Standing Mast Route from Norway 2.0

The Standing Mast Route through The Netherlands is known to many a sailor. We have been through the northern part once before, but that was mostly for transport. So for the summer of 2023 we thought that we would spend more time and enjoy the canals. 

We found some blogs and posts about the route, but not as detailed as we could wish. Our dedicated navigator, also being my wife, spent many a winter evening looking for information on the internet. There are a whole lot of bridges and many locks that must be passed, and it is necessary to know details about opening hours, dimensions, contact info and status. In the year of 2023 there is of course an app that will solve that, and for the most of it the Waterkaarten app  will do. But there are also other concerns, like marina details, anchorages, other moorings, depths etc. The navigator put a lot of this location information into Google Earth, so we could have a nice combined overview. Also a new and updated chart for the plotter was a priority for Dutch waters . 

The plotter is our main navigation aid. We like to have a backup or two, but do not want to spend a fortune buyng commercial marine charts for many units. So we have Open CPN on Android and PC as a backup. The charts are not quite up to date for the whole trip, but will do for som basic navigation. Luckily, for the most critical areas like the coast of The Netherlands, the Dutch government produce frequently updated downloadable charts that can be read by Open CPN.

For 2023 we found it here:  https://vaarweginformatie.nl/frp/main/#/home. Go to Elektronische vaarkaarten  and find the files. 

The sailing to The Netherlands can be done in much shorter time than we spent, but we always like to take our time and enjoy the journey and the coasts. The transition from Norway to Germany will be known stuff to most experienced sailors. Maybe the Kiel canal also. I believe most people do not spend much time in there. But when the weather is good, there are possibilities to enjoy some pleasant and sheltered days . We were lucky, May and especially June of 2023 was a warm period with excellent weather. Places like Borgstedt (anchor), Rendsburg, Gieselau and the lock city of Brunsbuttel are possible stops. 

In favourable conditions, sail can be set to reduce fuel usage in the Kiel canal. The engine is supposed to be idling in standby. I like to try to use the foresail, but I found that even with a theoretically good wind, the tall and large trees on the banks block the wind too much, and also induce a lot of turbulent eddies.

 Sail rolled in due to turbulent conditions, as can be seen on the water.

The plan was to go from Brunsbuttel via the German islands Wangerooge and Norderney to Delfzijl and start the canal journey through Groningen. Out of Norderney most probably a routing over the shallow  Waddensee. I do however not like the Waddensee too much. The depths are not that pleasant even at high water, the bottom changes frequently, the maps must be accurate and up to date and I am not experienced in navigating there.

Planned route from Brunsbuttel.

There was a bit of calculating to do regarding arrival at Wangerooge, as the entrance is too shallow at lower tides. The times seemed to match our planning cruising speed, and we were also able to take advantage of the falling tide out of Brunsbuttel the whole way out to the North Sea. And even better, in this period easterly winds and warm weather prevailed, so we did not have to fight the usual westerlies.

In Wangerooge, luckily, we talked to a Dutch family. They told us that there was a bridge over the canal between Delfzijl and Lauwersmeer that had technical problems and only opened once a week! So we had to replan to start the canal tour from Lauwersoog, skipping Groningen. Maybe we should have had a way and routine of finding that out ourselves. 

The tides in these areas are significant, and for normal sailboats the difference between having the current with vs against is great. We were able to arrive at the entrance towards the Lauwersoog lock area before the turn of the tide, at fairly high water. Good in more than one way. We had a bit of a scary experience. Our Navionics plotter chart had the latest update, and the depth margins on it were good, so we trusted it would be no problem as long as we stayed deep, also having more than 2 meters in tidal margin. Not so. The navigator was at the helm, and noticed the depth indications rapidly and dangerously decreasing. Very confusing and not according to chart. We decided to turn straight back into our track and take the sails down. 

