A week or so ago we heard that a yacht had been aground near Weir buoy in the entrance to the River Ore. After a passing fishing boat had failed to pull her off, the Harwich Lifeboat came out and managed to tow her into deeper water. A few days later some friends of ours left the river and found that there was not as much water as they would have expected at around half tide in the vicinity of the Weir buoy.

In addition to Charles and Camilla who visited Snape Maltings today, some other notable visitors, namely the Butley Creek Men, arrived earlier this summer in time for the Aldeburgh Festival.
These three giant bronze statues, created by the internationally renowned sculptor Laurence Edwards, can be seen on a raft rising and falling with the tide in the reed beds not far from the Maltings concert hall.

You've read the book, now see the play...
Quite how Arthur Ransome's classic Swallows and Amazons adventure is to be adapted for the stage is not clear, but we will find out when the Eastern Angles production of We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea opens at the Marquee Theatre on Orwell Quay, Ipswich on July 3rd.

Here we are at the beginning of the sailing season and as ever East Coast cruising sailors will be wondering whether those two tricky entrances, The Deben and The Ore have changed much over the winter.
Until a few years ago we relied on the Alde and Ore Association and Aldeburgh YC to produce their annual Guidelines and plan of the Ore entrance based on surveys done by John Pryor. For the Deben entrance we waited for the Small Craft Deliveries sketch plan (based on soundings done by John White and local fishermen at Felixstowe Ferry) to become available at chandleries and yacht clubs.

Having delivered the text and new photos to the publishers for the forthcoming new edition of Wiley Nautical's Cruising Companion East Coast Rivers, I heaved a sigh of relief and thought to myself that now I could turn my attention to lending a hand with fitting out. After all Easter is the time to begin the traditional tasks of uncovering the boat, wondering if there is any antifouling left from last year, and where did we put that expensive tin of boot topping...

After a pleasant lunch at the Last Anchor recently (researching for the forthcoming new edition of the Wiley Nautical Cruising Companion East Coast Rivers) we took a stroll around the Ipswich Yacht Haven Marina where our eyes were soon drawn to a dilapidated but beautiful looking yacht laid up in the yard. She looked as if she had seen better days and her name, Marabu, seemed familiar, so when we got home we looked her up in an old edition of Lloyds Register of Yachts.

What a pleasant surprise to see the East Coast smack Boadicea on display at the ExCel boat show amid a sea of white plastic boats. Re-built and refurbished several times since she originally took to the water in 1808, CK 213 is a familiar sight on the River Blackwater and around her home port of West Mersea. She has strong links with East Coast Rivers and features on the front cover of the current edition.

Three hours before predicted HW at Snape Bridge on Friday November 9th, the level of the river Alde was described by my daughter (crossing the bridge on her way to work) as already worryingly near the top of the Maltings quayside.