Stour to Bawdsey Pipe towing

[tillergirl]

Pipeline towage operation

Mariners are advised that between 21:00 hrs and 23:00 hrs on Saturday 02nd February 2019 the remaining pipeline moored on the temporary mooring installation in the River Stour (Reference Notice to Mariners No 17 of 2018) will be taken off the temporary mooring and towed to sea.
Mariners are reminded that the pipeline is approximately one kilometre in length. Traffic management restrictions will apply during the towage operation.
All vessels must declare their intention to navigate between the temporary moorings in the River Stour and Landguard Point to Harwich VTS between 21:00 hrs and 23:00 hrs on Saturday 02nd February 2019 via VHF channel 71 or telephone.
The temporary moorings are positioned in the River Stour between the following approximate positions. 51 ̊ 56.96 N 0001 ̊ 12.00 E to 51 ̊ 56.93 N 0001 ̊ 12.93 E
It is anticipated that the towage operation will follow the track highlighted below;

HHA 5 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr
Details of the operation can be obtained from Harwich VTS on VHF channel 71.
The following vessels will be involved in the towage operation; Duke of Normandy, Forth Warrior, and the Celtic Guardian.
The temporary moorings in the River Stour (Reference Notice to Mariners No 17 of 2018) should be removed by the 09th of February 2019.

 

[Jan Harber]

This seems a long way round but presumably they need to keep such an unwieldly tow well away from the shipping?

 

[tillergirl]

I guess VTS want it away from the DW channel as quickly as possible and it might do interesting things with the tide/wind - and a kilometer tow round the Point might be interesting as well.

 

[johnalison]

I dare say that they will have checked the tide tables before crossing the shallows, and hope that our sailors won't be overly inconvenienced by the operation.

 

[tillergirl]

I dare say they will (checked not inconvenienced). I wasn't referring to the shallows rather than if they tried to use the DW channel, whether the tide was up or down one side of the tow might be quite quickly one side of the buoyage while a kilometer behind, the end of the pipe might be the other side of the buoyage.:nonchalance:

 

[photodog]

Thank god for that.

Those bloody pipes had ruined the stour for sailing up wind. And that incessant interference on 16 telling us we couldn’t sail here and we couldn’t sail there...

Peace at last.