely our favourite also, we went twice last year.

As a matter of interest what time did you depart yesterday? There is an item in the EADT today about 2 crew who were thrown off a yacht into the river when their yacht hit the harbour wall. Fortunately neither was very badly injured - cut head and broken ribs. The incident happened at 10.40hrs. Not sure if they were entering or leaving. If I have calculated correctly that was 2hrs or so before LW so with a strongish ebb tide against a quite brisk easterly. I should think the swell in the entrance was not very nice hence the crash?

 

[Victoria Sponge]

How did you manage to get a pontoon mooring?

 

[MoodySabre]

We left 1.5 hours after LW. It was very neaps and the HM said he thought we could scrape out at LW even though I draw 1.7m. The least we had under the keel was 0.8m. I wouldn't want to go out with that ebb behind me.

It is always a pain trying to arrive near HW so next time I'm thinking of trying to get there nearer LW on neaps and coming in on the start of the flood. Any thoughts?

The pontoon was just big enough for my modest 31ft - anything bigger would be too long - worth asking nicely though. Perfect as we had grandchildren coming aboard and nice not being outside the pub and a noisy party at the sailing club.

 

[Leighb]

How did you manage to get a pontoon mooring?

They usually have some if you ask nicely. However it may be quite close to the bridge which can make the arrival even more exciting than usual, or on the opposite bank which makes it a long walk to the pub, or into Southwold. Mind you the pubs in Walberswick are also nice. They also have no electricity or water should that be important.

We were offered one last year when we were there for 10 days, but it didn't suit as the reason for our stay was that our 2 sons and families were staying in one of the Blackshore cottages near the pub. We had a lovely week.

 

[Victoria Sponge]

We've stayed on the Walberswick side, which was lovely although a bit tricky to get on. We used the dinghy instead of walking.

 

[MoodySabre]

They usually have some if you ask nicely. However it may be quite close to the bridge which can make the arrival even more exciting than usual, or on the opposite bank which makes it a long walk to the pub, or into Southwold. Mind you the pubs in Walberswick are also nice. They also have no electricity or water should that be important.

We were offered one last year when we were there for 10 days, but it didn't suit as the reason for our stay was that our 2 sons and families were staying in one of the Blackshore cottages near the pub. We had a lovely week.

The pontoon we had was 100 yards seawards of the HMs office.

 

[Leighb]

I agree that getting there near HW can be a pain as, either you go all the way against the tide, or go to Lowestoft and come back next day. The alternative is to arrive as you suggest an hour or so after LW.

We have done that a couple of times. First time we had such a fast trip up that in spite of several reductions in sail we arrived at dead LW. However the HM said we should be OK so in we went. There was a bit of swell, and we just touched once on the way in.

Last year we got the timing better and entry was fine. We only draw 1.4 which makes it easier. I believe that this year the least depth is 1.6m at LAT so in theory you would be able to get in on any neapish tide.

The only real snag with arriving around LW is that it is more awkward to moor up against the piles, no problem if you are rafted outside someone though. The HM is always very helpful with arrivals anyway.

 

[Leighb]

The pontoon we had was 100 yards seawards of the HMs office.

That is interesting, I thought they only had the ones further up river to offer. I guess it just depends on who they know is away.

 

[Bru]

My impression, and I may have this totally wrong (!) was that the Harbour Master has a handful of pontoon moorings under his control which are generally in use but occasionally available for short term visitors

Harbour Marine own, lease or sub-let on behalf of the owners a significant number of pontoon moorings and we were advised to ask them if they had any space if we wanted to leave the boat at Southwold for any length of time

TBH, the only problem we had with being on the stagings was the 24 hours a somewhat larger than us Dutch boat was rafted up outside of us as they were a bit heavy of foot when crossing over our admittedly awkward deck!

And we could have suggested swapping around and thus avoided that problem so I can't even complain about that

BTW, we entered the harbour in fairly rough conditions about 2 hours before low water 2 days before springs. I would probably not choose to do THAT again!!!

