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The World Cruise of Veleda IV |
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Stuck in the mud! September 24, 1999 Brighton, England 50 48.6N, 000 06.1W I'm writing this while waiting out a nasty low here in Brighton, which has a lovely marina, the largest in the U.K., and is accessible to a large ASDA store, bowling alley, cinema complex, and local bus routes. It is 1300 now and we plan to leave about 1730 to catch a favourable tide and weather window for an overnight sail past Dover, Ramsgate and either straight to London or a stop in the Medway at Chatham. Anyway, here is the log from our departure from Walton on August 29. We left our anchorage from Stone Point at 1035, along with several other boats enjoying the last week of the summer. We had a delightful sail under spinnaker only, for 10 nautical miles up to the entrance to the Deben River. The entrance into it at Felixstowe Ferry is a narrow one between the shoreline and a line of shale shoals that needs to be navigated about two hours after low water in order not to have a strong current against us, but enough water to be navigable and to be able to see the shoal banks that would be awash at higher tides. Apparently there can be quite a heavy current through there at maximum flood or ebb. There were good land marks in the Martello towers dating from Henry VIII's time, that were located south of the entrance, and our passage across the bar and around the first "horse" was uneventful. A horse is a sand or shale bar that develops in the middle of a river and requires careful navigation around it. The river mouth is surveyed each spring and photocopied entrance charts are available identifying the shifted sand bars around the entrance. We had an updated chart for this entrance and for another entrance into the River Orwell a bit up the coast. This local knowledge is necessary to navigate the entrances of these east coast rivers. We met several boaters who lived on these rivers and enjoyed boating on them, but had never crossed the bar into open water because of the stories they heard of the shifting shale shoals. However, we had asked questions along our trip and felt comfortable with the latest charts and the local knowledge we gleaned from local cruisers. Going up the river was a pleasant trip through rolling English countryside, past meadows, woodlots and the occasional thatched cottage and square towered ancient Norman or Saxon church. The navigable river narrowed as we went up, so we anchored about 5 miles up at Prettyman's Point in about 20 feet of water at mid tide. When anchoring we have to be aware of the state of the tide to anticipate the amount of water at both high and low tides, and to let out enough scope for the high tide depth, but to be far enough away from the bank at low tide. We were fine with the location we selected, but we saw one power boat at a cockeyed angle as he accidentally grounded at low tide. There were other bilge keeled boats that allowed themselves to ground at low tide as the twin keels allow them to "take the hard". The next day, Aug. 30, we dinghied down river a mile or so to the Ramsholt Arms pub where we went ashore at their hard, and had a delightful walk around the area, including a square towered church in the middle of nowhere which dated back to the ninth century with a Saxon tower as the base for this medieval edifice. We noted another square towered church from our anchorage but did not have the opportunity to visit it. When we asked the locals why these churches were out in the middle of nowhere away from any town or settlement, we were told it was because of the plagues in the 14th to 16th centuries which killed off many of the inhabitants. Their successors built away from the towns decimated by the plagues or abandoned the towns altogether. I feel a sense of awe when I am in such ancient buildings thinking of the people and their beliefs which gave rise to such edifices and seeing the tombstones outside and inside the churches, mute testimony to the individuals and families that forged such ancient civilization. The Millard family came from the Stratford on Avon area near Birmingham from a small town called Wednesbury, whence my dad came over when he was a child. We, of course, will have to visit this area during the winter while we are at Limehouse Basin in London. We had a nice pub lunch at the Ramsholt Arms and while there heard of another ancient burial mound called the Sutton Hoo up at Woodbridge, a town at the upper reaches of the Debin, about another 5 miles up river. We dinghied up and found a couple waving at us from the shore across from Woodbridge. We went over to them and they asked if we could give them a ride across the river to town. No Problem. They had an old survey map which indicated a ferry crossing there, but was no longer in existence. They were out for a walk, following the map and got stranded over there with several miles to go if they had to walk around up to the nearest bridge. However we learned from them the way to land across from Woodbridge to walk the mile or so to get to the Sutton Hoo, which we did. The Hoo is an archeological site of an ancient burial ground of the Saxon kings of the 6th or 8th centuries, just when Christianity was being adopted in the area. There was an excavation of a Saxon ship buried with a king and many of his possessions, testimony to the ancient Saxon civilization that thrived here, as well as other burial sites in the area. It was most informative of this stage in English history with the Saxon settlements dominant in this part of England and the junction of pagan and Christian beliefs. When we finished, we went across the river to Woodbridge to visit a fascinating tidal mill. This is a well preserved, functional tidal mill that operates from a tidal basin beside the marina. In fact the area of the local marina was part of the tidal basin originally used by the mill, but was sectioned off to make the marina about ten years ago. A tidal mill is one which traps the high tide in a locked basin, and when the tide has dropped, then opens a sluice gate to allow the water to flow past a paddle wheel connected to the mill