Nairn

A word of caution here; the UKHO chart of the close inshore waters here was last updated between 1958 and 1976 and has an overprinted label warning that depths "may be less than charted..." and in this case you're not talking depths but drying heights!!

From the East you should remain a good mile to a mile and a half off the visible shoreline...

..... if not more; apart from anything else the gentle shelving of the bottom here can set up a swell quite far out so the further out you are the more comfortable it will be; especially if the sea is from the North or North East. When you have passed abeam the Culbin Forest the shore line changes to sand dunes which terminate in a caravan site and by the time you can see that, the light house on the end of the East pierhead will be very evident but don't make straight for it at that stage; stand on along the coast until you have the light house on your port beam and the Cromarty Firth on the starboard beam. The channel should be open by then on a bearing of about 150T, turn and run in on that bearing with the Cromarty Firth dead astern. If you look at our Google overhead link you can actually see the deeper channel on that (until they do another satellite pass over this area which is long overdue as those on display in 2012 were taken pre 2009).

From the West, coming out of Inverness, you will have come through the South Channel on the ebb which you will have had to carry all the way from the Kessock Bridge. This will call for some very careful timing as the slack before the outbound stream at Kessock starts at about the same time as HW Nairn; you will have to maintain a SOG in excess of 6kts (it's about 15 miles) to arrive at Nairn with enough water to enter. When Nairn comes into sight it's about two miles long; the harbour is at the Eastern (far) end and its light house will not become obvious until you have the west end of Nairn broad on the starboard bow. Again, stand on along the coast until you have the light house on one beam and the Cromarty Firth on the other and run in from our waypoint on about 150°T

If you are coming across from Cromarty you have a similar problem to that coming out of Inverness; the high tides at Cromarty and Nairn are almost coincident but this time there is only nine miles between them which is good but the downside is that you won't have much lift from the tidal stream.

The other thing about coming across from Cromarty is that Nairn is obvious from the moment you leave the Cromarty Firth but it stretches from the port bow to the starboard bow; the harbour is at the extreme East end of the town and don't forget that the tidal stream will be pushing you in towards Inverness; good luck with the nav!!

Once inside the channel, stay over to the East side until you reach the ladder opposite the stone retaining embankment on the West side; you should then straight line it towards the harbour entrance (which you won't be able to see but there are some huts on the South side of the entrance which will give you some idea where it is)

They are promising a dredge in the winter of 2017/8 but the passage up will still be on the East side switching to the West side at the ladder