jezjez
Active member
Has anyone sailed Harwich to Thyboron before? What are your thoughts on this trip? I am imagining the Limfjord is a lovely place to sail a season. Is that correct?
Have you been to Thyboron?
- Thread starter jezjez
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Sumara of Weymouth
Active member
I sailed there from the Harwich area in 2008 in my 26ft Vertue. I was heading for the Risor Wooden Boat Show in Norway but decided to take the Limfjord route as I had friends in Denmark. The only dilemma in those pre-Windy days was predicting the arrival weather four or five days ahead. There aren't any alternative ports and our plan B option was to round the North tip of Denmark. We eventually entered Thyboron on the threshold of safety and surfed over the bar. I recall the locals clapping as we entered the harbour. The Limfjord was really pleasant, lots of places to moor and all with picnic tables and well kept surroundings. I think we paid about £10 per night which was cheap even then. We exited the Limfjord at Aalborg and sailed to Skagen which is a lively place. After a short stop we headed for Risor and returned to Shotley via the Blindleia into a stormy North Sea. Highly recommended.
jezjez
Active member
Sounds exciting. How long were you at sea? 5 days?
jezjez
Active member
I take it you stayed quite well off the coast until the entrance. What amount of big shipping, or little fellas for that matter, what did you see? Was it busy? is what I'm asking. I've only ever crossed in the south Harwich towards Ostende before and as we know there's a continuous motorway of big shipping down here.
Sumara of Weymouth
Active member
I've just checked and it took 4 days and 13 hours at an average of 3.66 knots - which is about normal for Sumara. We logged 400 nm. I can't remember the crossing being very tricky but the log mentions clearing south of Wintershall K13 platform (I think this is decommissioned now) then heading towards Nam oilfield which lies between two major shipping lanes. We then crossed most northerly shipping lane and were in clear water. The North Sea is always quite busy but AIS is your friend on these crossings. It wouldn't be any worse than crossing to Ostende so I don't think it should worry you. We had F6 westerlies at one point, luckily the wind had eased off before the entry. I reckon with the accuracy of forecasts nowadays you should be able to predict a calm entry, so long as you have a few days to play with.
jezjez
Active member
Thank you. Very helpful. J
westhinder
Well-known member
Plenty of fishing boats off the Danish coast. We came south from Norway to Thyboron and during the night we had to thread through a maze of some twenty Dutch trawlers going in all directions. As has been mentioned, Thyboron is dangerous in strong onshore weather.
jezjez
Active member
Did either of you spend any time in the limfjord?
mullet
Active member
In case you haven’t seen it, Youtube channel “Sailing Magic Carpet” made a series of videos about transiting the Limfjord (and sailing in Sweden) last year. Series 5, ep 3 is when they reached Denmark, I think.
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Gargleblaster
Well-known member
I went through there in 2015 from the Baltic side to Thyboron. Unfortunately it is quite shallow in places and my draft being 1.8 metres made the entrance to some places impossible. One marina I couldn't enter as I was stuck at the entrance and had to reverse out.
Was made very welcome at the Norresundby Sailing club. But at 10 metres loa was at teh very limit of manouevering in their club marina. Also found the Struer Marina with plenty of depth and they had free bike hire. The bridges were good and generally opened as I approached without being asked even a main bridge between Aalborg and Norresundby at night.
Limfjord is a very picturesque but not a Fjord in the sense of Norway or the west coast of NZ south island. Perhaps more like a much bigger version of the Blackwater without as many boats.
BabaYaga
Well-known member
Haven't sailed the North Sea or been to Thyborøn, but did a large part of the Limfjord in 2015, entering and exiting on the eastern side. I would describe it as nice and in parts interesting rather than lovely (but weather may play in, it was a cold summer). The western part, west of Løgstør, is more rewarding from a sailing perspective, to the east waters tend to be shallow and navigation is mostly restricted to narrow buoyed channels. The landscape is generally dominated by agriculture, with a few patches of woodland here and there. Our visit to the small island of Livø stands out, beautiful place with an interesting history.
If you come all this way, I would suggest also spending some time along the Swedish and Norwegian coasts (Gothenburg – Lista) while you are in the neighbourhood. Quite a contrast to the Limfjord.
johnalison
Well-known member
We spent part of a couple of summers on the Bohuslan coast and also enjoyed it greatly. There is a yacht 'motorway' from Gothenberg to Stromstad enabling a boat to sail sheltered from westerly winds almost all the way - except for 'the yellow rock', and the wild, often treeless, scenery is very beautiful.
Sumara of Weymouth
Active member
We passed through the Limfjord and spent around 6 days there. My rather scanty log book says we stayed at Lemvig Gammel Havn, Struer, Glyngore, Livo (small harbour but with a beach for a swim), Logstor, Nibe and Aalborg. After that we sailed up to Hals and then Skagen before heading for Norway. I am afraid it was before blogging days so I can't say much more other than my memories were that we had a pleasant and relaxing time, once we got over the Thyboron bar!
jezjez
Active member
Good to know about the entrance. Thinking 
Good to know about the shallow limfjord and underwhelming vista (?)
Maybe go straight to the Swedish coast!!!
Good to know about the shallow limfjord and underwhelming vista (?)
Maybe go straight to the Swedish coast!!!
westhinder
Well-known member
Unfortunately not, Thyboron was just a stop on the homeward passage.
I am thinking of going to the Baltic next summer, but with 2.1 m draught the Limfjord may be a bit restricted for us.
davidej
Well-known member
We spent a most of a week in the Limford a few years ago. We entered from the Kattegat and were hoping to sail back to Mersea. In the end the weather defeated us an we had to retreat to the Kiel Canal.
Lovely scenery, very sheltered but quite remote.
Lovely scenery, very sheltered but quite remote.
jezjez
Active member
I must admit I like the sound of lovely scenery, very sheltered and remote