First Leg - navigational coda

For those interested in the Thames Estuary navigation.  It was a lovely day, almost no wind, calm sea ... so why didn't we go the shorter 'Overland' route and through the new (2012) Copperas channel to N Foreland ... surely it was perfect conditions.  We did consider it at some length, however the reasons against were as follows:  it was top (and bottom at LW) Springs, and we would have got to the shallow transition at Copperas at LW-2.  At that point there would have been perhaps 3m of water looking at the latest chartlet from eastcoastpilot.co.uk - or perhaps less because there is a 'Caution' note for the area.  That means 1.3m or less under our keel.  So feeling our way with a 1-2kn tide behind us means if we touched we'd stick and be there (at an angle) for 4 hours.  So maybe we're wusses, yet it just didn't seem worth the risk, especially as this is day 1 of the voyage.  Let's get some smooth passages under our belt and make the mistakes later when we've got somewhere.