Frisian Islands

C

Cinnamon

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www.vega1494.blogspot.com
I will be sailing from the Elbe towards Holland/France/Eng. Channel and want to do the trip in short hops (day sailing only). Has anyone experience of this area, in particular the Frisian Islands?

I have Brian Navins Cruising Guide to Germany and Denmark, have found as much as poss on the web and have some ideas on which route I shall take but I would still very much like to hear from any of yous who have been there and done that.

Also, I've not been able to find anything about anchoring behind the Frisian Islands. I have beaching legs, so drying out isn't a problem so this should be feasable given the right conditions, right?

Cheers!
 
I sailed some of them from the Islesmere to Bokum in Germany. Of course you have to work the tides but apart from that it was easy - almost too many buoys - like cats eyes on a road sometimes. The harbours in the islands were pretty small but I mainly found a place. The only thing about drying out is that the channels are quite deep but fairly narrow with steep sides so there is a danger of falling over if you choose the wrong spot - I was doing it without GPS or Decca so probably it is easier now with C-Map or others to find a good drying out spot.

All in all a good experience - The Dutch have chart books - for those areas rather than 'Admiralty Charts' and like other yachtsmen charts are full of useful information..

fair winds

Michael
 
Vlieland sticks in my mind as being the best of them, though we didn't stop at all of them. Vlieland's beautiful - though a bit of a squeeze to get in at weekends. We spent a night at anchor outside the harbour there - no problem.

There's one of them (and I wish I could remember which one) where there's a long, narrow, unlit entrance, which is a bit out of your way and really not worth it when you get there.
 
Yup, Vlieland's great. Borkum and Norderney are well worth a visit. Borkum is Texel is great for hiring bikes and cycling around - it's a big well developed island, but stil plenty to see. Also hire bikes on Vlielland (tho' be careful to bmake sure you're on board when the raft in the harbour 'melts' about 9 or 10 in the morning).

East of Norderney things are marginal for getting over the watershed if you have a deepish keel and no local knowledge, so most people (me included) go round the outside. Helgoland is fascinating. If you get a chance, pop into the Ijeslmeer - Makkum is lovely. Ditto Hindeloopen.

Make sure you're charts are local ones and bang up to date, the channels change yearly.
 
I sailed the Frisian islands some years ago from Den Elder up through the Dutch and German islands to the Elbe and Kiel canal. We island hopped(inside) each day quite comfortably between tides with exception of one night where the distances were too long and we anchored in a deep hole on route.
The tidal currents particularly between the islands can be very strong with currents seemingly going in different directions due to the shape of the seabed in various places. The sailing inside the islands is vey good due to the flat sea and wind but you need to be good at timing your trips as invariably it dries completely with the exception of the dredged marinas.
 
The last time I did the trip I stopped at Cuxhaven - Helgoland - Borkum - Delfzijl - canals through to Ijsselmeer / Amsterdam - Ijmuiden to UK. That said, Norddeich makes a fair bit of sense and is supposed to be nice. You can also go a bit further and go in at Harlingen - think it really depends on tides / weather / how much night sailing you want to do.

Borkum used to be a bit of a dive, and a bus ride to the town. Think it is a bit better now, but have not seen it for a while.

Delfzil is a good place to stock up on food and thing, although there are no shortage of spots on the canals to do this as well.

Terschelling used to have a nasty entrance which changes regularly, but has very strong tides so make sure you get your calculations right!

Den Helder is also fine if you want to go round the outside of Holland, although again the tides are strong, and you don't want too much wind over tide getting out.

You can of course continue through the canals from Amsterdam to the Schelde, and this is well worth doing if you have the time as the harbours are beautiful here.

Take care out of Cuxhaven with the weather. It is as the books tell you it is!
Helgoland is worth a visit on the way - especially if you misjudge the above comment! Interesting place, although I wouldn't want to stay there for too long.

Anchoring behind the Fresians - not sure what the restrictions are, only that there are rules in this area.
 
Yes, we did the trip and return a couple of years ago. You need to get hold of the Dutch almanac/tidal stream atlas if you want to go behind the islands. It is brilliant and the buoyage is also brilliant, with the channels marked. You can only get behind many of them at springs (depending on your draft) but you can always nip outside, and then back between them to harbours or anchorages. The German Bight can be nasty - it's a typical lee shore, with some of the watts between islands quite dangerous in onshore winds. The Waddensea is lovely - we went back there last year. A lot of the dutch boats dry out on the sandbanks, but the location of patches of soft mud is not very obvious (I found this out by walking/wading!). I don't think I'd be happy on legs, though we dried out on bilge keels happily enough.

