He vowed not to go through the Ray Sand channel again after almost getting stuck a few years ago and hearing that the channel had silted up. But to avoid going round the Spitway and getting to Pyefleet Creek after dark he chanced it. Two hours after high water there was just enough water to get through and he made it safely through, albeit with his heart in his mouth. Then we had a nice gentle sail up the Colne entrance channel and anchored just as it was getting dark. About an hour later a large barge anchored just down stream of me and based on how much chain they laid he got worried that we might come together when the tide turned. To avoid this we dropped back on the tide and re-set my anchor. In the morning the barge Reminder, who we seem to keep coming too close to, was close astern.
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We set off back home just before the tide turned and made it back through to the Ray Channel three hours after high water. Things were definitely going to be tight as we had less than 0.5m when going North through the previous day. As it turned out we had almost 1m to spare and he found the Ray Channel mark and the elusive Ray Middle fairway mark.
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He didn't see this on the way North even though we must have been within 0.5 nm of it. As it turned out the chartlet available from East Coast rivers was spot on and the channel has moved almost a mile towards the coast since my first passage through it in 2009.
Back in the Crouch we sailed back to Bridgemarsh and going through Burnham moorings we passed Lady Mary of Woodbridge.
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and Ming Ming II in all of her battle ship grey glory!
All in all a very pleasant couple of days when it was warm and sunny. A whole season without a serious grounding, what a result!
