Which books for a North Sea Crossing NL to UK?

[Matwill]

Hi Guys,

I'm planning a north sea crossing next year and want to buy a pilot book and some good tide charts/atlas to help plan the crossing, I have the 2024 reeds almanac, does anyone have any suggestions for a good pilot book and tidal stream atlas, the plan is to land somewhere between the Thames Estuary and Lowestoft and to depart from the Slijkgat, south of Rotterdam.

Mat

 

[johnalison]

I’m not convinced that a pilot book will add anything to Reeds that you need. It was all we ever used for similar crossings, though we had a pilot book to guide round inland Holland. Detailed tide information isn’t that important. I could get enough from Reeds, or the diamonds on my charts or from the plotter. There are books on various recommended crossings but in the end you will probably do whatever is convenient at the time. The only real problem is planning a route round the wind farms.

We did the crossing via Lowestoft when we wanted to cross between my dedicated sleep times, but otherwise the Harwich area puts you closer to the main cruising grounds.

 

[simonfraser]

when i was a kid my parents did that journey
i steered at night time by compass and we had RDF one of those radios with a black bar on the top to rotate
we reached the UK coast, they had no idea where we were, crazy
so i was told to turn around, found the dutch coast and went back up north to Den Helder, never ventured out again

 

[Sandy]

You may need to check on the port of entry regulations depending on the passports you hold. It has gone a bit bonkers since England left the EU.

 

[vyv_cox]

We have made crossings Netherlands - UK and back many times by a variety of routes. Only used Admiralty tidal stream atlas for southern North Sea, although always carried Reed's.

 

[Tradewinds]

East Coast Pilot for fine detail at the UK end otherwise as per above Reeds and Imray chart for route planning. I use the tidal streams shown in the Reeds.

 

[dunedin]

Possibly this may be of interest - North Sea Passage Pilot

(Though the title is a bit of a misnomer, as only covers the Southern 20% or so of the North Sea. But it is the fragment of interest to the OP.)

 

[johnalison]

when i was a kid my parents did that journey
i steered at night time by compass and we had RDF one of those radios with a black bar on the top to rotate
we reached the UK coast, they had no idea where we were, crazy
so i was told to turn around, found the dutch coast and went back up north to Den Helder, never ventured out again

I was going give you the chortling emoji but my iPad won’t oblige. We had a portable Hitachi radio from Telesonic for our first crossings that had a rotating aerial on top and sometimes actually managed to tune into a station within the six minutes available, and that was about it. Going in the other direction I have always consoled myself with the fact that the Continent is quite a big place and hard to miss, but not really concerned myself overmuch about where we might hit.

 

[MoodySabre]

The most important thing is very uptodate charts/info on the web as to the location of windfarms.

 

[KevinV]

Hi Guys,

I'm planning a north sea crossing next year and want to buy a pilot book and some good tide charts/atlas to help plan the crossing, I have the 2024 reeds almanac, does anyone have any suggestions for a good pilot book and tidal stream atlas, the plan is to land somewhere between the Thames Estuary and Lowestoft and to depart from the Slijkgat, south of Rotterdam.

Mat

View attachment 166897

Can't help with the question, but that's a very handsome boat - what is it?

 

[Matwill]

Can't help with the question, but that's a very handsome boat - what is it?

Albin Ballad

 

[Ceirwan]

Honestly, its a fairly easy run.
And most of the complicated stuff tends to be on the Netherlands side, which I'm sure you're familiar with anyway.

So outside of any cruising guides you might need or want on arrival (East Coast pilot) for example, Reeds will be all you need.