Dear Joan,

ARNSIDE

I see that Arnside features in the DCA/UKWA Launch Site Guide as NWC-13. I am sorry to say that the best advice I can give is ‘Don’t!’ Although I live in Arnside, I never sail here. As the guide acknowledges, the tides run very strongly in the estuary of the River Kent, the maximum flow being about 6 knots at springs. At low tide the channel is narrow and very shallow, giving little opportunity for lowering the centreboard. Members of the local sailing-club have to be content with sailing within one hour of high water.

The channel is easy to find near the village because it follows the south’eastern shore, but further downstream it meanders. It is not buoyed because it changes at every tide. For the same reason, charts and maps are unreliable. When you succeed in finding your way out into Morecambe Bay, you will encounter similar shifting sandbanks, on which it would be easy to be stranded by a falling tide, because the water disappears very quickly. If the wind were to rise before you floated on the next flood, you could be in a dangerously exposed position.

Free roadside parking is available along the southern extension of the promenade, close to the slipway, but it is often fully occupied. Arnside is popular with daily visitors, who walk in large numbers across the sands of the estuary to Grange-over-Sands. Their cars and coaches are a well known local nuisance. For me, the journey of 25 miles to Windermere is time well spent. If people are allergic to fresh water, I suggest that they should try Roa island (NWC-02). The views are not so good, but the sailing is better. BS