SW Sunk Sands Crossing

[tjbrace]

We used Tillergirl's recommended waypoints 2 times in the past week or so.
On Tuesday 6 August, 4 hours after low water, minimum depth under transducer 4.8 m so actual depth 5.3 m.
On Wednesday 14 August, 3 hours before high water, minimum depth under transducer 4.3 m so actual depth 4.8 m.

Plenty for our 1.9 m draught.

Thanks Tillergirl

 

[maby]

Pity not everyone has read the recommended route - we came south through the Barrow Deep last week and it was entertaining listening on the VHF to all the boats run aground chatting while they waited for high tide!

 

[tillergirl]

Delighted the work is useful. It is slightly frustrating that it is difficult to get it better known!

 

[MoodySabre]

Yesterday I was talking to someone who keeps their boat in Salcott and they knew your boat but didn't know about your website.

 

[tillergirl]

Well that is close to home! I am always stayed away from trying to market the web site too hard. Perhaps if people are going unnecessarily on the hard I ought to?

 

[MikeBz]

Plant a sign there with www.crossingthethamesestuary.com on it?

 

[ex-Gladys]

Word of mouth is one of the strongest forms of "publicity". I certainly promote the usefulness of the book and the site to people who ask questions, and that includes every Day Skipper theory pupil I teach... Obviously East Coast Pilot is another...

 

[tillergirl]

Both of you are correct. I strongly agree with word of mouth (and am grateful, Larry for what you do). Some 'signs' around the place are also useful. This forum is of course excellent but I guess it is still a minority of people who sail/yacht/boat on the East Coast. Last year when doing the SW Sunk survey with Colin, as we dropped down the side of the East Barrow we could see a yacht nosing around the Middle Sunk where the knoll is north of Mystique's knoll. As we went down to the Barrow No 6, we could see they were not making any progress but giving them a call and saying 'Yacht Smarty Pants here, follow us' didn't seem the thing to do as we had yet to start the survey and the Swatchway might have disappeared. But they were clearly watching us and dropped down the Barrow Deep and then followed our first track (looking curiously at us - I have the image - as we zig-zagged back over the Sand!). Which, Fred Drifting (since it's raining) reminds of when I was doing some runs over the north and south channels to Tollesbury; doing a run down the edge of the Great Cob island and well out of the channel (well you have to find the drying edge!), I could see a yacht coming the other way heading straight for me and ignoring the marked channel. In the end I got so concerned that I did a 90 degree turn back to the marked channel and the other yacht did a mirror change of course and we passed in the buoyed channel with that chap giving me a strange look! Come to think of it, most people give me a strange look! Perhaps I should add a note 'no yachts were wrecked (knowing) in the making of this chart'.

Being serious for a moment, I guess I could email all the clubs with a flyer about the chartlets and NtM service.

Still raining......

 

[FullCircle]

Roger, I guess you could redecorate Tiller Girl to give more of a clue?

How about this daring colour scheme?

View attachment 34524

 

[tillergirl]

Roger, I guess you could redecorate Tiller Girl to give more of a clue?

How about this daring colour scheme?

View attachment 34524

Yes I guess that 'an' answer. But I do occasionally do proper sailing!

I could always fly 'PP' and or 'JL' or 'NG'

 

[Cantata]

Roger, I guess you could redecorate Tiller Girl to give more of a clue?

How about this daring colour scheme?

View attachment 34524

Your pic made me blink, sitting here in BYH under me cockpit tent contemplating the aforementioned rain and wondering if I really want to sail up to Fambridge. That's by the Floating Harbour in Brizzle, I used to have to go to that building a couple of times a month a lifetime ago.
In truth I think the community that regularly follows the EC forum is very small. For instance i am only aware of one other member of our local club (200+ members) who regularly looks at it. I expect there are others I don't know about, but people I cruise with are usually completely unaware of a lot of the issues that come up on here.

 

[tillergirl]

Brave stuff Dick in the rain. It's days like this that drive me to the shed to invent things like the Mark 2 single-handed day sailor yachtsman's milk flask retaining bracket (Mark 1 no longer fitting the refurb'ed galley). I've already changed the framed instructions for using the Simpson Lawrence toilet that were 21 years out of date for instructions for ones for using the Lavac (put t'andle in pump and pump!) this week.

