SW Sunk

[MikeBz]

We came through the Swatchway en route from Ramsgate to B'sea today. Arrived at the Eastern waypoint at 11:40am, virtually coincident with LW Dover, and sailed straight lines from wpt to wpt.

E wpt: 5.4m

From there it steadily deepened to the centre wpt.

C wpt: 7.7m

From there it could continued to deepen to 8.8m until a few hundred metres before the Western wpt where it shallowed to 6.8m briefly.

W wpt: 7.0m

HW Dover 04:35hrs 5.7m, LW Dover 11:52hrs 1.8m
LW Whitaker 13:01hrs, 1.3m.

Live tide gauge at Harwich showed -0.035m surge at 11:50 and similar all morning.

So plenty of water there then.

 

[tillergirl]

Well done. That looks like it is still perfect. The 6.8m is absolutely logical.

Now - serious question. I was thinking of getting down there at the end of next week to re-survey. Not sure it is worth it/necessary. Was/is thinking it is time I re-did the Spitway and I am only half way doing the Upper Reaches of the River Blackwater. Opinions?

Thanks Mike

 

[John_Silver]

Re Swin Spitway depth: We went through on the way into Pyefleet on 20.5.17. Least depth under our 1.8m keel was 1.6m with 1.7m rise of tide showing on Navionics for Whittaker tide station. We went through a 100 or so metres east of and parallel to the buoyage.

 

[tillergirl]

Interesting. Arguably that is what I would have expected. Last year a couple of snapshots of data suggested the best water was further east. It is now 5 years since I did full coverage. Perhaps worth a go. Surprisingly an official survey was made of the Colne Bar and Eagle area but didn't go down to the Spitway.

 

[MikeBz]

We sailed into the Crouch along the Buxey shore at near LW a few weeks ago. The drying line coincided with the yellow Buxey buoy - nothing uncovered to the East and nothing covered to the West apart from a couple of rills which meandered their way in.

I wouldn't feel any need for a re-survey of the Sunk. Yesterday would have been perfect for it though - I would have liked to have explored perpendicular to the rhumb line at the waypoints but we were on a bit of a mission and lunch was waiting to be eaten on the next segment.

 

[tillergirl]

I wouldn't feel any need for a re-survey of the Sunk. Yesterday would have been perfect for it though - I would have liked to have explored perpendicular to the rhumb line at the waypoints but we were on a bit of a mission and lunch was waiting to be eaten on the next segment.

The SW Knoll is very very steep-to. I always like to come at LW springs so I can see where where the Knoll is and then I try to run round the edge of the Knoll at a constant depth. I admit that means I can never run over the Knoll to measure the drying heights - unless I go back at HW - but the object is to find the best water. Well that's my argument

 

[MikeBz]

I see your point about surveying at LW springs and agree that finding best water is the whole point.

I forgot to mention that there was some sand showing to the South as we went through. Difficult to estimate the height above the water, but I would say less than a foot. It didn't feel worryingly close but trying to guess the the distance in retrospect would just be creating misleading information.

Thank you for the time & effort you put in to making these surveys which benefit all of us hugely.