Conditions to Avoid

A rising tide is usually preferable in the Thames Estuary, and strangers should avoid making passages below half-tide, unless keeping to the main deep-water channels.

It is best not to cross when visibility is very poor, even if you are using GPS, Decca or radar: you run the risk of mistaking buoys or beacons on radar only, and the difference between passing just the right side and the wrong side can be crucial. However, there is no problem with summer haze or patchy mist in quiet weather when navigating on instruments.

Avoid rough weather unless you know the Thames Estuary well. There is danger all around, and the seas can be steep and malevolent over shoals. If you touch bottom, the situation will be serious in a swell but perhaps only inconvenient in calm conditions.

Strong easterlies or north-easterlies bring the nastiest seas into the Thames Estuary. Fresh north-westerlies are unpleasant for a crossing from North Foreland towards the Crouch, the Blackwater or Harwich.

July, 1997