Author Archives: Bertie Wheen

Michael Rines, Annie Leech, Stephen Lines

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with thanks for their enduring contributions to the Nancy Blackett Trust, Maritime Woodbridge, the Longshed, River Deben Association & Woodbridge Cruising Club

Micheal Rines (1933–2023)

Mike Rines restoring Nancy Blackett.

Peter Willis writes…

Mike Rines, rescuer and restorer of Nancy Blackett, has died, at the age of 89. He first discovered Arthur Ransome’s boat virtually derelict in Scarborough Harbour in the early 1980s. Initially unaware that she was the inspiration for We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, and the original of the Goblin in that book, he simply saw a boat that, as he said, ‘was too pretty to die’. He eventually persuaded her owner to part with her, and had her transported back to the River Orwell in Suffolk, where the opening of the book is set, and where he himself then lived, as it happened only a few hundred yards from where Ransome had lived when writing the book. Continue reading →

A Walk Around Martlesham Wilds, with Suffolk Wildlife Trust

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By Sally Westwood

Martlesham Wilds Bill Board.

I popped along in the car, the day before my arranged walk with Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s meeting point for the Martlesham Wilds walk, at the car park for St Mary’s Church, in Martlesham. I scanned the field to the right of the car park and spotted four Curlews, two at the edge of the field, and two more in the centre of the field. I could see a pair of Geese in the distance, in the same field but could not identify them without my binoculars. This looked promising. Curlews were in residence, feeding near Martlesham Wilds. It was farmland, a stone’s throw from the River Deben. Continue reading →

Advice for Newbies

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By Alice Thorogood

When your child starts dinghy sailing for the first time, it can be daunting to know what they need, especially if you are not a sailor. Credit: Alice Thorogood

Before my children joined the cadets I had very, very little experience of sailing. Everything was alien to me, from the sailing language, the kit they needed to what it meant to spend a day out on the water.

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The Twelve Books of Christmas

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By Julia Jones

For our last issue of the RDA Journal 2022 we offer you reading recommendations from a dozen RDA Members and Contributors to The Deben magazine. Initially we just asked for recommendations (which is why the first two are quite brief) but then we began to ask people a little more about their reading habits – what sort of books they regularly enjoyed, did they usually buy or borrow books, did they use the library? Continue reading →

Water Quality on the Deben – some current issues

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By Colin Nicholson

Introduction

At a recent River Deben Association (RDA) committee meeting, co-chair Colin Nicholson reported back from a recent visit to Anglian Water’s Wastewater Treatment Works at Martlesham Creek. The committee felt that this information was likely to be of interest to members and should be reported back. (Minutes of the meeting will also be available on the RDA website when they have been formally agreed.)  Hence this article via the RDA Journal, which does not claim to be a complete overview of the complex topic of water quality, merely a personal update on matters of current interest and actions taken to gain better information.

As organic matter trickles down over stones it is consumed by bacteria.

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GBR Cadet Sailing Team Training at Shotley Sailing Club

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By Neil Collingridge

The Cadet Sailors at the Paying It Forward event.
Adults in the photo are: Melanie More (Kestrel Liners – shipping sponsors), Julia Jones (Golden Duck – event sponsors), Lady Carla Stanley (recent Chair of GBR’s Olympic Sailing Selection Committee).
Photo credit: Kevin Ward.

The preparations for the Cadet World Team going to Australia in December have a particular interest for the River Deben as no less than seven of the thirteen boats competing are from Waldringfield Sailing Club. For the first of three specially organised training weekends they needed to test themselves in unfamiliar waters. Shotley Sailing Club offered hospitality. This is a report from a weekend that was rather special.

Thanks to Yachts and Yachting magazine for permission to republish.

All photos in this article from here onwards are thanks to Andy Stoddart.

The GBR Cadet Sailing Team gathered on the weekend of 15/16 October for the first of their three training weekends ahead of the 2022 World Championships in Australia over Christmas.

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Nancy Blackett and the River Deben

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By Peter Willis

Nancy Blackett at Woodbridge.

If his log books are to be believed, Arthur Ransome only brought Nancy Blackett into the Deben twice during his four years’ ownership of her.

He kept her on the neighbouring River Orwell, having bought (and renamed) her in 1935 when he and his wife Evgenia moved to the East Coast, from the Lake District, to enjoy the area’s great potential for scenic inshore and offshore sailing. They rented a house, Broke Farm, in Levington, on the Orwell side of the peninsula between the two rivers, and it was to Pin Mill that he brought the south-coast-built 28ft cutter. When he fancied a sail, though, it was usually to the south, and the convenient and attractive Walton Backwaters that he inevitably turned. Continue reading →

News from the Noughties, Part II

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by Bertie Wheen

This is the second part of the second post in a series (in which I’ve been sharing a few of the things I’ve been finding while I’ve been going through our magazine archives). The first post was Once Upon a Time… (which covered the 1990s), and the first part of this post was News from the Noughties, Part I (which included roughly the first half of the 2000s). I’d recommend reading those before this (which, unsurprisingly, will feature the rest of the 2000s), but much more than reading any of these, I’d like to recommend going directly to the source, and having a leaf through some of the old editions (available on our magazine page).

This is what the RDA Newsletter cover looked like between 2004-2010. The font choice is a bit questionable, but I’m a fan of the drawing – though I’m not honestly sure which stretch of the Deben it is… looking upriver from the Rocks, or perhaps the Tips? [I have since been informed that it is likely looking downriver from Kyson, and I not only agree, but feel a bit stupid as that is probably the bit of river I know best…] Anyway, I do know that it was drawn by Ron Wragg, thanks to Nick Wright’s inaugural editorial in Spring 2004 (#28, the last issue mentioned in the previous part of this post):

“I would like to make a special mention of Ron Wragg who has donated the art-work which decorates the cover and punctuates this Newsletter. I hope that contributors will forgive me for occasionally replacing their excellent photographs (which do not reproduce well) with his sketches, some of which are based upon them. This represents a lot of work for Ron. I appreciate it very much.”
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The Curlew

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by Sally Westwood

Curlew (Numenius arquata)

The tide was ebbing, almost at low tide, it was about an hour before sunset. The Deben was embellished with a clear, magical light that appears just before sunset and sunrise. Such a light produces enhanced clarity of detail in everything visible to the eye. Two Curlews1 landed on the mudflat, one each side of a gully of water draining into the shallow channel of the river.  Curlews are the largest waders in the UK, with a streaked and barred plumage, long legs and a distinctive down curved bill2, see image above. In flight, it shows a white section on the rump. The Whimbrel3 by comparison, is a similar bird to the Curlew, except it has a shorter, thicker bill, with a narrow stripe on the crown and is smaller than the Curlew, see image below. In flight, it shows a white section on the tail and back. I was alerted to the Curlew’s presence from their distinctive “Curlew, Curlew’’ calls made when they were flying. It is a call I regard as haunting in the cold, overcast days of winter. They also have a trembling, evocative bubbling call, that ends with what may be described as “dude” which carries some distance. One Curlew joined the other, on the other side of the gully. They immediately started squabbling, poking their long slender, down curved bills at each other, raising their wings slightly. Moments later, the set too ended when one returned to the other side of the gully and started searching for food, poking its bill, deep into the mud. The other Curlew started bathing and shaking out feathers, as in the image above. They may have been a pair, or an adult and youngster, however, research on Curlews has indicated that the latter relationship may be unlikely4. Since Curlews in England and Wales are in decline and such decline is driven by factors occurring during the annual breeding season.
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