Frisian Islands, Kiel canal, and the Danish archipelago

[rbmatthews]

This year we continued on from Hoorn in the Netherlands out to Terschelling in the Frisian Islands, and from there through to the Kiel Canal and into the Baltic, where we spent the rest of the summer exploring the Danish archipelago - the islands of Als and Fyn, and lots of little ones in between. Lovely part of the world. Good weather for most of the time and more wind this year than other years, so our % sailing time was up significantly.

For those interested, the blog of our trip, musings and ramblings en route is at 2021: Holland to the Danish Archipelago

 

[Pye_End]

Thanks for that. Did a very similar trip many years ago and yearn to return - your blog brings back memories. How did you get on with the 'Brexit' thing as regards formalities etc.?

 

[mrming]

Excellent. Would love to do this trip one day. Started planning it during lockdown, but have realised that with kids in school, 6 weeks summer holidays won’t be enough time. Will have to save it till they’re off to uni or whatever. Do intend to try the Frisians / Netherlands though.

 

[Skylark]

This year we continued on from Hoorn in the Netherlands out to Terschelling in the Frisian Islands, and from there through to the Kiel Canal and into the Baltic, where we spent the rest of the summer exploring the Danish archipelago - the islands of Als and Fyn, and lots of little ones in between. Lovely part of the world. Good weather for most of the time and more wind this year than other years, so our % sailing time was up significantly.

For those interested, the blog of our trip, musings and ramblings en route is at 2021: Holland to the Danish Archipelago

A lovely read, thanks for posting.

My journey from the Baltic, through the canal was 20 odd years ago so this brought back fond memories.

Have you bought a new fleece and gloves yet ?

 

[johnalison]

Excellent. Would love to do this trip one day. Started planning it during lockdown, but have realised that with kids in school, 6 weeks summer holidays won’t be enough time. Will have to save it till they’re off to uni or whatever. Do intend to try the Frisians / Netherlands though.

I first did it in 1990 in a Sadler 29. In all, it took five weeks. We took three days to get to Brunsbuttel, where our wives joined us. We then went clockwise round Fyn, putting off our daughter at Kolding and our friends at Kerteminde, where we had a memorable cyce ride in the rain to see a Viking ship. At the end of three weeks we got back as far as Norderney, leaving the boat there for a month before returning to bring the boat home against terrible weather. Although we didn't stay anywhere long, it didn't feel rushed.

 

[Laser310]

I understand that Holland and the Frisian Islands have severe depth restrictions..., but what about the Danish Archipelago on the east side of the canal?

I did a delivery down the Baltic, from the Swan yard, through the canal.., but we were rushed and hardly stopped - love to go back...

would 8ft draft be a big problem?

 

[johnalison]

I understand that Holland and the Frisian Islands have severe depth restrictions..., but what about the Danish Archipelago on the east side of the canal?

I did a delivery down the Baltic, from the Swan yard, through the canal.., but we were rushed and hardly stopped - love to go back...

would 8ft draft be a big problem?

I haven't spent a lot of time arounf Denmark, having preferred to go a bit further east but there are certainly places around the archepelago that are shallow. Around Fyn it is mainly deep enough for shipping though there are shallow bits near Aero. Around Falster and Mon there are interesting places but some of the channels are 2.1m. Although this is guaranteed, they are forbidden to some charter yachts and can be quite alarming, since one watches one's echo-sounder showing 1.5m or less as the keel slides effortlessly through the weed. You could have a decent cruise with 8' draft but would need to study the charts carefully. There are other shallow bit in the southern Baltic, and the waters around Rugen are variable. the books warn of changes in depth of up to a metre, but I have not seen this happen in summer.

 

[rbmatthews]

Thanks for that. Did a very similar trip many years ago and yearn to return - your blog brings back memories. How did you get on with the 'Brexit' thing as regards formalities etc.?