Actually I'm not sure this navigation and knowing where you are isn't a bit overrated. Once got hailed by a mobo in the Wallet asking where he could get diesel. Asked where they had come from and he replied 'headed directly from the Swale'. Since he had come over the top of the Gunfleet, I think he meant it literally. He seemed pretty happy!

 

[MoodySabre]

sitting here in BYH under me cockpit tent

It's your fault then this wet stuff. F7 tomorrow night will test the construction of your tent.

 

[ianfr]

I have just forwarded the link to someone I know, who is planning to cross next weekend.

"Oh I did know about it, but its nice to have a confirmation from someone who has used it"

So thats the answer, you need to provide endorsements......

Many thanks from this satisfied customer, and thanks for waving last Sunday near the Nass.

Regards

Ian

 

[Cantata]

It's a Habitent - we are inHabitents. Appears v flimsy but is modern tent fabric so I guess it can survive the North Face of the Eiger if required.
Still in BYH with harbour rot setting in. Thinking it would be better to be stuck here tomorrow in carp weather than in Fambridge, but getting fidgety nonetheless. Perhaps a dash up and down and back this afternoon. Pal we have come over with is anxious for me to wind winches on his 336.

 

[maby]

We've never been introduced, but I gather that "tillergirl" is Roger of Crossing The Thames Estuary fame - so I'll take the opportunity to ask a question...

We are Thames Estuary based and great fans of the book. I've been making a plan recently to digitise the tables, pump them into Excel and add macros that will automate the process of walking them to arrive at a passage plan - before I waste a significant amount of time, has anyone else done this already? If I do complete the job, I will happily send you the resultant workbook to distribute as you see fit...

 

[Cantata]

I expect Roger will be along soon, but in case he isn't, I will say just one word, 'copyright' !!

 

[maby]

I expect Roger will be along soon, but in case he isn't, I will say just one word, 'copyright' !!

Obviously - but I have no intention of distributing it myself - as far as I am concerned, it is just a way of simplifying the process - I would offer it back to Roger if he was inclined to distribute it in any way. I'm just asking if anyone else has already done it since it will be a fair amount of effort and I have no interest in reinventing wheels!

 

[tillergirl]

Sorry, just been for a Chinese meal in town.

Umm yes, copyright. Big issue. Actually few points. Yes, I have done it. I have an Excel table each for most of the routes. Select your speed, springs or neaps and then select your start time with a choice every 15 minutes. Works very nicely. This version is 'better' than the tables in the book in that it calculates sector times for each minute - well it's possible so why not - but actually it is easy to forget these are planning tables and nobody can hit 7 or 8 waypoints across the Estuary with the exactitude of a minute. The drawback is that the tables are large files, too large for an App, have great long formulae (running to five lines in places - I am not good with macros) which makes error chasing a bit tedious and then have to be reversed to cover each way use of the routes. So there is a lot of work in there and then a series (at least 64) of quite large files - not in itself insurmountable but using the formula route to 'automate' selection of route sends Excel into a tizz.

Digitising the tables is a bit unnecessary as they are all in digital form already on this confuter but I think there is a really serious issue. Imray were good enough to take on the book which at best would be a low volume publication yet with the use of colour, fold-out etc it is an expensive book to produce. I think they have been pleased with the sales (as have I - thanks to everyone) but realistically economically it is a finely balanced thing and I am not keen to do anything that might undermine Imray's position. We all need company's like Imray and will sorely miss them if their business becomes uneconomic. I don't think the publishers would necessarily want to make more money out of digital files but the problem is how to maintain the economic sense of this so the book is still viable. Dick will confirm I am sure that none of us do this for the Royalities which is a few curries a year.

I have had a conversation with Willie Wilson and a couple of IT people and a protected CD could be possible, maybe as an accompaniment to the book or for a small charge to cover production. Any further action by me would have to wait until after lay-up.

 

[maby]

Thanks Roger and I do appreciate the potential issues. Personally, I would happily pay a decent price for the spreadsheet - I know it is going to take me quite a few hours to digitise the tables and several more to get the macros right - and my time is worth quite a lot to me. How about getting future editions of the book printed with a token on the corner of a page that entitles the owner to request a copy of the CD?

In the meantime I will just have to scan, OCR and import the data into Excel. .. Never mind!

Many thanks for all your efforts- we rely on your work several times a year. It was only a few weeks ago that I almost got us into trouble with a transcription error that I decided to automate the process a bit.