(In the same circs another time, I think I'd hang around outside the harbour entrance for two or three hours, uncomfortable as that would have been, and go in on the first of the flood. Even we might have struggled at LW though)

BTW2, there is apparently a shoal bit on the South side of the harbour entrance opposite where they are working on the North Wall - we were waved over much closer to the wall than we'd thought advisable by the Voyager Tripper RIB skipper with clear signs from him that we were heading into shallow water!

BTW3, it's lovely in Southwold innit?

 

[Victoria Sponge]

Southwold is lovely. We were talking about this yesterday. There's a lot of places on the East Coast that you probably would never go to, unless you had a boat, but Southwold isn't one of them.

 

[MoodySabre]

BTW2, there is apparently a shoal bit on the South side of the harbour entrance opposite where they are working on the North Wall - we were waved over much closer to the wall than we'd thought advisable by the Voyager Tripper RIB skipper with clear signs from him that we were heading into shallow water!

So the boat that ran aground at LW last Friday wasn't the only one to have not read the pilot book or eastcoastrivers website? There has been a shoal there for years. As the HM said last week "You'll need wheels if you come straight in"

 

[Reverend Ludd]

Southwold is lovely. We were talking about this yesterday. There's a lot of places on the East Coast that you probably would never go to, unless you had a boat, but Southwold isn't one of them.

It is indeed a lovely place but the power of the ebb and flow should not be underestimated.

 

[pks1702]

The aftermath of the accident can be seen in three video's linked below.

Thankfully it sounds as if the injuries were not too serious.

A sad sight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvIQ9AdDRNQ&feature=channel&list=UL

 

[Leighb]

Very sad, obviously a total loss, let us hope she was insured.

Shows the effect of a strong ebb against what looks like quite a strong onshore wind. Just the conditions which the pilot books warn against entering or leaving the harbour.

Does anyone know if they were entering or leaving? It sounds as if the yacht broached and the crew were thrown out, so perhaps they were trying to enter?

 

[Lucky Duck]

The video posted above and on the EADT site shows a yacht entering the harbour.

 

[Victoria Sponge]

It is indeed a lovely place but the power of the ebb and flow should not be underestimated.

You're spot on with that. We actually moored at Southwold for a summer, so we had plenty of experience of that.

 

[Leighb]

The video posted above and on the EADT site shows a yacht entering the harbour.

That video does show a yacht entering, but it is clearly a different yacht coming in much later with the wreckage of Little Vixen being pounded against the North Pier. At the time of the accident, 1040hrs, the ebb would have been running hard and entry was obviously dangerous.

 

[Bru]

So the boat that ran aground at LW last Friday wasn't the only one to have not read the pilot book or eastcoastrivers website? There has been a shoal there for years. As the HM said last week "You'll need wheels if you come straight in"

In my defence, I'm not quite a total idiot

I had read the ECP page for Southwold although I hadn't downloaded the ECS pdf. I hadn't appreciated the degree to which one should hug the North wall from the ECP text and I was also conscious of the warnings to stay clear of an unspecified and unmarked exclusion zone around the works on the North wall

At the time the rib steerer waved us closer to the North wall, we had over 2m on the depth sounder on a draught of 0.9m so I wasn't overly concerned. Had the alarm gone off (set at 2m,) I was aware that deeper water would most likely be to starboard

 

[Lucky Duck]

That video does show a yacht entering, but it is clearly a different yacht coming in much later with the wreckage of Little Vixen being pounded against the North Pier. At the time of the accident, 1040hrs, the ebb would have been running hard and entry was obviously dangerous.

Sorry, I hadn't noticed the wreckage at the foot of the pier

I had always taken entering on the ebb at Southwold as something to be avoided at all costs. Coming into Southwold over the Easter break I had a mini-panic when I thought we weren't going to quite make it in time for high water in the river having set off from Lowestoft a little too late, in the end there was there the last dregs of the flood left and we berthed in slack water.