Going to Terschelling

[NK_man]

For those of you who might be considering a cruise to/through the Friesian Islands next year, I've just got back from a trip and can update the Netherlands Cruising Guide. Contrary to what's in the cruising guide, the Schuttengat entrance to West Terschelling is well dredged and extremely well bouyed. It is shallow in places but the Netherlands tidal stream atlas is excellent and, if you don't have one you can call Terschelling VTS and they'll tell you the minimum depth in the gat. It beats going the long way around throough the Slenk and competing for space with the ferries. Terschelling is beautiful and the habourmaster is extremely helpful.
Happy sailing!

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[pragmatist]

Sounds wonderful - shades of Riddle of the Sands ?!

But when you say "shallow in places" - how shallow ?

<hr width=100% size=1>a pragmatist is an optimist with a boat in the UK - but serious about not being in the UK !

 

[heerenleed]

The real gem is Vlieland

Terschelling is quite nice, but Vlieland is the absolute gem. The marina is normally chock-a-block, because people use their bats as floating caravans and never leave though they should after 48 hours. Never mind the marina, there is an excellent anchorage in Vliesloot, opposite the village. Landing is not as easy as it might be in the UK because the Dutch do not have your habit of anchoring just about anywhere. As a result the anchorage is large enough for anyone wishing to stay. At HW +/- 2 there is a reasonable landing just in the corner W of the ferry landing, nearer LW it is feasable but very much reminding of the UK east Coast Glorious Mud.....

Apart from this, Vlieland is nicer, but smaller than Terschelling, no cars but for few locals, bikes for hire anywhere, lovely and very peaceful village. The island has many cycle roads. It's the most wooded island of all Dutch Wadden Islands, but definitely a no-no for teenagers looking for lots of noise at night....If you need any more info, just PM me.
Just one small word of caution: The Stortemelk entrance you need for both Vlieland and Terschelling is not nice in a NW of anything over F5, especially on the ebb. But that goes for most Waddenzee entrances. In "difficult weather" the Marsdiep entrance and the inside route via Texelstroom, Kornwerderzand, Boontjes and than following the route via Harlingen is a better option, as it's much more sheltered. In this kind of weather, skip Vlieland, 'cause you need to do a piece of Stortemelk to get round the Richel sand, and go to Terschelling using to long route via Slenk. I don't know where you have got the informatin about Schuitengat being dredged, in July it was not so, it's well buoyed, but silting up and as far as I know they let it go as it silts up too fast. Its entrance gets nasty in a NW5 anyway.

cheers

<hr width=100% size=1>Peter a/b SV Heerenleed, Steenbergen, Netherlands
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.heerenleed.tk>http://www.heerenleed.tk</A>

 

[AliM]

Going further east, Borkum is a rather run-down marina with loads of space, but the restaurant is super. Access is easy even in on-shore winds. Spiekeroog has decent access although the breaking waves on the bar (in on-shore F6, anyway) look scary but are ok in fact. The marina is nice, the island tiny and very twee, but worth a day.

Have they moved the buoys marking the channel to Wangerooge? We found them in May, but couldn't find the channel at all in August (again in the on-shore F6 - not nice!). There's nothing much in Wangeroog, but I'm told the birds are good.

I agree about Vlieland - good restaurants too. We didn't try the other Friesian islands, but we'll be back next year to try the Waddensea wats as well as the outside route.

It's a great place to sail!

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