by cogs and pulleys to grind wheat into flour. It was operational only after low tide next day and so we wanted to return to see it in operation. On our way out of the mill we asked a boater from the marina how much water was over the sill entrance into the marina. Some marinas have a lock through which a boat has to pass in order to enter it and have sufficient depth at low tide. Others have a sill over which boats can enter at plus or minus a couple of hours around high tide, but at low tide cannot be negotiated, and which traps six feet or so of water inside the marina basin. There is a tide gauge at the entrance indicating how much water there is above the sill. We had never been into such a tidal marina basin before, and were interested in how it worked. The lady, Irene Bassett from the sailboat Captain Nancy invited us on board to look at their depth sounder to indicate the amount of water they had in the marina near low tide. We had a delightful visit with her and her husband Brian, talking about things nautical, including the fact that the name of their boat was named after Ruth Blackett, one of the characters in Swallows and Amazons. She (Ruth) was told that all the pirates were "ruthless" and so she adopted the name of Nancy, and called herself Captain Nancy of her small boat Amazon. Most of the sailors in this part of England have read Swallows and Amazons, and fondly associate this area with the series. Anyway, we spent more time talking with them than we had planned, and when we got back to Sprite at the town dock, she was high and dry about 100 feet or more from the water, now near low tide. There was a concrete hard ramp that I walked on, trying to pull Sprite along beside it through the mud. I slipped and fell off the hard into about 5 inches of mud! So I continued to slog along trying to tow Sprite to the open water. Brian and Irene came along, and Brian helped out, up to his ankles in mud! When we got out to the end of the hard, we were able to launch Sprite into about two feet of water. Judy and Irene stayed on shore. I hopped into Sprite and Brian tried to shove me off. He then went deeper into mud up to his knees! He initially waved me off to go around to the marina to pick up Judy, and he was going to trudge back to the dock. However, he was stuck! He couldn't move his feet out of the mud to take another step! I hollered that I would come back for him and he could get into Sprite and we would motor around to the marina. However, I had to get out the camera and take a picture of him stranded in mud up to his knees. We were all laughing at the mess we were. Sprite was able to get into the marina across the sill that traps water inside the basin, and I dropped Brian off and picked up Judy. We had to leave right away as the tide was still falling, and if we didn't get out soon, Sprite might be trapped inside the marina basin, unable to get over the sill until an hour or so after low tide. There is no lock to enter the marina. It has a sill at the entrance that traps 2 meters of water inside the basin, and when the tide drops below that level, the sill is actually above the water level of the river. As the tide comes in, the water rises over the sill by up to 3 meters. Thus a boat drawing more than 1 meter has only a narrow time window of plus or minus 3 hours around high tide. That means entry is possible for only 6 hours out of every 12 hours of the tidal cycle for most boats other than dinghies. Anyway, we got out and returned downstream the 8 or so miles to get back to Veleda. We had come up at high tide and were now going back about 2 hours before low tide. The river was wider and shallower on the return. The banks were wider and MUDDY. We are still getting used to the tide's fluctuating levels and the changes they make in the shoreline, the docking areas, and the navigation. The next day we went back at 9:00 a.m. in order to see the mill working at low tide. Thus it was near low tide by the time we got back up to Woodbridge. The day before we had left about two hours before low tide, and saw wider muddy banks and had a bit more trouble navigating through shallows. However, this time we couldn't even get up to the town dock as it was dry for a half mile or more before it. We were lucky to find one dock that came out to the bit of a stream that was left of the Deben River. Otherwise we could not have gotten into town without abandoning Sprite out on a mud flat and wading through the mud to dry land. Another sight that struck us was the disarray of the boats that were all grounded at different angles and positions, hundreds of them from dinghies and bilge keeled fishing and sail boats to large trawlers, power boats and gaff rigged barges. We took several pictures of this sight of boats in the muddy banks of the Debin. We saw the mill in operation and marvelled at the 18th century technology of a tidal mill, only to learn that tidal mills of some sort dated back over 1000 years here and other locations along rivers that empty into the sea. When working on a regular basis, the mill would be operational for about four hours after low water on each tidal cycle. Much of the economic activities in cities on tidal waters was determined by the tides, from mills such as this to ships coming or leaving the docks, the loading or off loading of them, to fishermen going on their daily trips, and the fresh catch being available to the market. Of course even we modern day sailors have to consider the tides and their resultant currents in planning most of our voyages. It is not unusual to see ships lying at anchor in the Thames estuary waiting for the tide to turn before carrying on up the river, or on the next leg of their coastal voyage. A one to three knot tidal current can make a considerable difference in time and fuel consumption on a trip, not to mention having enough water under the keel to get into or out of a port, river, or over a shoal or bank that must be negotiated. We enjoyed Woodbridge, not only for the mill, but the Hoo, and an ancient church, an interesting marina, friendly people, the tidal effects on the shoreline, an a pleasant old world ambience. Next Log |
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