Wangerooge is very remote, and a very tortuous route in (but well buoyed), Spiekeroog is a bit more civilised, and a marginally better route in. (Brian Navin found the harbour unwelcoming - we found them really helpful!) Borkum has a nasty marina, but a very nice restaurant. We skipped the rest of the German ones. We visited all the inhabited Dutch Frisian islands, and all had excellent marinas, helpful staff, but would be very crowded in summer.


If the weather is bad, consider the canals - easy and relaxing!

We did it (on the way UK to Denmark) in day hops, some of them quite long: Den Helder, Vlieland, Borkum, Wangerooge, Kiel canal, but we went outside the Frisian islands except to stop at the marinas. On the way back, we stopped at Spiekeroog and Borkum, but then went into the canals to avoid F7 NW winds!

PM me if you want more...

Ali
 
[ QUOTE ]
Borkum used to be a bit of a dive, and a bus ride to the town. Think it is a bit better now, but have not seen it for a while.

Delfzil is a good place to stock up on food and thing, although there are no shortage of spots on the canals to do this as well.

Den Helder is also fine if you want to go round the outside of Holland, although again the tides are strong, and you don't want too much wind over tide getting out.

[/ QUOTE ]
Slightly different perceptions: I liked the undeveloped nature of the (former MOD) harbour at Borkum! Tho' it's uncomfortable in a southerly. And rather than getting the bus into town it's more fun to get the steam train. And Borkum town itself was a fav place.

Delfzijl OTOH is IMHO a grim place, though so grim it is actually fascinating - but if you're looking for pretty places, it's useful if you're entering the canal system. Also slightly concerned about my boat dissolving among all the chemicals.

Here's a picture I took inside the harbour at Delfzijl:
DELFZIJL SHEEP.jpg

.
 
I agree Borkum town is a nice place. When I was there the pontoons came out of some Eastern block marina (so the story went) - they were falling apart and had lots of nasty sharp metal edges. In addition the entrance was very poorly marked at night - it took a spot lamp (which I did not have) to find the entrance, and arriving after a difficult night sail in poor weather this didn't help my perception of the marina. There was also no fuel available, so I had to take my cans into town on the bus to get enough fuel for the first day in the canals. As I said in the post, it has probably all changed.

Delfzijl - the marina moved several times due to the works going on, and the outer one is not pretty. Didn't go into the one in the canal so do not know what it is like. However you don't show a picture of the other direction - ie of the twon. But a short walk, with a nice local market selling dutch cheese with carroway seeds (my favourite). Also good chinese restaurent.
 
We travelled from the UK to Denmark and back to the UK last year. The outward trip was via some of the Frisian islands and the return trip was via the Dutch canals. For more details and a few pictures take a look at the website below.
 
Others have said plenty about the area. Ports are mostly on the shoreward side of the islands. This means that if the wind blows more than about F 5-6 from the north or north-west you will not get back out to sea. On springs, and if you don't draw a lot more than about 1.7 metres you will be able to progress along the wats.

We enjoyed Nordeney very much, easy to get into in light wind but waves were breaking right across the entrance when we left. We then transferred inside with few problems.

Anchoring inside any Dutch islands is no problem provided you don't obstruct channels. The Dutch have a refreshing attitude to rules which is summed up by 'If it doesn't say you can't, you can.' The local charts are well marked up and updated every year. Can't speak for German islands. We saw plenty anchored all along.

The Elbe is all that the pilots say. A NW F4 on the ebb will kick up a big sea. We were in 4 knots of tide at the bottom of neaps off Cuxhaven. In a F6 it was impossible, with swells about 1.5 metre high and about 2 metre wavelength. From there it's 29 miles to the sea with no shelter.
 
Moin! as they say around here,

I sail from the mouth of the Jade
(horumersiel: http://www.hyc-online.de/revier.htm) but I'm definately a novice, and have only made it so far to Spiekeroog and Wangerooge (and S to Wilhelmshaven), but maybe the following may (or may not!) be of help. I have a little etap 22 with lifting keel, but there are plenty of boats with fin keels in my harbour.

The locals all swear by Jan Werners book "Die Nordseeküste, Tl.1, Cuxhaven bis Den Helder". Its in German, but I would say worth the outlay of 28Euros for the stuff such as where the watershed distances, tidal heights tables, harbour plans etc that you could understand. its helped me no end learning. Infinitely more detailed than the Navins one.

