The Deben River is a tidal estuary some ten miles in length along its serpentine course. The fairway weaves from side to side between mudflats and currents run at up to five knots near the mouth. However, with caution there is much to be enjoyed here for even an inexperienced skipper, while there are challenges even for the most experienced. As my mother lives in Old Felixstowe barely a mile from Felixstowe Ferry, I usually launch at the ferry, which offers a rather uneven but otherwise very satisfactory hard usable at all states of the tide. There is parking available close by. Alternatives are Bawdsey on the opposite side of the river, Waldringfield and, if you don’t mind a wetting, launching into the sea at ‘The Dip’. The main problem here being the manoeuvring of the trailer on the sand/shingle.

Assuming you are approaching from the sea, the first mark is the red/white Haven buoy. The bar extends well out to sea and moves from day to day. My chart shows 5 metres of water at the Haven buoy — I’m afraid that I don’t believe it! At low water there is about 0.5 metre of water over the bar and with the currents it gets very choppy and unpleasant. If you have a choice cross the bar at half-tide on a rising tide. I have seen dinghies sailing up against the current, but usually making heavy weather of it: I have also seen powered boats making very little progress even out of the main current. * (see note at end)

Once over the bar, marked by a green conical bar buoy, on a rising tide, look for the leading marks on the sea wall, the upper all red, the lower white triangle on red. Lining these up will keep you off the shingle banks! Once the lower reach of the river opens up there are few problems getting to the ferry with its sailing club — ‘all visiting yachtsmen welcome’ — boatyard, chandler, excellent cafe and well-maintained public toilet. The hard and adjacent shingle are out of the main current, though congestion at peak times with motorboats launching or recovering and the dense moorings are intimidating to the inexperienced. At high water the river just above the ferry is almost a mile wide — but beware! Most of it is shallow water barely covering mudflats which are rapidly revealed as the tide falls. Even in the main river there is a bank called, with a startling lack of imagination, Horse Sand. ‘Horse’ being a common term for a sand or shingle bank or island in the middle of a river.

It is quite possible to pilot a boat either side of the Horse Sand, the main channel being to starboard, that is, on the Bawdsey side. Anyone landing at Bawdsey, by the way, look out for weed covered rocks by the hard and beware of the current. Anchoring is permitted on the Bawdsey side, according to the chart! Piloting through the moorings on the ferry side is not difficult as the current is much less fierce. If taking the main channel, look out for the Horse buoy, red, with its name on it. It is right on the edge of the starboard side mudflats, with another short bank a short distance to port. The channel is wider on the port side of the river, but not well defined. From the Horse buoy the channel heads NW, keeping to the port side as far as Green Point. The Deben is the only Suffolk estuary not designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, but none the less, if you like birdies it is well worth taking a pair of binoculars.

Rounding Green Point you enter Green Reach, which heads due north. The channel keeps to the port side. Ahead can be seen the moorings by Ramsholt. Here there is a quay, a hard and a pub, which I am told is well worth a visit. Just below Ramsholt the river curves to port in a wide turn, the channel still to port until Kirton Creek on the port side. The curve from Kirton Creek, rounding Prettymans Point to starboard, is called Hemley Bay and is an anchorage. It is not unusual to see one of the grand spritsail barges here. The channel curves sharply to starboard, more than 90 degrees and much closer to the starboard bank. There is a beach below a low cliff to starboard, a splendid place for a picnic, or the start of a pleasant walk of perhaps half a mile to the Ramsholt Arms — listening the while for nightingales! It is at The Rocks that you’ll see the first channel marking buoys since the Horse — port-side buoys 2 and 2a. Not only is the acute change of heading almost guaranteed to need a beat one way or another, it is also usually in the lee of the cliff, with fluky variable light winds that always seem to be ‘on the nose’.

The channel curves to port, hugging the starboard bank until it suddenly heads towards Waldringfield on the port bank. The change is well marked by port side buoy 6 and starboard side buoy 1. There are dense moorings above and below Waldringfield. Here is almost everything you could want — boatyard, pub, shop, sailing club. There is a firm mud foreshore and a hard suitable for dinghy launching. Parking space is limited, but for cruising dinghies there is usually space to land. Except at low water it is possible to sail up the starboard side of the river, opposite Waldringfield, passing Stonner Point and rejoining the channel by the cliffs know as The Tips.

Here and slightly further on at The Hams are good places for a picnic providing it’s high water and you look out for underwater obstructions. Also opposite The Hams is starboard side Buoy 5 which marks an almost straight bit of channel nearly a mile long past Methersgate Quay to Martlesham Creek. Here the channel wriggles about, the buoyage is good but it is very tempting to head straight for Woodbridge through Loders Cut which is much more direct. However Loders Cut is dry at low water. Starboard side buoy 13 marks the end of a guaranteed channel but at high water it is relatively easy to get right up to the yacht harbour and the tide mill. There are numerous jetties, usually marked ‘private’. Be careful where you land. I gouged a lump out of my poor boat because what I thought was mud was very rough concrete painted with bitumen. However a few yards further on I found some shingle to beach on.

Woodbridge offers all that the heart could desire — except water at all states of the tide! Boatyard, chandlers, playground for the children, and a very attractive and friendly town. The Tide Mill, I believe the only preserved tide mill remaining in the UK, is very well worth visiting, and there is a very good cafe in the old station building.

And that is the Deben, end to end! I feel presumptuous in attempting to introduce it as there must be many much better qualified Deben pilots than I: but I hope this has wetted your appetite to try this fascinating Suffolk Sailing Experience!

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It is with Ted Hunt’s permission that I add this note, as it would be a gross sin of omission if I did not enlarge on the navigation of the bar, which can be very dangerous.

Trinity House normally place the Haven Buoy on the 5 metre underwater contour line from where you can survey the situation and decide whether it is safe to continue; this is not supposed to mark the bar. The green bar buoy is intended to be left to starboard as you pass inwards over the bar. The main problem with the fast ebb current is not its velocity particularly but the wind against tide effect, which can kick up a very steep hazardous sea. You thus need adequate water and a flood tide except in settled weather. As Ted rightly says, from two hours after low water is best. I have found that due to the changes that can occur so quickly, the leading marks do not always show the best water. It is as well to keep an eye open for shallow spots on the approach. Peter Bick