We are quite used to not always sailing inside the marked waterways. In our home waters, the markings of waterways are usually made with margins for much deeper vessels than ours, and we use our common sense, based on fairly accurate charts, to shortcut. So we had not based our navigation on the markers. The navigator suggested we carefully head for the nearest waterway marker, which was a good idea. Inside the waterway we found safe depths.

What had happened?

Above is the track and it shows the position where we turned around. Chart depth 6 meters plus, and 2 meters tide on top of that. Our indications were rapidly approaching 2 meters. The newly updated Navionics chart that we had just bought for a stiff price had led us astray. When checking the Dutch 

charts that we had in the standby database, this is what we could see:

The track is here yellow. The chart shows a completely different sea bottom. (The blue plotted planning and distance route is based on another chart). If we had not entered this area with tide margins, we could have gotten in serious trouble at that sandbank. Retrospectively we should of course have checked other chart sources, but with a new chart, good depths and a good tide margin we had seen no problems.

Approaching the Robbengat lock by Lauwersmeer pretty close to closing time, we contacted the lock operator by VHF. Officially open till 19:00, but taking in the last boats at 18:45 he told us. If we could be by the lock at 18:45, we could get in. Sailing in a brisk breeze , we turned upwind and lowered sails just in time to be the last and single boat in the lock that evening. There is a marina on the seaside of the lock, but we were now keen on leaving tidal worries. We dropped anchor outside the Jachthaven Nordergat inside, in the Lauwersmeer. The canal tour was beginning.

The next day was June 16. We had spent a whole month since leaving harbour in Norway. June 2023 was a very sunny and warm month in most of Northern Europe. 

The navigator had spent much time locating, detailing and listing Marrekrites in Friesland. Ourselves, we did not know of this word before planning the trip. But we had heard there were some kind of free moorings somewhere in The Netherlands. In fact, it is only the region of Friesland that has these. Marrekrites are jetties for longside mooring, they are common along the Friesland canals and also in the nature reserves. They are mostly fairly small, with space for 2-4 boats. But there are also some bigger ones. The Marrekrites are located in the countryside, most often near fields and agricultural areas ( I believe most of The Netherlands  is agricultural). You can stay a maximum of 3 days. At daytime there will be a lot of traffic passing, but at night it is quiet, because the locks and bridges are closed. There are also some buoys in Friesland that are used according to the Marrekrite kriteria.

Above a couple of Marrekrite examples.

In warm and nice weather we sailed a fairly short distance to our first Marrekrite, a quite big one that had looked promising during planning. It is at a little island called Senneroog, with a little lagoon. Considering the good weather we feared it was all occupied, but we found a nice spot. 

Already the first day in the canals it was obvious that we could be glad that our draft is not above 1,5m, actually only 1,2m. In my experience it seems like 1,5m is kind of a standard minimum depth at the Marrekrites, and very often it is not much more. Also, in the canals the waterway markings are made for small boats, so do not shortcut or stray outside without good depth information!

The water in the canals is really murky. But with temperatures approaching 30 centigrade, we just had to go for a swim now and then. Swimming in the canals never made us ill, but I believe it is a good idea to keep the head above water and not do it with any open cut or skin injury.

After  a couple of quiet days and nights we wanted to proceed towards Dokkum. The plan in Friesland was to use the Marrekrites ahead of stays in cities, to save a bit on harbour fees. Now, Dokkum has a very boater friendly price regime. I think they are smart. The harbour is always full of boats, and that should also be to the benefit of restaurants and businesses in town.

Again, low draft is an advantage. You can not expect to choose between  a lot of mooring spots. And at one location, we read 10 cm less than our draft. Luckily very soft mud. Another speciality of Dokkum is that one can leave the garbage bag on the side of the boat in the afternoon/evening and it will be picked up from there in the evening or next morning. Not so easy to know, but the fee collector told us.

Part of Dokkum harbour. A shallow corner.

