Tollesbury - NOT for navigation... sort of

MagicalArmchair · 15 Jun 2017

A fine gent called Robin Kemp produced the following guide to entering the wonderful (mildly dog intolerant) Tollesbury. http://www.tollesbury-marina.co.uk/uploads/4/2/6/6/42660293/tollesbury_marina_entrance_details.pdf. I printed this and headed off there last year from our base on the Mudway. The tides were neapish, however, the predictions meant we would be able to get in easily an hour before high tide with a small margin. On the waiting buoy on The Leavings, time ticked by, and, I presume, due to the high pressure giving us the wonderful weather we had, the tides were kept down, and a mere 30 minutes before high water, there was only just enough water to get us over the bar! I sucked my teeth and went for it.

I follow Kemps guide as best I could, reading the pilotage instructions carefully. At the time I remember I wished I could see exactly how close to Kemps line we were on my Navionics. As we approached the marina, I didn't swing far enough over to port after the lightship, and scludge... 15 minutes 'till the top of the tide... stuck about 100 years away from the bar! Dog started barking like crazy, children started crying, it was an amazing moment. Long and short of it is, I hopped in the dinghy, threw the kedge over into the deeper water and pulled us back into the main channel as the last of the tide buoyed us up. Phew, got in (not before lots of complaints from the locals with accompanying pitchforks about the poor, desperate to pee, ships hound (important to say lots of the locals did love Patch...we are leaving him at my mothers this time that said!)).

I figured, this time, I'd overlay Kemps diagram with Navionics webapp and upload it to my phone... Ha what can go wrong!!? *puts on tin hat*

View it: http://tinyurl.com/y8ck9oh5
Download it: http://tinyurl.com/y6wadscq

JumbleDuck · 15 Jun 2017

MagicalArmchair said:
A fine gent called Robin Kemp produced the following guide to entering the wonderful (mildly dog intolerant) Tollesbury. http://www.tollesbury-marina.co.uk/uploads/4/2/6/6/42660293/tollesbury_marina_entrance_details.pdf. ...

That diagram was produced nine years ago. Mud moves! I wouldn't go up the river at Kirkcudbright based on a diagram from last year, and I'd treat one from last month with caution.

MagicalArmchair · 15 Jun 2017

I just called the marina and booked my berth and they tell me its sorta the same... humm, I swear I was bang on that line when I ran aground

JumbleDuck · 15 Jun 2017

MagicalArmchair said:
I just called the marina and booked my berth and they tell me its sorta the same... humm, I swear I was bang on that line when I ran aground

I was sure I was in the marked channel when I ran aground going into Stranraer marina, and said so. The harbourmaster replied "they all say that", which I think said more than he intended. All, eh? So ... quite a lot of people?

tillergirl · 15 Jun 2017

I hope you followed the buoyage not that Navionic nonsense :encouragement:

MagicalArmchair · 15 Jun 2017

Ah, are they new this year? I swear they weren't there last year... I might have been too busy trying to stop the dog from leaping over the side to notice mind you... That'll make life a bit more stress free

Cantata · 15 Jun 2017

Been buoyed ever since I first went there, maybe 18 years ago........

Colvic Watson · 15 Jun 2017

I loved the year we had at Tollesbury and subsequent visits but they were mostly on our last boat which was a multihull with 0.9m draft. Even with a lowly 1.4m we wouldn't risk neaps because for a few years now the Leavings mostly dry out so there's nowhere to safely wait. Great people, most beautiful location for a marina on the EC but hampered by that access issue.

tillergirl · 15 Jun 2017

Cantata said:
Been buoyed ever since I first went there, maybe 18 years ago........

I can trump Dick's 18 years into the 20's. Occasionly some of the buoys in the South Channel go walk about though.

On a serious point, when entering into Tollesbury Creek from Mersea Quarters please note that the Quarters Spit Cardinal buoy is the right-hand marker. Last year the last red port hand buoy was the left-hand marker but following my survey last autumn changes had to happen. See the download at http://www.crossingthethamesestuary.com/page29.html which shows the current Mersea Quarters chartlet. Also downloadable on the Tollesbury Marina web site. I am planning to extend the survey into Tollesbury Creek shortly, once I've finished the Upper Blackwater and then the SW Sunk swatch.

PS I confess I hate chart plotters and mobile phones

johnalison · 15 Jun 2017

If you think Tollesbury is hard in the daylight, you should try it after dark. We did it once, and only once, on a club jolly, leaving at 4am in September. We did manage it, but not what you would call in a stylish manner.

tillergirl · 15 Jun 2017

johnalison said:
If you think Tollesbury is hard in the daylight, you should try it after dark. We did it once, and only once, on a club jolly, leaving at 4am in September. We did manage it, but not what you would call in a stylish manner.

Oh yes. That would be a little tricky. How about the old days of trying to enter the Blackwater when the Bench Head was unlit and a massive steel buoy and the Decca proximity alarm is sounding but you can't see it! Eek. Never did see it.