Won't elaborate on the B thing here, but suffice to say thay we had no problems at all. In fact, at more than one Port of Entry, it was quite difficult to get anyone to take us seriously when we told them we had come from the UK and needed to get clearance. We fully realise, however, that it may not be the same everywhere, and that it might get worse in following years when customs and immigrations officials get to grips with what B implies for them.

One thing that was very noticeable, however, was the distinct lack of British-flagged boats - we only saw two others besides ourselves in the entire four months we were away. I know a lot were heading back to the UK to beat the June 2022 deadline, but a sad trend if it continues.

 

[rbmatthews]

A lovely read, thanks for posting.

My journey from the Baltic, through the canal was 20 odd years ago so this brought back fond memories.

Have you bought a new fleece and gloves yet ?

Yep, but I was very emotionally attached to the old ones, and still haven't quite recovered from their loss yet !

 

[rbmatthews]

I first did it in 1990 in a Sadler 29. In all, it took five weeks. We took three days to get to Brunsbuttel, where our wives joined us. We then went clockwise round Fyn, putting off our daughter at Kolding and our friends at Kerteminde, where we had a memorable cyce ride in the rain to see a Viking ship. At the end of three weeks we got back as far as Norderney, leaving the boat there for a month before returning to bring the boat home against terrible weather. Although we didn't stay anywhere long, it didn't feel rushed.

Yes, the Viking ship at Ladby is a 'must-see' if you are at all into Viking history.

 

[rbmatthews]

I understand that Holland and the Frisian Islands have severe depth restrictions..., but what about the Danish Archipelago on the east side of the canal?

I did a delivery down the Baltic, from the Swan yard, through the canal.., but we were rushed and hardly stopped - love to go back...

would 8ft draft be a big problem?

The Danish archipelago is shallow - the Baltic used to be a freshwater lake called Ancylus blocked from the North Sea by glacial moraine, but eventually the sea did erode through the barrier, to give what we have today. In most places though, it is deep enough for sailing, even an 8' keel. Having said that, we did brush the mud at one point - trying to enter the Skælskør fjord when we strayed slightly from the narrow 4 m dredged channel. In places, it is only 30 cm deep on either side of the channel. As johnalison says, it is very shallow to the east of Ærø, but you can get through the buoyed Mørkedyb Channel which gets down to about 2.5 m at its shallowest. Some marinas can also be a bit borderline, especially the berths nearer the shore.

Overall, though, it is fine - you just need to study the charts and any pilot books carefully and pick your route accordingly. Ringing ahead to marinas to see if they can accomodate you is also not a bad idea.

 

[rbmatthews]

I understand that Holland and the Frisian Islands have severe depth restrictions..., but what about the Danish Archipelago on the east side of the canal?

I did a delivery down the Baltic, from the Swan yard, through the canal.., but we were rushed and hardly stopped - love to go back...

would 8ft draft be a big problem?

The other thing I forgot to mention is that you should be aware of the 'wind-tides' in the Baltic - there are no lunar tides to speak of, but if the wind blows from the same direction for a few days, it can blow the surface water from one side of the Baltic to the other, so the water level can go down by more than a metre on the windward side and up a metre on the other, so it can make quite a difference if you are on the borderline with your keel depth. Just something else to take into consideration ...

 

[rbmatthews]

Excellent. Would love to do this trip one day. Started planning it during lockdown, but have realised that with kids in school, 6 weeks summer holidays won’t be enough time. Will have to save it till they’re off to uni or whatever. Do intend to try the Frisians / Netherlands though.

Holland is beautiful - we did the Staande Mastroute last year (there is a section in our blog if you are interested) - so would definitely recommend it, but having time to enjoy it all is desirable.

 

[johnalison]

The other thing I forgot to mention is that you should be aware of the 'wind-tides' in the Baltic - there are no lunar tides to speak of, but if the wind blows from the same direction for a few days, it can blow the surface water from one side of the Baltic to the other, so the water level can go down by more than a metre on the windward side and up a metre on the other, so it can make quite a difference if you are on the borderline with your keel depth. Just something else to take into consideration ...

