Boulogne/ Le Touquet or thereabouts - or Nieuwpoort/ Oostende or thereabouts?

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BelleSerene

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We'll soon be taking a week out to sail the noble sloop out of the Thames. Previous exfiltrations from London have involved turning left and over to Amsterdam via Harwich/ turning right to Calais past Dover/ Keep Turning Right (sorry Dylan) to our Solent home port.

I'm thinking of spending a few days with the family in the nearby bit of France or even Belgium. We've done Calais, and with Sangatte in crisis I hardly fancy spending more time there. Nothing wrong with Boulogne, but we've sailed there before. Wondering about:

a bit further south to Le Touquet or someone around there - OR -

head east for a while to Nieuwpoort or Oostende or thereabouts.


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I am trying to keep the sailing to a couple of day sails to keep a balance for the kids, so venturing much further afield, e.g. significantly far South to Honfleur, isn't on the cards for this trip.

I'd really appreciate views and pros/ cons of the options within shooting distance of the Kent coast.
 
L2K is lovelly and one of the best destinations along that stretch.

I seem to recall (I have flown there, not yet sailed) there is a marina up the river that I assume must have a sill or gate (?), a well marked channel and plenty of opoortunities to dry. The channel I can only imagine once you are in is very well protected. Hire bikes at the airport or in town if you need to and not have them with you.
 
ip485 said:
L2K is lovelly and one of the best destinations along that stretch.

I seem to recall (I have flown there, not yet sailed) there is a marina up the river that I assume must have a sill or gate (?), a well marked channel and plenty of opoortunities to dry. The channel I can only imagine once you are in is very well protected. Hire bikes at the airport or in town if you need to and not have them with you.
Click to expand...

In a triple keeled boat drawing 2' 9 we still were well aground and almost dried out in Le Touqueet even on the end pontoon but that was way too long ago so marina may well be dredged or have a sill now. I really like Boulogne for the buzz and Le Touquet upriver for the quiet. The seafront is different again and I suspect great if you have kids.
 
The first decent stop on the way south is St Valery sur Somme, which is a delightful place, though it is many yuears since we went. It has a reputation for being difficult, but in normal conditions it is just a matter of following the buoys, which are moved regularly. The only difficulty is getting out, because with up to 4kn current on the ebb, once you have started there is no going back. This shouldn't be a problem, but the entrance is exposed to the NW and would be rough in a blow. The other problem is that the tides don't work out well for returning to Boulogne, but as I say, it is a nice place. Not far away is Le Treport, which is France's answer to Ramsgate but without the charm. However, it can be useful and the distance from Boulogne is less than Dieppe, which is 50 miles but a much better place.

For a choice of stops, going east will be easier, but this part of France is quite fun, and the slant for returning often easier.
 
Neiupoort is a lovely marina and town. Great restaurants for food and drink. There's a local supermarket and tram to travel up the coast to Oostend for a few euros. Been several times and will be visiting again this year for a short stay.
 
Le T is really Etaples and challenging. Needs timing carefully. The HM is a great guy. Lovely place to visit. Turning circle of your craft might influence your decision to visit.

For the visitor the entry and exit window are relatively narrow. This might influence your passage plan.
Follow the channel marks and avoid short cuts.
This is experience based knowledge.
 
I can't understand this at Le Touquet:
Port Booker [ http://www.portbooker.com/en/moorin...-calais/dunkerque/port-du-bassin-de-la-marine ] says the berths are for a max draft of 3m. I can't find an authoritative site (or Navionics charts) showing the drying heights of the mud on the way in there, though. So I can't work out whether I can get into that 3m basin with a height of tide.

Their own website is here but doesn't mention depth of water:
http://www.etaples-sur-mer.fr/vie-pratique/le-port-de-plaisance/
 
Nieuport is not much use for kids & the shops are hoity toit. It is really a retirement town these days
Ostend has far more for kids . Take them for bike ride round the parks & lakes with some play areas for kids, the atlantic wall with tunnels & guns kept my 8 year old grandson amused for hours & there is a cafe nearby for afterwards , plenty to see round the town, might catch a firework display in the summer evenings, Go the paulusfeesten (http://paulusfeesten.be/2017/programma.html)week & get the pop festivals & kids things. they often have a fair in the square or some sort of beech festival. One year they had the belgian national barbeque championships on the seafront. Get a ride round the area on a horse drawn carriage to give the kids a ride is fun
The beach is great for kids & you can let them skate board for miles along the seafront or play round the water display.
Blankenberg is a bit like the blackpool of the area & we often go there by bike from Ostend for the day. Hire electric bikes & it makes it easy on the adults & kids & there are places to stop on the way

I often go for up to a month at a time & have been there 67 times since I started sailing. The family often come over to see me & stay in a flat whilst i am there. I have been to every paulusfeesten for the past 10 years
 
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We did St Valerie Sur Somme in 2015 via Boulogne. Great place, even steam engines and a good rail trip round the Baie to Le Crotoy. Both have a wide choice of restaurants.

