First Time Channel Passage Tips

[Dulcinea East]

Hello there East Coast experts.
I am planning our first long coastal passage for August in our CC Oceanquest, Pippa Rose. Options are Ostende, Nieuport or Dunkirk out of N Fambridge. All of them seem within our grasp (DH is a getting his DS practical this September and I am doing Coastal Skipper). I am obviously slaving over @tillergirl's vast body of knowledge, but I have been wondering which destinations folk ppl s chose and why. Longest passages to date, apart from the delivery trip from the Solent last year, have been up and down to the Orwell and CCTEE to Chatham. All told we have clocked up around 1,000 miles this year, but nearly all day time all. Max wind experience F6. Not certain about doing the passage overnight but some folks say it's easier because you can see more nav lights. What worked for you (or didn't!?!). Got liferaft, AIS, EPIRB, new VHF, diesel all serviced and courtesy flags/Q flag in the nav table. Thoughts/experiences welcome.

 

[johnalison]

The advent of GPS and AIS has made the old advice of going at night outdated. There are problems sailing at night, but although these are not hard to overcome, such as tiredness and recognising lights reliably, I would suggest a shorter trip in familiar waters would be a better introduction some time. Your choice of destination may depend on entry requirements but I am out of date on this matter as I’ve not been able to sail abroad for some years. Most places are fun to visit but some have specific things you need to be careful about.

 

[Dulcinea East]

Tiredness is exactly the issue that discourages night sailing without doubt!

 

[johnalison]

Tiredness is exactly the issue that discourages night sailing without doubt!

Night sailing can be magical and rewarding. The sense of isolation in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but the occasional ship’s lights or an inquisitive fulmar coming to check you out, is one of life’s great experiences. You do, though, need to know your boat well and be able to judge conditions without being able to see much. You need to be able to do all the tasks such as reefing, cooking perhaps, and navigation without a thought, and there can be unforeseen problems such as finding something that you suddenly need without waking your crew. Don’t let me put you off for a minute, because night sailing is something you must be prepared for at some time, but it’s not the best option for a first sea crossing. If you have time, I do recommend a short trip in the dark just to see how you get on, which is something I did with the family before we went foreign.

 

[Dulcinea East]

Exactly the reason for doing the RYA Coastal Skipper, "L Plates" under supervision, and why this first long haul journey will be a dawn start. We can always fall back to Ramsgate if need be. Really interested in preferred ports and observations about relative ease/complexity.

 

[CliveG]

I would select Nieuwpoort.
The entry is simple.
I would use the marina on the port side of the harbour as:-
The customs have an office in the pyramid building by the marina office.
The marina will lend you bikes so you can ride into the town where there are a good selection of eateries and shops.
Just look out for the firing ranges to the north of the harbour.

 

[CliveG]

Do remember to complete the customs forms for the UK and Belgium before leaving.
The Uk form is at Tell Border Force and HMRC you are sailing to or from the UK in a pleasure craft
The Belgium form is at AquaTask

 

[bluerm166]

Should you have the time and if you want to do more than test your endurance break the trip at Ramsgate.Yes Nieuwport for ease of port and schengen entry and an interesting layout and town. No firing in August .
Of course the wind direction will play a part .Ostende also makes for an entertaining visit,with easy schengen access .

 

[johnalison]

Blankenberg won't be your point of arrival but it was our favourite Belgian port, about 15 miles past Ostend. Books tend to be a bit off-putting because of the shallow entrance but we never had a problem, just avoiding LWS. The coastal tram is also a good way of exploring.

 

[Dee Bee]

Ostend is really a fun place and very convenient for Bruges and Ghent by train. Yacht club marina is fine and the immigration easy and efficient ,

 

[doug748]

Tiredness is exactly the issue that discourages night sailing without doubt!

I find my biggest worry is picking up a line or crab pot, particularly if you arrive or leave, under motor, in the dark. Some harbours are infested with hazards of this sort and you are not immune offshore.

