Where do you get your diesel?

[SeaAndSea]

Hi guys, we're waiting to get our Trader up to Wallasea and wondered where you get your diesel from locally? I've read people buying from tankers?

Cheers
Colin

 

[Bru]

Essex Marina fuel berth (Wallasea)

Burnham Yacht Harbour

Fambridge Yacht Haven

Usually a minimum of 500 litres on tanker deliveries and road access within hose reach of somewhere you can moor is gonna be tricky cos I'd imagine none of the marinas who sell fuel are going to be too keen on missing out on a big sale

 

[SeaAndSea]

Thanks for the info.

 

[Bru]

To add to the info, none of the three Crouch fuel berths is exactly easy to access

The Essex Marina fuel dock is on the inner pontoon at the West end of the marina and very exposed to the tide, especially tricky on the ebb

The BYH fuek dock is down the far end of the marina with limited turning space but is probably the easiest to access at any state of the tide

And the Fambridge dock is half way down the marina and currently not readily accessible for an hour or two either side of low water (or in my fin keeled yacht below half tide cos I'm chicken!)

 

[Tomahawk]

If you can get the tanker past the barrier at NFambridge, river station... You can pull up alongside at HW and fill as much as yoir boar will take.. Problem being that the Yacht Haven might take a dim view aboit it.

Or..... You could chat with John at Bridgemarsh

 

[Bru]

If you can get the tanker past the barrier at NFambridge, river station... You can pull up alongside at HW and fill as much as yoir boar will take.. Problem being that the Yacht Haven might take a dim view aboit it.

I hesitated to suggest that for exactly that reason given that FYH retails marine diesel

 

[Tomahawk]

I seem to recall someone bunkering a large amount from the jetty many many tides ago. So it may be possible to arrange.
After all, they don't want someone to empty their tank in one go.

 

[Bru]

I seem to recall someone bunkering a large amount from the jetty many many tides ago. So it may be possible to arrange.
After all, they don't want someone to empty their tank in one go.

The fairly large Dutch oyster dredger that used to use the pier did so some years back but then a> they were paying for the use of the pier and b> they were emptying an 8000 litre tanker!

I rather suspect that FYH would be delighted to sell an entire tankful of diesel, after all they could get it refilled by the supplier the same day (or the next at worst)

It would do no harm to ask the question though

 

[PeterWright]

Hi,

It's too many decades since I sailed up there, but is it possible to get a tanker alongside at Battlesbridge these days?

Peter

 

[Bru]

Hi,

It's too many decades since I sailed up there, but is it possible to get a tanker alongside at Battlesbridge these days?

Peter

I doubt it. And even if you could get the tanker alongside, there's nowhere to get the boat alongside (from memory, i haven't looked of late to be fair)

 

[Cantata]

I don't think so.
View from the road bridge......

 

[PeterWright]

I don't think so.
View from the road bridge......
View attachment 79019

Hi Dick,

That's a half fact - there's a lot more water at the top of a spring. Laden barges (~7 foot draft) used to make it up to the mill regularly, and 20 years ago there was a 12m (? 9 ft. draft) berthed up there. That's what made me think that it might be possible to get a tanker parked outside the mill to bunker alongside the quay. How do you think the motor cruiser to the left in your pic got onto that berth?

Peter.

 

[Bru]

Hi Dick,

That's a half fact - there's a lot more water at the top of a spring. Laden barges (~7 foot draft) used to make it up to the mill regularly, and 20 years ago there was a 12m (? 9 ft. draft) berthed up there. That's what made me think that it might be possible to get a tanker parked outside the mill to bunker alongside the quay. How do you think the motor cruiser to the left in your pic got onto that berth?

Peter.

I have heard that it's rather silted up that far upriver over the last decade or two (certainly we've seen a lot of silt buildup at Fambridge and if my mud berth is anything to go by it's been gradually getting shallower for a lot of years 'cos there's a good yard or more of compacted silt on top of an old hard that used to be a good foot or more proud of the surrounding mud)

Plus, the old mill is now an antique centre with no obvious access onto the river from it's yard which is itself full of, er, antiques! And on the South bank I have heard tell that the owners of the river access are rather discouraging about casual use thereof

I really can't see anywhere at Battlesbridge where it would be possible today to get a boat alongside and a tanker close enough for long enough if indeed at all even disregarding the considerable difficulties in navigating anything other than a flat bottomed boat that can safely take the mud up that far

 

[Cantata]

I know there's water for a quick visit across HW for a shoal draught boat, as that motor cruiser is, but I've always taken fright at any ideas of staying over LW because if the steepness of the mud banks.