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/37...8515505-8805014

It is all a national park behind the islands and very strict about anchoring. There are seal and bird sanctuary areas (marked as RSG & VSG I think) where you cant go at all in the season, then 'Zone 1' areas where you can only go 3hrs either side of high water (except for marked channels -all with loads of 'pricken' - withies). But there are designated anchoring areas, eg eastern tip of Wangerooge. See
http://www.soltwaters.de/karten/karte.htm click on numbers for coordinates, some of routes shown are sneaking over the Watten (sandbanks/mud) not in the channels.
http://www.soltwaters.de/nosearch/tabelle.htm
trokenfallen is to dry out, betreten is to be able to go on land I think, the red ones are current, the blue planned.

The 'sportsboat' chart set 3015 from the BSH for 50Euros is what the locals have. http://www.bsh.de

In the Jade, Hooksiel is quite nice to see, through the lock and to the end of the inland lake to the napoleonic old harbour (first night free & good pub just behind those buildings!) or other clubs on the way. I find Spiekerooge really really beautiful, no cars, village right by harbour - marvelous! I have found everyone really helpful & friendly.
See http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/leighsutherland67/album?.dir=/6e2c for some piccies (spiekeroog is like that all over, not just in those shots). Wangerooge is also very nice, but more remote, there is a little train from harbour to town, or hire bikes. These two are well known for families visiting.

I know Nordeney from non sailing visits to my wifes friends there, much more going on there at night, but I always get so drunk with the islanders- 'Jever' is the Ostfriesen brew & the best German beer, or for total destruction some boiling copper pot of rum with sugar melted into it over a flame /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

You could always post on the german 'yacht' magazine forum, English wont be a problem and they are very helpful. http://forum.yacht.de/ It says shut for security reasons! until 24/03, but then should be working.

Wow, I can't wait for a couple of weeks time.... This year hopefully I'll see all the islands, and get through to the Wesser.

Doupe! Just read you are based in Germany so this is probably all old hat to you!
 
Ah, from your description at Borkum you must have gone into the tiny yacht harbour. It's a bit inconvenient in a fin keeler because you stick on the bottom a couple of hours either side of low tide. And that's just the time you want to be departing to catch the flood via the inside route to Norderney! An alternative is to go into the huge harbour whose entrance is about 100 yards further East. Less crowded and deeper, but subject to swell when the wind's in the wrong direction.

At Delfzijl I must have visited on a rainy day! I liked their underwater showers though!

Pye End buoy - memories of Arthur Ransome...
 
Out there last sumer, and well worth it. I wold go with everything thats been said above. Vlieland stays in the mind as the best place (hire a bike from just behind the marina to see more of it), but also the most crowded.

The tiny yacht harbour at Borkum is shallow (too shallow for us - we blocked the entrance for an hour waiting for enough water, but the big ex military port has stacks of room and an extremely helpful HM who sorted out and booked travel arrangments for a departing crew member. Facilities are - miltary - changing room type open plan showers etc.... ( not unisex though /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif )

Well worth going!
 
I sailed (singlehandedly) along the danish coast and ended at Helgoland, which is interesting, but the bureaucrats are terrible. One has to moor exactly where they point you. From Helgoland i went straight to Borkum and the next day to Lauwersoog on the mainland. The entrance is between Schiermonniksoog and Ameland. Even at relatively low wind speeds the sea tends to break on the banks in the entrance. At Lauwersoog one can enter the dutch canals and go via Dokkumernieuwezijlen and Dokkum to Leeuwarden, the capital of the province of Friesland. I choose to go from Leeuwarden to Harlingen and enter there into the Waddenzee. (This can all be done with standing mast.) I am not sure if it is possible to sail with standing mast from Leeuwarden to Lemmer or Staveren to go lock out into the IJsselmeer at one of these villages. In Harlingen you have a couple of possibilities
1. go to Terschelling or Vlieland and then continue out into the Northsea.
2. Go towards Kornwerderzand and before entering turn to starboard, cross the Waddenzee to Texel (Oudeschildt) or Den Helder. There enter into the Northsea.
3. Go to Kornwerderzand and lock into the IJsselmeer. There again you have plenty of sailing, but finally you have to go to Amsterdam and from there either via the Noordzeekanaal to IJmuiden and into the Northsea or take the standing mast route ("staande mast route") to the southern part of the Netherlands and go into the Northsea there. Again one has a number of possibilities: Stellendam, Oosterschelde and Flushing.
 
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