Look closely on your chart and you may see “obstns” but the true horror is revealed by this photo from Benfleet Yacht Club’s website. Have you ever cut in between the Grain Hard Buoy and the Grain Fort, in order to cheat the outgoing tide, or to keep out of the shipping channel? Please let us know what you think or if you have had a close encounter. Afterthought: Is it just me or does it look like a fossilised grand piano?
I have raised this obstruction as something that the association should take up with the authorities: it is smack in the middle of the designated yacht track and at certain states of tide, say around 2 1/2 hours either side of low water it cannot be seen…
We have raised this with Peel Ports. Max Taylor’s reponse is that the obstruction is more than 200 metres from the Grain Hard buoy, which is the end point of the currently published recommended yacht track from the Grain Edge buoy. However I agree that the thing, whatever it is, should be removed or marked.
My wife and I are sure that we did in fact ‘find’ it by accident many years ago: sailing out we came to a stop, yet echo sounder showed sufficient water.
It was only looking back that we decided that the aft end of the boat caught the top of the obstruction (Something to do with the WW1 defence boom) and we briefly grounded – no ships around at the time, fortunately! Since, I have been very wary of the ‘middle’ water…