I have been to the Baltic ten times now and never noticed more than a few inches of difference in depth. I think that this is largely a problem in winter because the summer weather, when we wimps go sailing, tends to be quite settled. I have had winds of 30kn or so, but never the sort of sustained winds that cause depth changes. Nysted Falster has a reputation of being somewhere that you could be trapped, but nothing like that has occurred on my watch. Around the coast one finds occasional evidence of very high 'tides' and the island of Usedom can be largely inundated. There is a remarkable tide mark on the old harbour building in Swinoujscie showing the highest level, which is well above the height of the quay. Curiously, you can get actual tides in Copenhagen and I recall looking at my instruments' tidal graph of about nine inches.

Although you don't get much in the way of height changes, you can get moderate currents anywhere. In open water the water seems to follow the wind, making headwinds doubly irritating. The strongest current we came across was at Middlefart, north of Sondeberg which I think was about 2.5 kn.

 

[rbmatthews]

I have been to the Baltic ten times now and never noticed more than a few inches of difference in depth. I think that this is largely a problem in winter because the summer weather, when we wimps go sailing, tends to be quite settled. I have had winds of 30kn or so, but never the sort of sustained winds that cause depth changes. Nysted Falster has a reputation of being somewhere that you could be trapped, but nothing like that has occurred on my watch. Around the coast one finds occasional evidence of very high 'tides' and the island of Usedom can be largely inundated. There is a remarkable tide mark on the old harbour building in Swinoujscie showing the highest level, which is well above the height of the quay. Curiously, you can get actual tides in Copenhagen and I recall looking at my instruments' tidal graph of about nine inches.

Although you don't get much in the way of height changes, you can get moderate currents anywhere. In open water the water seems to follow the wind, making headwinds doubly irritating. The strongest current we came across was at Middlefart, north of Sondeberg which I think was about 2.5 kn.

Interesting. We experienced them about three or four times. Two of them were in fjords (Schlei and Flensburger), so that might have been some kind of channelling effect by the fjord, but the other times were in Sønderborg and on the island of Årø. In the case of Sønderborg it had been blowing easterlies for 2-3 days, so the water had risen, in the other cases it had been westerlies and the water level had dropped.

The one on Sønderborg rose so much that we couldn't climb easily over the anchor from the pontoon (which was fixed, not floating) and we had to go and buy some little foldaway steps to get on! There is a photo of the time in Flensburg here (towards the end) showing a change of perhaps 70-80 cm. In all cases, we had to be really careful to leave enough slack in the bow and stern lines in the box berths to avoid being strung up (which nearly happened on one occasion!).

There was a lot of wind around this year, so maybe that was the reason, although this was our first time in the Baltic, so we are not familiar with what it is normally like. The RCC pilot book also mentions it as a phenomenon.

 

[TiggerToo]

it was quite difficult to get anyone to take us seriously when we told them we had come from the UK

???

no need to mention the unmentionable. Priceless

 

[johnalison]

We spent most of our time in the middle-south between Sweden, Bornholm and the Rugen so maybe the water sloshes back and forth leaving the centre much the same, like bathwater.

 

[Biggles Wader]

The last time I went through the Kiel Canal was in 1975 and we had to have a pilot on the Baltic side to take us through the minefields. I assume they have cleared them all these days

 

[johnalison]

The last time I went through the Kiel Canal was in 1975 and we had to have a pilot on the Baltic side to take us through the minefields. I assume they have cleared them all these days

I don't think so.

 

[Frogmogman]

This year we continued on from Hoorn in the Netherlands out to Terschelling in the Frisian Islands, and from there through to the Kiel Canal and into the Baltic, where we spent the rest of the summer exploring the Danish archipelago - the islands of Als and Fyn, and lots of little ones in between. Lovely part of the world. Good weather for most of the time and more wind this year than other years, so our % sailing time was up significantly.

For those interested, the blog of our trip, musings and ramblings en route is at 2021: Holland to the Danish Archipelago

Thanks for posting that, sounds like a really great cruise. I much enjoyed your ramblings, both of the nautical and the verbal variety.