The Marina was very helpful and good but small facilities. They clearly pointed out an easy berth and ready to help. On leaving, a good schedule is useful as the tide will turn adverse before reaching Boulogne unless to the schedule. A French yacht leaving with us suffered some intermittent engine trouble and have lost the tide it took them four hours longer than us. Since I had prepared a time passage plan table I have made it available as a free supplement on the web site - and tables to estimate the tide offset across the Channel (no plotter will do that).
 
johnalison said:
The first decent stop on the way south is St Valery sur Somme, which is a delightful place, though it is many yuears since we went. It has a reputation for being difficult, but in normal conditions it is just a matter of following the buoys, which are moved regularly. The only difficulty is getting out, because with up to 4kn current on the ebb, once you have started there is no going back. This shouldn't be a problem, but the entrance is exposed to the NW and would be rough in a blow. The other problem is that the tides don't work out well for returning to Boulogne, but as I say, it is a nice place. Not far away is Le Treport, which is France's answer to Ramsgate but without the charm. However, it can be useful and the distance from Boulogne is less than Dieppe, which is 50 miles but a much better place.

For a choice of stops, going east will be easier, but this part of France is quite fun, and the slant for returning often easier.
Click to expand...

Totally failed to get there year before last as it blew a hooly as I was about to leave Boulogne. Spent a few pleasant days there instead and bumped into Tillergirl. The St Valery s. Somme sailing club publish a useful up to date chartlet of the entrance on their website. Might try again this year.
 
Nieuwpoort, Oostende and Zeebrugge are accessible at all states of the tide, Blankenberge depending on your draft, but normally ok HW +/-3.
Oostende and Blankenberge marinas are adjacent to the beach, Nieuwpoort KYCN marina 1 km, Nieuwpoort VVW and WSKLuM and certainly Zeebrugge not recommended if the beach is a priority.
If you're interested in the Great War, Nieuwpoort is your spot.
Oostende for the town, shops, museum, WWII, cinema, Earth Explorer, etc
Blankenberge has a Sea Life Centre.
Zeebrugge is a large commercial and military harbour, but only 10 minutes by tram from Knokke and its endless supply of upmarket shopping.
From Oostende (and Blankenberge) it is 15 mins by train to Brugge, 40 mins to Gent and 1 hour to Brussels and Antwerp and their bewildering choice of museums, historical centres, shops and restaurants.
How long did you say you were going to stay?
 
Habebty said:
Totally failed to get there year before last as it blew a hooly as I was about to leave Boulogne. Spent a few pleasant days there instead and bumped into Tillergirl. The St Valery s. Somme sailing club publish a useful up to date chartlet of the entrance on their website. Might try again this year.
Click to expand...

You've got to go. It was lovely. And a historic steam railway journey! I'm hoping SWMBO will relax the cross-channel ban this year and go again.
 
BelleSerene said:
I can't understand this at Le Touquet:
Port Booker [ http://www.portbooker.com/en/moorin...-calais/dunkerque/port-du-bassin-de-la-marine ] says the berths are for a max draft of 3m. I can't find an authoritative site (or Navionics charts) showing the drying heights of the mud on the way in there, though. So I can't work out whether I can get into that 3m basin with a height of tide.

Their own website is here but doesn't mention depth of water:
http://www.etaples-sur-mer.fr/vie-pratique/le-port-de-plaisance/
Click to expand...

Um!!! The first link you gave is to Dunkirk, not Etaples.

I see no mention of a cill on their website and Reeds just shows it as a drying area. Whilst their website gives access times (HW+/-2), I think that is simply because that is when there is water there, not times when you can access across a cill. Pretty sure therefore it is only for shallow draft boats that can take the ground....

.... but (unlike Gwylan, for example) I've not been there.
 
Angele said:
Um!!! The first link you gave is to Dunkirk, not Etaples.

I see no mention of a cill on their website and Reeds just shows it as a drying area. Whilst their website gives access times (HW+/-2), I think that is simply because that is when there is water there, not times when you can access across a cill. Pretty sure therefore it is only for shallow draft boats that can take the ground....

.... but (unlike Gwylan, for example) I've not been there.
Click to expand...

In that case it sounds like it hasn't changed since we were there and the marina was all but dry at low tide. Timing to get out was easy - just untie and go when absolutely everybody else does and play follow my leader down the river - then ignore all channels and just head out to sea across the mudflats on the rising tide - again following everybody else. Coming in by ourselves was a lot trickier especially as we had no echo sounder and I would test for depth using the boathook - which actually worked fine as if I couldn't feel bottom then our ditch crawler could sail there.
 
RupertW said:
In that case it sounds like it hasn't changed since we were there and the marina was all but dry at low tide. Timing to get out was easy - just untie and go when absolutely everybody else does and play follow my leader down the river - then ignore all channels and just head out to sea across the mudflats on the rising tide - again following everybody else. Coming in by ourselves was a lot trickier especially as we had no echo sounder and I would test for depth using the boathook - which actually worked fine as if I couldn't feel bottom then our ditch crawler could sail there.
Click to expand...

Thanks Rupert. What did you draw?

You are braver than me to do that without a depth sounder! - perhaps you're a bilge keeler so the downside (sorry) of getting it wrong isn't so great.
 
Just spoke to Étaples port de plaisance. They say a 1.8m draft is too much even at high tide. So Étaples/ le Touquet is out.

Still interested in alternative recommendations... Thanks!
 
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