A First Southwold Outing

PeteG · 04 September 2018, 22:34

Had our first outing to Southwold on Sunday so here’s how we found it. Apologies if it’s been covered elsewhere.

We’d decided to launch from the slipway near to the Harbour Masters Office after seeing it mentioned on here somewhere. The weather forecast was good so we arrived pre-9am to beat the rush for a car parking space.

After a drive of over 100 miles, and expecting to be out for quite a few hours we decided to have breakfast at the Harbour Cafe first. The cafe is about 100yds past the office and opened early. Full English was quite pricey at around £8-£9 each, tea/coffee extra too but it was pretty good and arrived quickly. The cafe is clean, toilets good and very dog friendly. They serve outside too which was popular on such a nice morning.

Next to the cafe is Harbour Marine Services and a well stocked chandlery which opened at 10am.

The Harbour Master and assistant were very welcoming and the office has good facilities ( toilets, showers, flushing hose available etc.) There was also lots of local information, tides, general rules do’s & don’t etc on the noticeboards. We parked right next to the slipway and paid £8.70 for all day which I thought was very reasonable for use of facilities, water, waste disposal, slipway and secure parking covered by CCTV etc.

It was the first try out of the new Decathlon Itiwit 12v pump and after one or two silly mistakes by me (e.g. leaving the valves pushed in and open) I was really quite impressed with it. It rattles and jumps around a bit and doesn’t stay on it’s little sucker feet which was annoying so I can see me making some sort of mini ‘crate’ to house it in, but apart from that, a very definite improvement on the bellows style foot pump, for just £40. The most surprising and quite shocking part of the whole inflation process was just how under-inflated we’ve been using the Honwave when pumping up by foot. The pump inflates to pre-input pressures pretty quickly, and it stops automatically.

As you can see from the photo’s, the slipway was covered in VERY slippy mud but we floated/pulled the boat to the end of the pontoon on the right using the bow rope and boarded via the ladder which meant at least one of us missed the mud altogether. The picture was taken about one hour after low tide.

I was busy admiring boats of all shapes and sizes on the way out of the harbour but fortunately after just 100yds or so, I noticed a complete lack of water coming out of the motors back end. It was pumping OK when we started up and set off so we pulled up, switched off and tilted up. The intake holes were clear so I poked a thin wire which I’ve taken to bringing along for such occasions into the tell tale hole and wiggled it round a bit. Restarted, and with water pumping strongly again, headed out to sea.

It was surprisingly choppy given the weather (warm sun, blue sky & very little breeze) The Honwave felt much more rigid than normal and was bouncing around quite a lot. No doubt having it at the correct pressure for a change contributed to this, but it felt much better than previous outings. Our little 6hp also seemed to push it along a little better too.

So we bobbed about for a couple of hours, headed North up to and beyond the pier and back in the other direction towards Dunwich. Tried a bit of fishing without success, got a little bit seasick looking down trying to tie some rigs on while bobbing up and down too much, and then headed back towards the harbour by mid-afternoon. We went past the slipway and up the River Blyth for a while but beyond the bridge there’s nothing much to see so we turned round and called it a day. The tide was in and the slipway was less ‘slippy’ but some of the mud was still exposed so pulling out and staying upright was quite difficult.

We deflated, packed up quickly and headed off to the nearby Harbour Inn. They serve very good looking food all day on Sundays until 7pm, and being an Adnams house, have a very good range of ales too.

All in all it was a good outing to see what the set-up at Southwold harbour was all about. Easy parking, easy set-up, launching, retrieving and packing up, good food/drink available and of course the town is well worth a browse around too if you have the time.

We’d have stayed out longer and explored up/down the coast further if we’d had a bigger engine (which is something I’ve resolved just this afternoon) so I’m hoping the Autumn weather is kind so we can go there again very soon.

Orwell boy · 04 September 2018, 23:14

Did you notice if your slipway price was for all sizes /hp s or did it rise dramatically for larger crafts/HP ,s ?
nice little write up thankyou ,have you considered orford ?

Fenlander · 04 September 2018, 23:25

Great report and pics Pete. Funny that we had both done about 100mls to get to the coast on Sunday from a very similar start point... but ended up 30mls apart.

Yes the Southwold mud on that slip... it's a hazard. In fact it's a hazard of much of the east coast within our easy reach. There are many east Anglia coastal rivers I've enjoyed in the past on liveaboards but avoid for sibbing as it can all get messy.

Good the wind was low on Sunday as that Southwold entrance can be very challenging with shallows, rough waves at the entrance and fast tidal flow being troublesome on the ebb.

Very much look forward to hearing how you get on with the new larger engine!

PeteG · 05 September 2018, 16:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orwell boy

Did you notice if your slipway price was for all sizes /hp s or did it rise dramatically for larger crafts/HP ,s ?
nice little write up thankyou ,have you considered orford ?

I didn't notice any sliding scale for slipway prices. On arrival, the first person we spoke to was the Assistant Harbour Master and when I said we'd like to pay for use of the slipway he actually said that the public slipway was free,... but the £8.70 charge was for car parking. So we paid that and made use of everything else available we needed to.
I hadn't considered or even heard of Orford, but having had a look at maps and images it's definitely going on the list of places to try. The Streetview image of the slipway and adjacent hard at the end of Quay Street looks much better than Southwold, so thanks v. much for that tip. Anything a novice like me needs to be particularly aware of?

Fenlander · 05 September 2018, 17:25

Check out the current launch/Orford Quay rates as I looked into it a few years back and they were quite pricey for OBs over 8 or 10HP.

What to look out for... the entrance in the wrong combination of wind strength/direction and tidal flow... fast ebb... shifting shallows and breaking waves on those shallows.

PeteG · 05 September 2018, 17:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fenlander

What to look out for... the entrance in the wrong combination of wind strength/direction and tidal flow... fast ebb... shifting shallows and breaking waves on those shallows.

Mmm....Good info, thanks. That's dampened my spirits a bit. Maybe I'll wait until I've got a few more hours under me belt!

Fenlander · 05 September 2018, 17:55

It's a right mess if the weather kicks up when you're out particularly if it starts to ebb.

See this video of the entrance at low water...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hE25XVmCNI

Fenlander · 05 September 2018, 18:06

And this chart... http://www.eastcoastpilot.com/OreChartlet2018v1.pdf

PeteG · 05 September 2018, 19:55

Thanks David. I think the video & chart confirm it's maybe a little bit too soon for me to play out around there, and think I'll stick to somewhere a bit less 'challenging' for now.

Orwell boy · 05 September 2018, 20:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeteG

Thanks David. I think the video & chart confirm it's maybe a little bit too soon for me to play out around there, and think I'll stick to somewhere a bit less 'challenging' for now.

Worth noting you can spend a day exploring the estuary in and around orford , there is plenty to see as it is truly area of special interest ,i have seen harrier and other interesting birds ,then all living in harmony are the pergolas which is were nuclear testing took place along with the aeriels which were part of the invention of radar took place at Bawdsey just a couple of miles down the coast .nb i am useless at accurate history before someone corrects me ,but all is in the flavour of having a look .. dont forget the orfordness lighthouse now decomissioned but you can land from the river and walk across the shingle spit to the lighthouse ,and if the new owner of that and the bbc world service building is there he wont take alot of persueding to show you around