English Welsh Grounds Safe Water Buoy

This is English Welsh Grounds Clear Water Buoy. It is a reporting point for large vessels approaching or departing Avonmouth docks. Vessels will report her as they enter or exit the channel, off Cliveden, and the King Road off Portishead. Vessels do this on Marine Radio Channel 12.Unless you have a boat you will not be able to visit the area where the buoy is. Even if you have a boat, do not attempt to get close to it. It moves quickly with the tides and has a tether to the seabed which can foul a boat. However, it is a place of great importance to navigators of the Severn Estuary. Some of its history will follow in later posts.Look out for a few more navigation buoys along the Severn and Bristol Channel. I am thinking of about six locations, visible from the shore that will be of interest to casual observers from the shore.These buoys are our friends and we make day and night passages using them. For example, Cardiff to Portishead would be: Cardiff North > English Welsh Grounds > Welsh Hook > Firefly. We could use bearings and directions but we like to visit old friends and say hello. They say that some machines have a soul. To us these buoys prove it.You will notice from the photos that what is now a buoy used to be a lightship. This lightship has a very interesting history and slightly sad present. In 1944 the ship acted as marker for the D Day landings off Juno beach in Normandy. There is more detailed information in the links below. However, Lightship 72 found its way to English Welsh Ground in 1953 where it stayed until 1977.An interesting piece of history that isn't noted in the links is the account of Penarth local sailor Roger Hall. Roger remembers going out to the Lightship in the 60's on a launch to deliver a Christmas hamper to the crew of the ship. The age of crewed markers, lighthouses and lightships is now completely over. The advent of LED bulbs and solar PV panels and batteries allow the markers to be autonomous and only need to be periodically maintained by THV Patricia.Lightship 72 still exists. It is mooring in the River Neath at a metal recycling yard. There is interest in restoring her, but no time soon. The recycler company should be thanked for not scrapping her. They are doing a Di Woodham" in Neath. Dont try to get close to the ship mooring. The area quayside is private and dangerous to approach. Certainly don't try without permission. A photo has been uploaded from one of the links to the ships history."