Woodbridge Haven, Deben Bar, Felixstowe Ferry Bar ? probs

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Capt Popeye

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Humm having followed some other postings on here and the reference to problems and difficulties when navigating the entrance to the River Deben I do wonder if a significant part of the perceived difficulties are indeed from lack of specific knowledge about and of the bar.

I do wonder amoungst the regular sailors who transverse the Deben bar just how many actually make a point of checking the bar out at low tide at perhaps the start of each season, after the winter storms have re shaped it, just to recce it and take note of its shape, mounds and channels.

Having not been necessary to buy a ECP for many many years (1960's) might I ask if they now include a recent photograph of the Bar at low water as it would probably allay most fears about its navigation?
 
You didn't buy an ECP in the 1960's, that must have been another book.
We could indeed include a pic of the bar at LW in each edition, but...it changes. Right now there is only about a foot of water at LW. That's different to a month or two ago. A photo would be correct and 'interesting' but apply only to the day it was taken.
Most problems that people have are down to pushing their luck a bit too far, or (most frequently) not appreciating the cross-tidal set between the West and Mid Knoll buoys.
The entrance is 'officially' surveyed for Trinity House each March/April and the resulting chart is available on the ECP website, but even that can be way out after a day or two of strong easterlies.
The entrance looks to be set for a big change this winter.
 
Agreed Cantata - a photo at low water just shows what it was like on that day, viewing it at the start of the season is no clue to what it will be like three months later. I trust the buoyage and the very specific pilotage from the HM, they move the buoys when they need to during the season, sometimes quite often.
 
Agreed and if I'm unsure of conditions (I'm not a local) then I'll call John White, he's always happy to talk and at ECP we rely on his advice a lot. He shifts the buoys around appropriate to what he finds doing basic soundings with a pole, and so the buoyage is usually an excellent guide. Just everyone be beware there is b* all depth at LW at the moment!
 
Agreed the bouys are reliable, although sometimes the tolerances can be quite fine, as when we came a few meters off line and could hear the keel scraping the beach.

I recall somebody mapping and plotting the changes that occur year by year and (from memory) I seem to recall there was a loose pattern as to how the bar shifted year by year.
 
Toutvabien said:
I recall somebody mapping and plotting the changes that occur year by year and (from memory) I seem to recall there was a loose pattern as to how the bar shifted year by year.
Click to expand...

I can't remember whether it was from such mapping, but I seem to recall, but don't know where from, that the entrance generally gradually and erratically migrates further south over a period of several years, and then a new channel breaks through further north, the old channel closes and the whole cycle starts again.

I'd be interested to know whether that's the case.
 
LittleSister said:
I can't remember whether it was from such mapping, but I seem to recall, but don't know where from, that the entrance generally gradually and erratically migrates further south over a period of several years, and then a new channel breaks through further north, the old channel closes and the whole cycle starts again.

I'd be interested to know whether that's the case.
Click to expand...

If you look on Google Earth, you can see a number of historical aerial views, which show how the shingle banks change.
 
Or it closes up almost completely :o

I remember my first crosssing, I'd read in the guides about how I was almost certainly going to die and only a certifiable maniac would attempt it at anything other than 5minutes before HW - this was before ECP - got there early, bar was flat calm, and about an hour after LW we sauntered across.

Trouble was we got all cocky and went for a trip to Butley Creek and didn't realise that the Deben is for amateurs and the Ore is for Professionals. Went aground and experienced the ?unique? phenomenon at Orford bar of the water height lowering for the hour after LW. Still we were in a cat and it was a nice day and we sat and read ECR and how the water level does this weird thing at the bar.
 
Colvic Watson said:
Or it closes up almost completely :o

I remember my first crosssing, I'd read in the guides about how I was almost certainly going to die and only a certifiable maniac would attempt it at anything other than 5minutes before HW - this was before ECP - got there early, bar was flat calm, and about an hour after LW we sauntered across.
Click to expand...

You should try it midway through a spring ebb.

Not as much fun as Wells bar and entrance midway through an ebb though.
 
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LittleSister said:
I can't remember whether it was from such mapping, but I seem to recall, but don't know where from, that the entrance generally gradually and erratically migrates further south over a period of several years, and then a new channel breaks through further north, the old channel closes and the whole cycle starts again.

I'd be interested to know whether that's the case.
Click to expand...

Correct
 
Colvic Watson said:
If it goes much further south then it'll end being an essex river
Click to expand...

No, it will close.

Henry VIII - too fandome deep and a quarter lesse (ie 10.5 feet)
Wagenhaer 1584 - One and quarter fathom
Greenvil Collins 1686 - 4 feet
1787 - 3 feet
1804 - 3 feet
1892 - 4 feet
1939 - 2-3 feet.

Goseford was the bigger port than the port of Orwell. "It always had its variable shoaling bar and that this was one of the main factors which limited and finally killed trade"

'nother 600 years and it will be gone. Mark my words....
 
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