Top Tip for guest crew from Scotland....

FullCircle

FullCircle

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When cruising round the East Coast with guests from places with an excess of water, turn your echo sounder to show feet and not metres.
It makes them feel (slightly) better.


PS: I crossed the Ray Sand yesterday and cocked up my arrival time. I had 2.4m at half tide, I thought there would be a bit less. Bah.
 
2.4m at Half Tide! Blimey. That means water at CD. Well an inch, I suppose. Did you note your Easting 000.59.7-800? I might just get down there next week to refresh the chart.

Take your Scottish friends to the Middle Sunk at half tide. No land in sight and little below you. I think the underwater 'cliff' that is the edge of the Barrow Deep there will make them think a little. Hee-hee.
 
tillergirl said:
2.4m at Half Tide! Blimey. That means water at CD. Well an inch, I suppose. Did you note your Easting 000.59.7-800? I might just get down there next week to refresh the chart.

Take your Scottish friends to the Middle Sunk at half tide. No land in sight and little below you. I think the underwater 'cliff' that is the edge of the Barrow Deep there will make them think a little. Hee-hee.
Click to expand...

Yes Roger, I came over at about 190 degrees on a back bearing from my newly located yellow buoy (I gave Cantata the position last Friday) so about 59.850 ish

I think it was 13.25 local time in the middle of the shallow bit, but tides were very large yesterday, due to Northerlies of last few days pushing it in from North Sea.
 
Umm, actual heights were up about 6" according to the gauges - which at the Ray is quite a lot! I definitely need to see how far East that indentation (not sure we can call it a Swatch!) extends.

No good asking Cantata at the moment, they are all very busy with a deadline not far ahead of them!
 
tillergirl said:
2.4m at Half Tide! Blimey. That means water at CD. Well an inch, I suppose. Did you note your Easting 000.59.7-800? I might just get down there next week to refresh the chart.
Click to expand...

would it be fesible to come out of tollesbury at Hw and make directly for Rays'n ,i was thinking of this coming sunday with hw being 07:50 @ mersea.

i will have a non sailing mate with me and thought if i could get across there and save taking him out through the spitway .

boat draws 1 mtr , also boat is as yet untried/tested by me :rolleyes:
would i be taking a risk going this way ? , either that or play safe and use spitway
 
Raysand should be fine for depth.

The problem is going into the Crouch against the tide. If you can leave an hour earlier, the depth should still be fine (and you'll be on a rising tide), then you ought to be able to get to Branklet or thereabouts before the tide turns foul.

If you go via the Spitway, time it to cross it near lW and you get fair tides the whole way.
 
Weeelll

Tollesbury to the Outer Crouch (say in deep water near to the east of the Ray Sand Buoy) is 13.46nm approx via the Nass and Knoll Swatchway. You can shave that down to 11.87nm if you know the exit directly into the river by Shinglehead Point and also cut straight due south down the 1 degree East meridian.

Lets assume you can average 5 knots(?) (including the four and a half nm against the ebb down from Batchelor Spit to the Ray Sand, that would get you to the 'entrance' of the Ray Sand in just over two and a half hours. Height of tide on Sunday at Mersea is 3.67m (umm not huge - in fact pretty neaps). Using the rule of twelths, you will have lost just over approx 1.4m of water leaving 2.27m of water over a drying height of 0.9m.

Answer: Yes!

Notes:!

Slightly higher 'height of tide' at the Ray Sand than Mersea but only say 0.2m (just over 6 inches). Best water seems to be in the region of the 000.59.750/850 meridian. I have taken soundings on the 59.600 meridian.

The short cut via the swatch at Shinglehead Point and the 1 degree East Meridien reduces your passage time to about two and a quarter hours giving you possibly another 0.3m - (gosh that is a foot gained in total by constructive accountancy; is that how the Government do it?).

But surely you could get up earlier with 1 metre draught and get out of Tollesbury before High Water?
 
yes u are right about getting up and out of tollesbury earlier , probably around 2hrs before hw , but that would be in the dark ish , but as you say i would then be almost into the crouch by hw so maybe that be better , just wont have so much to drink sat nite :D
 
Well there's a hint of dawn around 6.30am so you should see your way out ok.

Note some depths and lat/longs as you cross can you?

Edit: I suppose I should add that if you go too far west 000.58.800 for example, there is the potential that you might touch.
 
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