East Coast Rivers Cruising Companion A yachtsman's pilot and cruising guide to the waters from Lowestoft to Ramsgate 20e

Well established as ‘the East Coast yachtsman’s bible’, this 20th edition of Jan Harber’s classic cruising companion marks the book’s 60th anniversary. Dating back to 1956 when Jack Coote, Jan’s father, produced the first black and white edition, East Coast Rivers, now extending from Lowestoft to Ramsgate, continues to cover the rivers, curlew-haunted creeks and intricate shoals and swatchways of the Thames Estuary and surrounding rivers. Comprehensive pilotage and nautical information based on years of local knowledge is complemented by port information and local maritime history, helping cruising sailors to make the most of their visit to the East Coast. The text is illustrated throughout with updated charts and photographs, including spectacular aerial shots of a number of the rivers and entrances that make up this cherished cruising ground. Not only a pilot guide, this is the memoir of a family’s history; exploring, capturing and celebrating this extraordinary sailing area.

Table of Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: Lowestoft

CHAPTER TWO: Southwold

CHAPTER THREE: Orford River

CHAPTER FOUR: The River Alde

CHAPTER FIVE: The River Deben

CHAPTER SIX: Harwich Harbour

CHAPTER SEVEN: The River Orwell

CHAPTER EIGHT: The River Stour

CHAPTER NINE: Walton Backwaters

CHAPTER TEN: The River Colne

CHAPTER ELEVEN: The River Blackwater

CHAPTER TWELVE: The River Crouch

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The River Roach and Havengore

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: The River Thames

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Medway

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: The Swale

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Cross Estuary Routes

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Ramsgate

CHAPTER NINETEEN: Sixty Years of East Coast Rivers

TIDAL CONSTANTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Janet Harber went afloat from a very young age, starting on her father’s cruising boats. In the 1950s her father, Jack Coote, wrote a series of articles on various East Coast rivers for Yachting Monthly magazine, which were soon published in book form – in the first edition of this cruising companion. During this time Janet and her sister Judy spent their childhood weekends and summer holidays exploring the rivers and creeks of the Thames Estuary in the family boat Iwunda, helping with the research for East Coast Rivers. As a teenager she sailed with Ocean Youth Club, and, after training as a photographer, lived and worked in London where she raced Merlin Rockets on the Thames at Ranelagh Sailing Club in Putney. While working at Yachts & Yachting magazine Janet kept her family’s Hunter Europa, followed by a lifting-keel Hunter 701 at Paglesham on the River Roach, and cruised the East Coast rivers in the summer holidays. She also crewed on Sonatas and Impalas and raced at Burnham and on The Solent. Janet shared a Twister and later a Dragon with her father, and in recent years she and her husband sailed a lifting-keel Fox Terrier on the River Ore. Nowadays Janet sails on her sister’s lifting-keel Parker 325 based on the Deben and Orwell rivers.