What is the worst marina/ harbour you have ever been to?

[Daydream believer]

J

I'm quite familiar with tide tables, thanks. The entrance buoys were in completely the wrong place. Berth holders each side of me commented on how tight everything was and, in the wrong wind direction, how difficult it was to berth. I bow to your superior ability.

But the negatives went far further than the entry. Rickety pontoons, dodgy electrics, those awful notices everywhere, and then the final blow was my crew telling me that Europe's biggest maggot factory was just down the road.

I think you have been asleep for the last 20 years. The pontoons were renewed a couple of years ago. The buoys are in exactly the correct position You just have to know what side to go of a red buoy or a green withey The berths are as easy to get into as any other I have been in - Try Shotley for instance The showers have been re furbished & are very good. There is nothing wrong with the electrics on the pontoons
Oh & the maggot factory closed 20 years ago But what relevance that is I do not know - it was 3 miles away

 

[vyv_cox]

I think you have been asleep for the last 20 years. The pontoons were renewed a couple of years ago. The buoys are in exactly the correct position You just have to know what side to go of a red buoy or a green withey The berths are as easy to get into as any other I have been in - Try Shotley for instance The showers have been re furbished & are very good. There is nothing wrong with the electrics on the pontoons
Oh & the maggot factory closed 20 years ago But what relevance that is I do not know - it was 3 miles away

Not asleep, just in better places. Once was quite enough.

 

[Athene V30]

The buoys are in exactly the correct position You just have to know what side to go of a red buoy or a green withey

I beg to differ but the buoys are not in the best positions. There is more water to the East of the channel. Tillergirl produced an excellen survey a year or so ago that I have used on several occasions.

 

[Kurrawong_Kid]

The worst Marina I have been in was Carlingford (in 2005). There was a reasonably smart restaurant but the facilities were in an old trawler and the water was full of sewage. I can vouch for the latter since I had the misfortune to get a rope around the prop and had to go swimming!

 

[JumbleDuck]

I beg to differ but the buoys are not in the best positions. There is more water to the East of the channel. Tillergirl produced an excellen survey a year or so ago that I have used on several occasions.

A few years ago I spent four hours aground at the entrance to the river Dee. The nearest starboard hand buoy was spang in the middle of the channel; the nearest port hand buoy was 100m to one side of and - eventually - about 4m above the channel. I told the harbourmaster when I got back in and he said "Oh, yes, I know. I must get those shifted some time."

North end of the Doon, for those that know the area.

 

[Daydream believer]

Not asleep, just in better places. Once was quite enough.

Well I suppose you can always try getting in & out of Milford Haven when a crowd of MBO's are breeding
& as for the surrounding area outside the marina - try getting a post card, Apparently run down oil terminals are not a touristy attraction
Compares with a maggot factory i expect

 

[JumbleDuck]

Well I suppose you can always try getting in & out of Milford Haven when a crowd of MBO's are breeding
& as for the surrounding area outside the marina - try getting a post card, Apparently run down oil terminals are not a touristy attraction

There are some rather industrial views at MilfordHaven, true, but there are some lovely places as well, particularly up the Cleddau.

 

[Coaster]

There are some rather industrial views at MilfordHaven, true, but there are some lovely places as well, particularly up the Cleddau.

Milford Haven is a terrible place, full of oil, mud and industry. There is not a single location within the waterway that's worth looking at or being in. All potential visitors are strongly advised to keep well away from Pembrokeshire. It is uniformly dreadful. Please avoid.

Honest.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Milford Haven is a terrible place, full of oil, mud and industry. There is not a single location within the waterway that's worth looking at or being in. All potential visitors are strongly advised to keep well away from Pembrokeshire. It is uniformly dreadful. Please avoid.

Just for God's sake don't come to Scotland instead. The cleggs race the midgies to drain you of blood and strip the flesh from your bones, we eat nothing but deep fried Mars bars and minced offal and it rains every day without fail from 1st May till the end of October. Definitely not a place to visit. Stay in the Solent, boys.

 

[Daydream believer]

Milford Haven is a terrible place, full of oil, mud and industry. There is not a single location within the waterway that's worth looking at or being in. All potential visitors are strongly advised to keep well away from Pembrokeshire. It is uniformly dreadful. Please avoid.