Look for a free wind.
It's tempting to set off thinking you can just squeeze the course upwind, but at sea you can make nothing like flat water and waves and tide can take you miles off. Tacking in the Channel is a mugs game best reserved for racers.
Be wary of calms.
It's also tempting to see 6 - 14kts in the forecast and kid yourself you will get 14. 6 kts at sea is very frustrating unless you have a motor sailor or enjoy motoring.

.

 

[TwoFish]

I would select Nieuwpoort.
The entry is simple.
I would use the marina on the port side of the harbour as:-
The customs have an office in the pyramid building by the marina office.
The marina will lend you bikes so you can ride into the town where there are a good selection of eateries and shops.
Just look out for the firing ranges to the north of the harbour.

I'm certainly no expert, having a grand total of two (return) channel crossings under my belt in 18 months of yacht ownership.

Our (two-handed) Nieuwpoort trip experiences mirror the above. It was really great to be able to borrow the bikes, both for trips to town and for exploring inland along the river Ijzer / Yser. The marina was Vlaamse Yachthaven Nieuwpoort and both the staff and the police could not have been more welcoming.

Our other trip was to Dunkirk (YCMN). Again, helpful marina staff. The marina is also fairly close to town. Lots to see and do there and the buses in Dunkirk are frequent and free. Immigration formalities were a PITA though (this was last year), simply because the PAF office is several miles away near the commercial ferry port (where the police were very friendly and helpful). However I believe it may now be possible to have the marina carry out formalities under the new workaround procedure.

Oh, and both trips made via Ramsgate.

Top tips:
- Have AIS (which you've indicated you have)
- Maintain a good listening watch on the VTS VHF channels (Channel VTS, Gris Nez VTS and Dunkirk VTS). It's good to know what the traffic is up to. We encountered 3 examples of 'big boys' violating COLREGS, two of them to the exasperation of VTS. It's really useful to know what's going on if there's a rogue vessel out there.

Oh and, if in Ramsgate, don't miss the world's most glorious Wetherspoons. In good weather, their balcony is superb. The seagull attacks on unwary diners can also be entertaining.

 

[wonkywinch]

I find my biggest worry is picking up a line or crab pot, particularly if you arrive or leave, under motor, in the dark. Some harbours are infested with hazards of this sort and you are not immune offshore

Me too. Which is why I fitted a rope cutter and joined Sea Start. The 5m contours in the Solent are infested with them, especially around Calshot.

 

[johnalison]

I find my biggest worry is picking up a line or crab pot, particularly if you arrive or leave, under motor, in the dark. Some harbours are infested with hazards of this sort and you are not immune offshore.

Look for a free wind.
It's tempting to set off thinking you can just squeeze the course upwind, but at sea you can make nothing like flat water and waves and tide can take you miles off. Tacking in the Channel is a mugs game best reserved for racers.
Be wary of calms.
It's also tempting to see 6 - 14kts in the forecast and kid yourself you will get 14. 6 kts at sea is very frustrating unless you have a motor sailor or enjoy motoring.

.

Absolutely true. I wish I had been given a pound for every club member telling tales about how they beat back to Essex from Ostend/Flushing against an F9. What they really mean is that they got a slant on an F6 and ended up in Lowestoft after a couple of days at sea. I don't even reckon I could get home to Walton from Ostend against a F5 NW wind without ending up with a mutinous crew in my very seaworthy 34-footer, the best I could manage was a close fetch from Blankenberg with a vaguely westerly F5-6, and even then I ended up with a disc lesion that put me in hospital shortly after.

 

[Dulcinea East]

V helpful one and all. As it's just us two, we've decided to do it in two hops stopping at Ramsgate, where we have been before, then onwards to Nieuwport. Pots are a "known known" having done the Harwich trip a few times. I checked our paperwork to find that the new SSR database has us down as "Merchant Navy" while the printout from last year's registration is SSR. Passports, insurances, certificates and licenses are assembled and the cats booked in for their holiday. Now just need to get the passage plan written up.