THE WALTON BACKWATERS don’t serve any substantial towns or attract any commercial traffic or really go anywhere much at all. That is their considerable charm.
They lie behind the small town of Walton-on-the-Naze and a little to the south of the busy entrance to Felixstowe Docks and the ferry services of Harwich, within the same large bay. To reach them from the south keep about a mile offshore as you approach Walton and when due east of the Naze Tower head in along the Medusa Channel on a bearing of about 350º towards the Harwich side of the entrance to the Orwell. Pennyhole Bay to your left is seriously shoal so make sure you do not drift too far off your course to the west. When you are about a mile south of Landguard Point which marks the northern side of the entrance to the Orwell, you should be able to see the small red and white Pye End buoy somewhere on your port side, but it’s notoriously difficult to spot.
Having at last found it, you head in across the sand on a course of about 235º in the direction of the port hand buoy WFYC No.2 and subsequent starboard ones. Depending on your draft you will probably need at least half tide to accomplish this safely.
A mile or so further on you reach the north cardinal Island Point buoy and the parting of the ways. Taking the left hand fork, wend your way up the Walton Channel past the sandy end of Stone Point and the yacht moorings until you reach the right hand bend of Twizzle Creek bringing you to Titchmarsh Marina. Titchmarsh offers perfect shelter and if the view is a little circumscribed at LW by the excavated sides of the marina basin that is fully compensated by the admirable facilities including a bar and restaurant with a proper regard for a sailor’s appetite.
From Twizzle Creek it is also possible at HW to turn south up Foundry Reach to the Walton & Frinton Yacht Club (WFYC), sundry moorings and the Town Quay. But for most visitors, especially deeper draft boats, Titchmarsh will be a more practical proposition. WFYC, by the way, maintains the local buoyage, for which they deserve credit.
The main alternative is, rather than turning left at Island Point, to head straight on into Hamford Water (aka Arthur Ransome’s “Secret Water” in the children’s book of the same name). This is a lovely quiet stretch of water, still as remote and ripe for exploration in the dinghy as in Ransome’s day. There are absolutely no facilities except fresh air.
© 2008 Yachtpilot
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