Agreed wholeheartedly
But you forgot to warn that the place is full of welsh. That in itself is enough don't you think:ambivalence:

 

[prv]

But you forgot to warn that the place is full of welsh. That in itself is enough don't you think:ambivalence:

I always thought Pembrokeshire Welsh weren't as Welsh as the rest of the Welsh, though?

Pete

 

[Coaster]

I always thought Pembrokeshire Welsh weren't as Welsh as the rest of the Welsh, though?

Oh no.

They are simply more cunning.

South of the Landsker they mostly speak English to fool us into thinking they're human, rather than an evil race bent on destruction. Which obviously makes them more Welsh, not less.

No English boat would stand a chance of surviving in such an environment.

Don't go there.

 

[bigwow]

Do you still have to dodge the flying boats at Pembroke Dock?

 

[JumbleDuck]

I always thought Pembrokeshire Welsh weren't as Welsh as the rest of the Welsh, though?

That's what I had heard - Little England and all that - but there is a lot of Welsh spoken there, albeit not quite as much as in mid Wales or Ynys Môn. I have a cousin there whose wife and children are all bilingual with Welsh as their first language.

 

[Mad Pad]

Do you still have to dodge the flying boats at Pembroke Dock?

No,just the Irish Ferries!

 

[dslittle]

For my worst I am afraid Exemouth wins. It is a couple of years since I was there but that is because we decided never to go back - grossly over price, security gates not working, toilets and showers closed. It may have improved.

If you do go there entry with an incoming tide is spectacular. Tide across the narrow entrance at up to four knots with vessels tied up just inside: ferry glide into entrance. current drops to zero so you are now doing four knots and headed straight at harbour wall about two yards ahead of you.

Well I didn't think it fair to call it the worst place that I have ever been but, after the above experience culminating in me hitting the steel 'wall' at speed causing quite a lot of damage to my toe rail and topsides midships whilst a large number of onlookers at the lifting bridge gasped, I will never be going there again!!!

 

[KevinT1]

The worst Marina I have been in was Carlingford (in 2005). There was a reasonably smart restaurant but the facilities were in an old trawler and the water was full of sewage. I can vouch for the latter since I had the misfortune to get a rope around the prop and had to go swimming!

I'll second or third the vote for Carlingford Marina being the worst , it's the only marina I would advise people against going into

• route in is across the mudflats with a miniscule channel,
• there appears to be 2 entrances but one is where the broken up concrete boats that make the wave break have collapsed.
• we "ran aground" at the end of the 1st T fortunately the bottom is mud and we were only doing 0.5 of a knot
• decided against fuel from the manky looking "concrete" fuel barge
• toilets disgusting and showers a health hazard
• and finally - this was 2011 - the price per night was higher than most Solent Marinas

 

[KevinT1]

Most Brits seem to like Camaret - but they can't have used the showers which are in the basement of the Castle where the headroom is approx. 6ft.

The lights are on automatic switches in the entrance lobby that go off after 5mins - ie just when you are lathered up. But because you are in the basement there are no windows and thus no natural light

Don't go in there if you are claustrophobic

 

[wully1]

It does look like a site from a post apocalyptic nuclear war but one of the cheapest and friendliest bars I have come across.

I thought it was a horrible place full of very nice people.

 

[lpdsn]

I'll second or third the vote for Carlingford Marina being the worst , it's the only marina I would advise people against going into

• route in is across the mudflats with a miniscule channel,
• there appears to be 2 entrances but one is where the broken up concrete boats that make the wave break have collapsed.
• we "ran aground" at the end of the 1st T fortunately the bottom is mud and we were only doing 0.5 of a knot
• decided against fuel from the manky looking "concrete" fuel barge
• toilets disgusting and showers a health hazard
• and finally - this was 2011 - the price per night was higher than most Solent Marinas

To be fair, the route in isn't a problem, you just have to go far enough up the Lough before turning in. However, the lights at the entrance aren't always lit, so a bit dodgy at night.

I third or fourth the rest of it. There are a number of lumps of concrete lying on the bottom so it's not just mud you might be hitting. One rather large concrete block even shows at LWS.

I certainly won't go back.