Re: Pin Mill and Hamford Water


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Posted by Ian Wright on December 08, 2002 at 19:14:53 from 62.253.32.7 user Ian_Wright.

In Reply to: Pin Mill and Hamford Water posted by Tom Grimes on December 08, 2002 at 04:29:05:

Pin Mill looks just the same as it did in AR’s time, boats and barges still come and go, though the barge repair yard no longer operates I’m told. The Butt and Oyster Pub is pretty much as it was as is the outside of Alma Cottage, Bed and breakfast now, so you might have to order your Pea soup and Omelette in advance. 
On the water there are many more moorings but the river banks are just the same, though no doubt the trees have grown a little.
Down stream a huge container port at Felixstowe has grown up around the old Felixstowe dock . Cmdr Walker would still recognise HMS Ganges, mast and all, though it is now a Police training barracks. The old athletic track under the water tower is now Shotley Marina. The Pier at Shotley is there but run down, ice cream from a van these days, but you can ‘phone Mother from the pub.
There are a few buoyage changes but from the water Parkstone, Harwich and Dovercourt still look much as they always have.
The route from Harwich Harbour round to Hamford (Secret) Water has grown a few more buoys but the track is the same. Amazon Creek has changed little except that it is now full of moorings once you get past Flint Island (a popular picnic anchorage) and continues still up a tidal creek to the Walton and Frinton YC Club house.
If we give Amazon Creek a miss and turn North into Hamford (Secret) water little has changed. NO MOORINGS (Hooray!, just oyster beds in Kirby (Goblin) Creek and if you wish to visit by dinghy Witches Quay is still there.
The Red Sea and the Wade are as they have been though the posts are gone. There is a new Marina on the Marshes to the south just before we complete our circumnavigation at the south end of Amazon creek.
If you visit by boat anchor in about four fathom in Secret Water on a quiet mid-week evening and it could be 1930 again. You may even see George the seal or one of his younger relatives.

The passage to Flushing is likewise just the same. More and slightly different buoys of course, and best not to drift North East over the steamer track with the ebb tide. Today we normally go south, not north of the Cork sand before settling down to (we hope) a comfortable passage over to Holland. The Westkappele Light still stands like a pencil marking the coat of Holland. The Pilot Steamer is long gone, and the old Deurloo buoy and channel were removed two years ago. The fishing haven is still there, a marina now, and close by the little dock from where today’s pilot boats work.
Round the pier head and into the harbour, no packet steamer to England now, time to round up and hand sails or pick up a buoy to wait for the lock into the inner harbour. Through another lock into the Middleburg Canal.
Enough, I think this post is a little long, are there any questions? 



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