dgadee
Well-Known Member
Actually, I think I can win this. What about a marina which is rat infested and the owners won't do anything about them? "They've been there for years ..."
What is the worst marina/ harbour you have ever been to?
- Thread starter Nostrodamus
- Start date
dragoon
Well-Known Member
I went boating on the broads on a stag weekend with some friends many moons ago - we tied up in Yarmouth on one of the nights. It was grim when we arrived, but we woke in the morning to find police swarming around the marina (if you can call it that). Turns out a body had been picked out of the water not far from our boat. I later heard on the news that someone had been charged for throwing their wife of a bridge nearby! Lovely place
doris
Well-Known Member
Did you score some? Where did you hide it on the boat? I always find it sooooo tedious when the men in flat caps come poking around!
sighmoon
Well-Known Member
it's not a marina. Along the same line, if you venture a little up the Thames, there's Thurrock, where kids shot firewoks at us while we inflated the dinghy.
+1. You didn't miss the kindest people in the UK. We got ripped off there - mechanic charged over £1k to change a water hose. It is also the biggest marina I've been to that didn't have a chandlers - just some boarded up restaurants. Sad.
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Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
On my SH round UK trip in 2012 it was Scarborough with the scankiest bogs n the whole trip
But when I repeated it in 2014 Oban stood out as absolutely horrid. The showers are either so small you have to step out of them to open the dividing door or the other showers have a loo in them so if you want a shower after someone has just used the loo you have to bear the stink.
But this time there was no water due to a drought on the island so there was no water on pontoons & only one loo working & that was a dirty staff loo
Facilities are limited & I have had to wait up to an hour twice for the ferry to the mainland
As for the chap who dislikes Bradwell well he ought to learn how to use tide tables. i go in & out after dark as many times as I do in daylight ( The staff asked if i was a vampire or drug runner as they noticed the frequency) & never have any trouble. berths are dead easy to get in . Staff are excellent
As for Ramsgate - i make a special trip at least twice a year because i enjoy the place very much. I cannot understand the objection
As for the most derelict place in the world - the bloke who put the grim in grimsby knew his job. What a run down dump. It is a long walk to the part boarded up high street for supplies
However, the small club has been very welcoming both times I have been there so i could not give its marina the thumbs down inspite of the basic amenities
But when I repeated it in 2014 Oban stood out as absolutely horrid. The showers are either so small you have to step out of them to open the dividing door or the other showers have a loo in them so if you want a shower after someone has just used the loo you have to bear the stink.
But this time there was no water due to a drought on the island so there was no water on pontoons & only one loo working & that was a dirty staff loo
Facilities are limited & I have had to wait up to an hour twice for the ferry to the mainland
As for the chap who dislikes Bradwell well he ought to learn how to use tide tables. i go in & out after dark as many times as I do in daylight ( The staff asked if i was a vampire or drug runner as they noticed the frequency) & never have any trouble. berths are dead easy to get in . Staff are excellent
As for Ramsgate - i make a special trip at least twice a year because i enjoy the place very much. I cannot understand the objection
As for the most derelict place in the world - the bloke who put the grim in grimsby knew his job. What a run down dump. It is a long walk to the part boarded up high street for supplies
However, the small club has been very welcoming both times I have been there so i could not give its marina the thumbs down inspite of the basic amenities
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LittleSister
Well-Known Member
For info for anyone tempted
or forced to visit - there is no marina in Great Yarmouth harbour, just the Town Quay wall, but there is a Broads Authority run 'Yacht Station', which is what I assume this poster is referring to. Not been there myself (we hunted for this on foot, in the dark, but didn't find it), but I understand it's a pontoon on the side of the river (Bure?) upstream of two bridges from the harbour (one fixed), and inaccessible with a mast up whether from the harbour or from the River Yare/Breydon Water.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
A few years ago I toured with a BBC roadshow which went round various seaside towns. The only one I missed was Hartlepool, and common agreement was that I was lucky, as it was the most horrible place they went. Up against some stiff competition too, including Southend and Rhyl.