MagicalArmchair · 26 Jun 2017

So, to put all this into practise, we have just come back from our first week away up the East Coast this season - our first stop after crossing from the fabled promised land of the River Medway was lovely Tollesbury. After a bit of mud sitting next to the green number 5 can coming into the leavings (we had a cracking sail across that Thames and arrived early), we picked up a bouy in the leavings to wait for high tide.

High water West Mersea was set for 19:06 at 4.3 meters. If we look here we will see at 4.3 we should have at least 7 foot over the sill. Triola draws a smidge over 1.5 meters, so lets call that 5 foot. That means, in theory, we should have been able to get in two hours either side of high water. At 18:10, we set off from the waiting bouy with only 5 foot showing on the mark. Whilst I had my transposed map on Navionics that I did occasionally refer to, as always with this close quarter stuff, I relied on the marks. We got past the lightship (note we don't follow the suggest route past here and follow the pilotage advice of tucking in close to the light ship), and arrived at the first green bouy after that, passing it reasonably close keeping it to Starboard, directly in line with the next one.... and scludge! Stuck fast with the sounder showing 1.3 (its not corrected, so, yup, 1.5).

Aground! Looking aft to the green mark:

Looking forward to the next green mark:

Where we ran aground

Someone did pass down the port side of us whilst we twiddled our thumbs, however, I am led to believe the mud here is pretty flat, so I think a couple of feet wouldn't make much of a difference. I'd be very interested to see photo of this area at low water. Note the direction of the wind (which was very light), the marks could have blown over the mud they were supposed to be marking?

We floated off around 15 minutes later after using the time productively to make another cup of coffee, and were in as around 30 minutes to high water with 6 foot showing on the marina sill. Lovely place, lovely beach lido and great welcome.

LittleSister · 26 Jun 2017

Sounds a fairly typical approach to Tollesbury to me!

According to ancient East Coast lore, you haven't really been to a place until you've been aground there.

Sheff · 27 Jun 2017

Ah yes, written a long time ago!!

Mr. Kemp is a very good friend of mine and still an active resident of Tollesbury.

Your photo "looking forward to the next green" is the shallowest part of Woodrolfe Creek if you straight-line it between the two. A gentle curve to port between them will keep you afloat.

Simply put - if the tidal gauge at the entrance to Woodrolfe Creek indicates there is enough water to get you over the cill into the marina then there is - if you keep to the deepest water in the creek!

MagicalArmchair · 18 Jul 2017

Sheff said:
Ah yes, written a long time ago!!

Mr. Kemp is a very good friend of mine and still an active resident of Tollesbury.

Your photo "looking forward to the next green" is the shallowest part of Woodrolfe Creek if you straight-line it between the two. A gentle curve to port between them will keep you afloat.

Simply put - if the tidal gauge at the entrance to Woodrolfe Creek indicates there is enough water to get you over the cill into the marina then there is - if you keep to the deepest water in the creek!

Ha, thanks for your response, I'm not so sure I agree on the final note suggesting the creek maximum depth is equal to or greater than the sill. I'd love to see a photo of that part of the creek at low water! On my way out, I took more of the 'curve' route and it was still significantly (well, significant on the East Coast anyway!) shallower than the sill...? Anyone got a photo at low water of that bit of the creek?

johnalison · 19 Jul 2017

tillergirl said:
Oh yes. That would be a little tricky. How about the old days of trying to enter the Blackwater when the Bench Head was unlit and a massive steel buoy and the Decca proximity alarm is sounding but you can't see it! Eek. Never did see it.

Yes. Done that, only in the other direction on a passage race with the MLSC. For some reason we had to do it overnight to get into Bawdsey. Decca was very good, but you could never be quite sure .....

ianfr · 19 Jul 2017

Hi

For those of you worried about approaching Tollesbury.

I created a video of Tollesbury creek, from the waiting buoys to the Marina sill at low water.

https://youtu.be/DwewFramz2w

If anyone wants the stills for a closer look, just PM me.

Regards

Ian

Mandarin331 · 19 Jul 2017

MagicalArmchair said:
Ha,...? Anyone got a photo at low water of that bit of the creek?

----deleted, Ian beat me to it-----a great piece of film.

We also had to do that in the dark once, interesting as the lit buoy by the light ship was unlit, we couldn't see it at all, until it clattered down the port bow.

MagicalArmchair · 24 Jul 2017

ianfr said:
Hi

For those of you worried about approaching Tollesbury.

I created a video of Tollesbury creek, from the waiting buoys to the Marina sill at low water.

https://youtu.be/DwewFramz2w

If anyone wants the stills for a closer look, just PM me.

Regards

Ian

Cracking Ian! Thanks for posting that! That explains a lot, we were aground here:

Tollesbury - NOT for navigation... sort of

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