I went out for a day sail on the Deben with my friend and housemate on Sunday. It was a pleasant and relaxing day with gentle north east winds. A good job too as we were both a little, er, tired from a party the night before. High tides were at 06:00 and 18:30, so we rode the tide out into the sea and then back home.
The sea was smooth and the winds light, so I tried my Hebridean with the unbalanced pendulum in the light wind conditions. It worked fine, as long as there was enough wind to fill the sail. I’m still surprised.
We passed Tide Mill Yacht Harbour at about 17:30 and deliberately grounded about 6m from the dock that Steve Crowther has generously lent me just to the north. While we were tidying up the boat I gradually paddled her closer and eventually retrieved the mooring lines with the boat hook. We then pulled her in tighter to the shore as the tide rose, in order to get an accurate time when we could bring her alongside the dock.
The answer was 18:26, almost bang on the day’s high tide of 3.5m. This tallies with my earlier estimate that the mud there is 2.8m above chart datum, adding Tammy Norie’s 0.6m draft gives 3.4m. I suspect her draft is a bit over 0.6m with two people on board.
This means that Tammy is unlikely to get off the dock on days when the high tide is less than 3.5m at Woodbridge. For example this Thursday 2015-09-08 the high tide is just 3.28m. Plenty of water at the weekend though!
Careful calculations, planning, execution, and shenanigans with the mud are all part of the fun.
Tammy Norie 