Just before woodbridge lays Martlesham creek, it is home to a hundred or so boats and a few live-a-board barges.
Here is a dinghy drift around the place.
Looks to be a lot of sad and neglected boats mixed in with the the living ones.
That big pilothouse ketch looks interesting. Whether it’s on it’s way up — or down — is hard to tell. She looks like she’s partially aground, or docked in really shallow water.
Sadly I’ve seen similar on the Medway and Kentish Stour where dreams have turned into nightmares.
Can glass fibre be recycled?
It can be, but it won’t necessarily be. I looked into this before I bought my elderly Pageant as I wanted to know what I was letting myself in for if the boat was unsaleable by the time I had to get rid of it. Boatbreakers of Portsmouth will take it away and cut it up for about £1000 (probably more if you’re further away). Currently it goes to landfill, but it sounds as though there are other options including recycling which they’re looking into. Details here – http://www.boatbreakers.com/end-life-fibreglass-boat-recycled/
Having moved from a drying creek to an all tide mooring on the Twizzle – been there a couple of years now. On the plus side I can come and go when I want. On the negative side, it costs more and I now feel out of touch with the movements of nature. My whole life was dictated by the tides. I used to refer to the tide clock in my hallway to see if I had time to get away – never look at it now. All I do is plan a passage when going on a longer haul trip or just pop out at any time to hang around the Walton Backwaters – it’s a hard life…
One of our favourite places. We sailed our little Westerly Warwick bilge keeler there this summer, and based ourselves there for a couple of months. Reminds us of the north Norfolk creeks, with the same bird life etc.. Martlesham Boatyard is a really friendly helpful family set up. A weeks mooring is half of what a night’s mooring costs at Woodbridge Tidemill. There’s a basic but clean toilet shower block. Plenty of water hoses and leccy points. It is in a great location for bird-spotting walks to Waldringfield and Woodbridge. I think it’s cheap because it practically dries right out at low water and the (buoyed) access gutway is narrow & a bit tortuous. You have to plan trips away carefully to have enough water to depart and arrive.
Incidentally, the catamarans are no longer there. The sad looking Pandoras remain. The owner said they were both abandoned and one sank. They raised it and put both on a buoy, where they remain. There’s a few other abandoned and neglected boats, the boatyard says the owners have died. The boatyard seem in no great hurry to have them removed. Quite a few liveaboards in converted barges and narrow boats. And at low tide the place is crawling with redshank, oystercatchers, little egrets and herons etc. picking through the mud.