Northern Europe

In this category all our blog posts related to sailing destinations in Northern Europe can be found. In our blog we have chosen to define Northern Europe as the seas we will sail north of Bay of Biscay, and will include sailing in the Baltic Sea, North Sea and English Channel and Bay of Biscay. All posts about sailing can be found under the category Sailing. Links to blog posts from our sailing in Northern Europe:  

Sweden (summer & autumn 2019 - Before departure)
   
Sweden (Aug-SEP 2020)
Denmark (SEp 2020)
Germany (Sep 2020)
Netherlands (SEp 2020)
france (SEp-Oct 2020)
 
UK (June-July 2021)
 
Sweden (July-AUG 2021)
 

  • Sailing in Normandy

    October 3-10, 2020 It was stormy weather in the Atlantic and no good weather for us to leave Dieppe so we stayed there a week. During that week we got a lot of small jobs done on the boat, which was good. For example, more work on autopilot installation, fix our toilet (that started having some small issues on the way to Dieppe) and other small stuff. As we where closing in on Bay of Biscay we also spent a lot of time preparing for the crossing, by cooking a lot of food and put it in our freezer box. So when we where gonna do the crossing we would…

  • A visit by the coastguards…

    October 1-3, 2020 After two nights in Dunkirk we where ready to sail into the English Channel through Dover strait. We sailed along the coast and had the tide with us (about 3-4 knots through the strait) so it was pretty easy sail. We sailed to Boulogne-sur-Mer, which we reached short after lunch. We took a walk around town and up to the old town where we ate some waffles. After that we went to the boat stores around the marina to try and find some stuff we needed, but did not find that much. It is hard to find the right stuff when you’re in a foreign country and…

  • Sailing past the shipping lanes to the English Channel

    September 28 – October 1, 2020 Our next planned leg was sailing to France past the big shipping lanes around Rotterdam and Belgium and into the English Channel. So after our short visit in Amsterdam we woke up early to leave the canals and head back out to the sea. We first motored from Amsterdam towards IJmuiden, where we would pass through the last lock. Through the English Channel and North Sea the big ships travel along the TSS (Traffic Separation Scheme) which we didn’t need to cross (as we where just going along the coast). Where there are TSS zones there is usually an ITZ as well (Inshore Traffic…

  • Fixed Mast route (Staande Mast Route)

    Our route through the Fixed Mast Route September 23-28, 2020 As the North Sea promised pretty strong winds the upcoming days we decided to go on the inland water ways of Netherlands, the Fixed mast route (Staande Mast Route) instead. So after our visit in Norderney we headed towards the Fixed Mast Route entrance in Delfzijl. We first thought about taking the route over the Wadden Sea, where you can go if you time the tide. You could also get stuck if you calculate wrong. We decided to take the longer way around Borkum as this was a bit safer, we thought. If you want to see our way through…

  • Sailing through Germany

    September 20-23, 2020 After our Kiel canal transit we entered Cuxhaven, where we had a nice dinner with fellow sailors, Marine and Bruno onboard Waterproof. It wasn’t a late night though as we where going to go up really early the day after to go with the tide out to the North Sea. We left Cuxhaven about 6 in the morning and got a nice current with us when starting sailing through Germany. We sailed for a while in the morning but as there was barely no wind we started the engine after a while so that we would make it to Norderney. The harbor in Norderney is located on…