Sailing inside the Friesland islands

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All_at_Sea

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Has anyone sailed inside Juist to Norderney? We draw 1.5M so it looks ok on a high tide but just wondered if there is anything else to consider. We will be popping out at Delfzil and travelling towards the Kiel canal.
 
Yes we have, in our Wayfarer dinghy cruising days.
We are now in in a 34' drawing 1.8m and staying away from the inside passages. I would want a shoal draft boat with lift keel to do them.
Last time we came back from the Kiel canal we stopped at Nordeney, but the channel in is tricky, and next time we will not bother.
 
Some years ago I was waiting in Helgoland for weather to passage west. Borkum looked the best bet at the time, but my German neighbour said that this was 'not optimal', and quite firmly told me to go for Norderney, then take the inside route. I ignored him - but arriving on a foul tide, in the middle of the night, in worsening weather, wondered if he had a point.
 
We took our 2.2m in to Norderney and Borkum. Both nice places to stop - amazing beaches, great food, great beer. Also anchored in the lee of Langeoog and watched Riddle of the Sands. Can't remember the entrances being too difficult - they bore no relation to the GPS though.
 
A quarter of a century ago, my wife and I set off from near Amsterdam, to help a friend sail his boat to Denmark. The plan was through the canal (mast up) route to Delfzyijl on the Ems, then inside the Friesian islands to the Kiel canal. It was late Autumn, and by the time we got to the Ems, we were running out of time. We got to Borkum, and were then held up by days of fog, just as in The Riddle of The Sands. The result was that we didn't manage the shallow passages inside the islands, and returned to Delfzyijl, where we left the boat for the winter.
Sorry, this doesn't help the OP, but it brought back good memories to me.
 
Borkum is really nice to cycle around, there's a big Youth Hostel near the ferry terminal and harbour - in it there's a cycle hire place. Flat and some beautiful nature to explore.
 
Pye_End said:
Some years ago I was waiting in Helgoland for weather to passage west. Borkum looked the best bet at the time, but my German neighbour said that this was 'not optimal', and quite firmly told me to go for Norderney, then take the inside route. I ignored him - but arriving on a foul tide, in the middle of the night, in worsening weather, wondered if he had a point.
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Are you sure he was really German?
Wasn't there something indefinably English about him, despite his perfect pronunciation?
 
Getting to the canal and through takes some planning as you need the water to exit the Frisian channels and the correct tide to get to Brunsbüttel. May be worth stopping at Cuxhaven.
 
All_at_Sea said:
Has anyone sailed inside Juist to Norderney? We draw 1.5M so it looks ok on a high tide but just wondered if there is anything else to consider. We will be popping out at Delfzil and travelling towards the Kiel canal.
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Yes, I’ve done it a few times, with 1.5m draft. It is much easier in the other direction though. It is some years since I went from Delfzijl but I think the trick was to take the ebb from Delfzijl and anchor at a spot (with the other boats!) before the shallows. You then start when the depth allows you to cross the first shallow bit and then race to get to the channel south of Juist which is marked by withies. There is an area between Juist and Norderney where the channels divide and this can be quite confusing. Norderney is a nice place that I enjoyed cycling round.

Norderney to Brunsbuttel is not difficult but in later years I preferred to stop at Cuxhaven and then move on to Rendsberg to break the canal journey into two, usually continuing to Laboe or Moltenort.
 
We thought breaking the passage back from Cuxhaven at Nordeney would work well - especially after doing non stop overnight on the way out .The tide times meant we arrived late and had to leave at first light in the morning. And following buoys on an unfamiliar channel in poor light with a brisk tide running was not easy. We are hoping to return this year and preference will be not to stop.
We took the standing mast route both ways between Lauwersoog and Ijmuiden.
 
searocket said:
We thought breaking the passage back from Cuxhaven at Nordeney would work well - especially after doing non stop overnight on the way out .The tide times meant we arrived late and had to leave at first light in the morning. And following buoys on an unfamiliar channel in poor light with a brisk tide running was not easy. We are hoping to return this year and preference will be not to stop.
We took the standing mast route both ways between Lauwersoog and Ijmuiden.
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Although it generally pays to make as much ground as possible when on the outward journey, the return is often, or in my case always, hampered by westerly winds, making stopping the obvious solution. Also, there are so many interesting sites along this coast that it might merit a cruise on its own. Heligoland/Helgoland is a little adventure, and the others I know Texel and Vlieland are attractive, but a lot depends on one’s schedule. I always had ambitions to return quickly around the coast but it never happened and I would think “Oh, not again” before diving into the Netherlands, but always seemed to end up enjoying it anyway.
 
All_at_Sea said:
We plan to do the canal, come out at Delfzil and out to anchor before taking the inside route to Norderney. We also take the Riddle dvd with us, you have to watch it every year, it's the rules on our boat.
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Back in 1990 we left our boat in Norderney for a month as part of a planned cruise. Our trip home included a ferry to Nordern to catch the train home. I think that the journey and even the train timetable hadn’t changed since the book.

The harbourmaster at the time was Jurg, who was very helpful and was still there when we passed regularly in the 2000s though he retired later. His assistants were also very friendly. On one occasion we returned after a couple of years and as my wife walked ashore Willem called out from an upstairs window “Hello Mrs Wilson!”.
 
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