PILOTAGE UP THE RIVER TO BARNSTAPLE

An expedition upriver to Barnstaple, on the estuary of the rivers Taw and Torridge, crosses drying banks and a dangerous harbour bar. Ken Endean updates the pilotage information on the formerly busy port

- Ken Endean

Back in early 2022, Mary and I stood on Barnstaple Quay and admired its row of smart ladders, timber fender posts and rings for mooring warps. But something was missing: there were no boats, and locals confirmed that visiting yachts were very rare. We had come by road, for a recce, and were determined to re-visit by water, although charts and pilot books were highly discouraging.

An expedition to Barnstaple, on the estuary of the rivers Taw and Torridge, is hard work – a passage to a notorious lee shore, across a dangerous harbour bar, up a tricky river, over drying banks and finally under a not-very-high bridge. Despite the natural obstacles, the town served as a busy port for more than a thousand years, largely because the southern shore of the Bristol Channel has no harbours with all-tide, all-weather access. Estuary silting restricted commercial shipping and, in 2007, a bypass bridge created a new obstacle, downstream of the town.

THE LEE SHORE

The north coast of Cornwall and Devon (Diagram 1 and 2) faces Atlantic weather, with all harbour entrances dry or very shallow at low water. Outside the Taw-Torridge estuary, Bideford Bay can become a nasty trap in strong winds from the NW, and a prudent skipper won’t close the coast unless confident the entrance is passable. In July 2022 we sailed into the Bristol Channel, rounded Hartland Point, and were lucky to arrive in the bay with a light breeze and a placid sea, so we could heave to near the Fairway buoy until we judged that it was time to go in.