We went to Great Yarmouth for the maritime festival and had a great time, though my hotel was the weirdest I have ever stayed in. The bar opened from 5.45 - 6.05 only and the five items you wanted for breakfast had to be ordered 24 hours in advance, because obviously it's impossible for a hotel to keep more than one day's supply of bacon or eggs in the summer. I expected the Major and Misses Tibbs and Gatsby to appear at any moment.
For info for anyone tempted
I've read about the Yacht Station ... in Coot Club.
Uricanejack
Well-Known Member
+1 I like working harbours, a friendly reception overcomes what they may lack in facilities
Mad Pad
Well-Known Member
Read the thread title....marina/harbour
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
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'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.
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dragoon
Well-Known Member
For info for anyone tempted
Yes, the Yacht Station sounds right...from memory it's on the outskirts of the town.....I've been there at least twice....once on a family holiday as a wee boy and watched a number of hire boats dry out mid stream as they hadn't read the tide tables.......and yes I recall it was upstream from at least one, possibly two bridges (where the said person was alleged to be have been thrown from
Lucky Duck
Well-Known Member
Certainly not the worst, but the most dissappointing marina I visited last year was St Katherine's in London.
Despite having everybodies details in advance completing the formalities for berth allocations, names and number people on board etc while were in the lock took over an hour.
We were then berthed in the Western Harbour opposite where the barges are usually moored alongside. These berths are right next to the Hotel's undercroft where various rubbish trucks and the like operated in the early hours of the morning.
Finaly the lock keeper arrived around half an hour late for the pre-booked 6.00am lock out to catch the ebb tide down river meaning we risked hitting the flood tide rather earlier that we had hoped.
Also the days of it being less than £15 per night are long gone.
Edit: Great Location though!
Despite having everybodies details in advance completing the formalities for berth allocations, names and number people on board etc while were in the lock took over an hour.
We were then berthed in the Western Harbour opposite where the barges are usually moored alongside. These berths are right next to the Hotel's undercroft where various rubbish trucks and the like operated in the early hours of the morning.
Finaly the lock keeper arrived around half an hour late for the pre-booked 6.00am lock out to catch the ebb tide down river meaning we risked hitting the flood tide rather earlier that we had hoped.
Also the days of it being less than £15 per night are long gone.
Edit: Great Location though!
FleurDeLys
Active Member
Ironically, and with great sadness, have to report Port Ellen on Islay - on one of the most beautiful islands on earth - as a major disappointment. Marina pontoons next to ferry terminal, grain dock and grain drier/silo which all produced round-the-clock noise. Facilities in a 'garden shed' 200m from the pontoons. Inadequate loo/shower provision, and what there was was permanently wet and 'less than clean'. This despite some of the most cracking hot, dry weather imaginable. Massive disappointment.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
I wasn't terribly chuffed with the Milford Haven lock keeper who shut the gate on me when I was less than 50m away on approach leaving me to spend six extremely uncomfortable hours at the neighbouring fish dock. Otherwise a lovely place, and probably my favourite marina.
pyrojames
Well-Known Member
I like St Katherine's, but they can a bit disorganised sometimes. We only ever stay in the central basin, so no particular issues with the bin men, but simply by its position, it is never quiet.
Lucky Duck
Well-Known Member
Both St Kats and Limehouse are great and I quite like the general 'noise' of the London marinas (particularly in contrast to the East Coast) but the lorries were rather too intrusive.
Eyore
Well-Known Member
It sounds better than Port Ellen I knew with all the above mentioned drawbacks and no pontoons.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
I went to Port Ellen by Waverley last year. The attractions did not lure me ashore.
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
We have spent two years at Milford Haven Marina and loved it there. There are few places more friendly than South Wales in our experience. The lock keeper is under a lot of pressure and you do need to keep abreast of his broadcasts on VHF to know what is going on.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
It was 8pm on a winter's evening, we were the only yacht moving, the weather was filthy and deteriorating and we were talking to him. Then, less than a minute from when we'd have tied up inside, lights out, gate closed, no reply.
However that was just one unpleasant experience, and otherwise it was, as I said, a lovely place. So much so that I have been back several times without a boat, just to enjoy the atmosphere.