| In September, on a day chosen for suitable
tides and weather, I will row around Scolt Head Island on the North Norfolk Coast, a
voyage of 10 to 12 miles, in a small boat. It will be a sponsored event, to raise
money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Careful thought has been given to safety, and a friend in a powered boat will be in attendance. I have enough experience of rowing in coastal waters to give me the necessary confidence to tackle this project.
Would you like to sponsor me?
—— Please see below. |
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| The plan is to choose a day when
high tide is around late morning——not a very big tide, in order to avoid very
strong currents in the creeks——and start at about three hours before high water,
from a point just outside the entrance to Brancaster Harbour and a little way to the east
on the seaward side of the island. The dates favoured are those at the end of the
September, from the 26th onwards; however bad weather in that period could—at
worst—delay the date, taking us into October. At the chosen start time an eastward flow is already starting, which will aid progress to the eastern end of the island, possibly within two hours of starting. From there the course turns south to enter Overy harbour, “over the bar”; that is, over a submerged area of higher ground on which the waves break, often with considerable energy. That entry over the bar is trickiest part of the voyage. My task is to look for comparatively still water there. Once in Overy harbour, the course turns west into Norton Creek, and here is the most strenuous part of the voyage, because there is always an eastward flow in that first stretch of Norton Creek. It sometimes seems here that only a few inches’ progress is made with each stroke of the oars. (In the other creek, Trowland, the counterflow is worse and the course rather longer.) Eventually the eastward flow diminishes and then ceases, and a stretch of slack water leads to the point where a favourable westward flow starts to run along the rest of Norton Creek into Brancaster Harbour. From there it will be fairly easy to row out through the harbour entrance and back to the starting-point. It is hoped that the voyage will be completed in no more than six or seven hours. |
