11 September 2024

Kats in the Oosterschelde

Now I’m back in Holland and sailing through the canals. I haven’t got very far yet. For two reasons: Firstly, the repair of the engine in Nieuwpoort took 5 days, and then autumn arrived. Lots of rain and strong winds from the west. Actually the weather for sailing through the canals. But now I’ve been sitting here in Kats for the second day because I can’t sail or moor and unmoor with gusts of up to 7.

I sailed to Kats via Blankenberge and Vlissingen. And it didn’t go as quickly as I thought. Last weekend, the canal from Vlissingen to the Veerse Mer was closed because they were a swimming around in the canal. Then the Zandkreek lock in front of my nose was closed for 6 hours due to construction work. I could only reach the harbour of Kats in the evening against the strong wind from northwest.

But I’ll probably go back to the North Sea via the Goereesesluis near Stellendam, the exit of the Haringvliet. There is too much construction work on bridges and locks, which are impassable even with the mast down. A moderate easterly wind is forecast for next week, so we’ll see.

A few impressions of Nieuwpoort:

The typical Belgian skyline on the coast.

There are green dikes again.

Also, dikes with embankments and mudflats

And lots of rain

The trip to Blankenberge was in rain with poor visibility. On the plotter, I could recognise a yacht sailing behind me. However, she never came in to Blankenberge harbour, but the rescue cruiser left. The next day, the people from the harbour told me that the yacht had driven onto the new stone pier and sank within 10 minutes. This was not the first yacht this year to end up on the stone pier. The people were rescued and the larger yacht, a long keeler with two masts, was pulled onto the beach.

I remembered that the two cardinal buoys also confused me a little. But after I saw the swell breaking, I gave the north cardinal buoy a wide berth. The rock fill is still under construction and not be seen at high tide. The two buoys are probably not enough to mark this danger spot, especially as the east cardinal buoy is located behind the rip rap coming from the south.

Here you can see the two cardinal buoys with the rip rap

Once again the dangerous underwater obstacle, now at low tide

And here the yacht lying on the beach, presumably a total loss. This was a yacht from Vlissingen, be so pretty much locals.

23 September 2024

Norderney

Yes, really, I’ve arrived back home. I reached the “Fischerbalje” by Borkum at 12.45 yesterday. Only my smartphone didn’t want to dial into the German network, I guess it found the network in the Netherlands better. All right, I can do it manually.

It was a long journey through Netherlands canals with detours because there was construction work going on everywhere on the locks and bridges. I first had to endure freezing and wet days in Kats, with temperatures as low as 5 degrees at night and constant rain day and night. The rain accompanied me as far as Willemstad, then it got dry and warm again. But then came the next surprise: a bridge south of Harlem was closed for an indefinite period, so there was no way in to the IJsselmeer.

So back out onto the North Sea via the Haringsvliet.

Bad weather

Good weather (6 hours later)

Weather, before the cooler phase, those were still conditions!

A bridge like this at the Goereesesluis feels like a liberation. But the North Sea was extremely choppy with a weak westerly wind. The previous days had left their swell behind and I had to run the engine once again. I reached Sixhaven near Amsterdam via Scheveningen.

A small cruiser in the canal to Amsterdam

Amsterdam’s main railway station

After Enkhuizen in the IJsselmeer, I had to tack against 4–5 Bft. A day’s break was necessary before I was able to make the relatively short trip to Stavoren and continue in the canal to Heeg. Inside the north-easterly wind was blowing up to 6 Bft, also unpleasant.

Then another construction site. First, they spent 2 days repairing the only bridge on the way to Sneek and on the first day of operation, it broke down again at 10am. A nice Dutchman explained an alternative route to me, which I then used successfully. Nevertheless, how was he able to estimate the height of my mast so well? The fixed bridge under which I had to pass has a high of 12 metres, as my mast has a high about 11.5 metres, which was just right. These diversions cost me 1.5 hours.

Of course, I didn’t make it to Dokkum that day, but had to moor in front of a bridge in Leeuwarden. All right, then the next day in the morning the rest of the way to Dokkum, still with a strong north-easterly wind and plenty of sunshine. Here, too, I continued straight away the next day because bad weather was forecast in a few days’ time.

My berth in Dokkum, always at the same place.

A quick trip to Lauwersoog and straight into the Waddenhaven to get an early start in the morning.

Once again, a lovely atmosphere in the morning, even if it was a bit chilly before 8am. Unfortunately, I dawdled (travelled too slowly) for the first hour, so I got the tide on head and needed 2 hours to reach the last buoy of the Seegatt.

Nevertheless, I reached Borkum almost on schedule. Fischerbalje (Borkum)

Tuesday, 1 October 2024

Now I’m sitting here in Cuxhaven and can’t get up the Elbe. A strong easterly wind (5–7 Bft) is supposed to stay until Thursday, only then should it calm down again. The Elbe is not an easy area. I tried so hard to get into Wedel according to plan, but what doesn’t work, doesn’t work.

From Borkum, I continued across the Wadden to Norderney the next day. This is my home route, which I have travelled many times before. Sunny weather, hardly any wind, so the engine was running.

As soon as we arrived at Norderney, there was the first small thunderstorm, but without any particular cooling. That didn’t come until the next day on the way to Langeoog. I was still able to sail as far as the Pricking of the Norderney mudflats fairway, but after that, it was so flat that I could only sail under motor. They’ve moved the Baltrum mudflats fairway to the south. However, it’s not any deeper there. Unfortunately, I was stuck in the mudflats for half an hour; it freshened up to 5 Bft and got cold. It was a bit annoying because it kept driving me out of the channel.

Langeoog was quite empty; everyone had already packed up and taken the boats out of the water. As in all the harbours, hardly any boats left.

At Spiekeroog, the long-awaited autumn storm finally made an appearance. For four days, here we always had winds of 7 to 9 Bft, peaking at 11 Bft.

I was able to use the only day with a light wind from the west, later from the south, for the trip into the Elbe. However, it was marginal between the islands in the Seegat. Although there were no breakers, two very large lakes caused amica to fall into the next wave trough from a height of 2 metres. That hurt.

Buoy Elbe 1

Kugelbake, 9 pm

Yes, then again strong winds from east for 3 days.