Out of Dokkum was the first bridge passing where we had to pay for the opening. €5 is a bit more than elsewhere, but it is for 2 bridges served by one person bicycling between. Well paid excercise. All in all there were not so many bridges that required payment on our route. Maybe because there is a lot of traffic, and having each boat stop to pay cash will slow everything considerably down. We had made an effort to get a lot of coins, but around €15 would have been enough for us. That said, some marinas are inside bridges and thus more coins may be required.

Leeuwarden has this special guest harbour that is part of a park in the middle of town. The canal banks are used as moorings. Very nice, and not far from a bustling centre. 

Differences in climate and population make wonderful  summer scenarios like this in Leeuwarden centre much more common in Central Europe than in Norway. Also, being pleasant and peaceful, a case for afterthought this year.

A visit from our daughter was planned some time during this trip. And to fit her working schedule, it was decided that we would go to Amsterdam a bit earlier than the original plan. Thus Harlingen became the next stop, then next day into the Ijsselmeer via the lock and further to the Enkhuizen anchorage. There is some information stating that €10 can be charged for anchoring there, but nobody claimed anything. Enkhuizen is a cosy town  that we have visited before, and especially the inner harbour area is full of life in a nice summer evening. 

There was a gathering of beautiful Dutch sailbarges in the inner Enkhuizen harbour.

To sail from Enkhuizen to Amsterdam, we went through a lock slightly down to Markermeer, which is technically a different lake. It was originally closed off as part of a plan to fill it in and regain a large area of land, but the plan was later abandoned. Both Ijsselmeer and Markermeer are freshwater lakes. They are shallow, but can generally be sailed upon by pleasure craft  almost anywhere. Markermeer is the shallowest, with depths around 3-4 meters. This makes a fine bottom for long plants that grow up towards, and also reaching the surface. At the time they were not so abundant, end even though there were some bundles floating around, there were no real problems. The shallow water is easily warmed by the sun in summer, and we could engage in one of our favourite water activities, hanging  after the boat in a line while sailing slowly.

The dike contours and different waters of Ijsselmeer and Markermeer can be clearly seen on Google Earth.

There is a lot of information online about how to navigate locks and bridges, so most of that I will omit. Just know if you are locked down or up, keep mooring lines easy to adjust, green light only is "enter".

Beware that even if bridges are fully open, opposite traffic may get the green light first.

There are a few marinas in the Amsterdam area. As we are sailing a catamaran, Amsterdam Marina is by far the best for us. Both Amsterdam Marina and Sixhaven have frequent free ferry connections to the Central Station.

When planning this trip, som information about a newly established "vignetplicht" surfaced. The Amsterdam authorities has allegedly decided that pleasure craft going for the Standing Mast Route via Amsterdam waters has to pay some sort of fee. Calling Amsterdam Marina ahead of time, they were of the opinion that enforcement was not established for this. And nobody approached us with any check or claim.

The plan was to continue via the western part of the Standing Mast Route southwards via Haarlem. But when checking on the locks and bridges southbound, it was not so tempting, as we now had a guest for some days. The railway bridge south of Haarlem was closed for opening, and the motorway bridge and the first lock had only a few openings daily. We did not want to waist these days waiting for openings and only getting to Haarlem, so we actually cancelled the southern part, having in mind a plan to also spend time in southern Denmark in july. Thus some days were spent in Volendam by Markermeer.

 

So lesson learned from Delfzijl and Amsterdam is to check the route thoroughly , sailors told us that bridges not seldom go unserviceable. We only learned about the Haarlem railway bridge when calling a marina in that area.  

We then headed for the southeastern route northbound, to be joined at Lemmer. Someone told us that the plant growth in the area towards Enkhuizen had increased a lot, and that it would be better to go via the lock at Lelystad. At times some areas in Markermeer become virtually unsailable due to the amount of plants on the surface. We had no idea about that beforehand.

The route from Lemmer to Leeuwarden passes through two towns, Sneek and Grou, Sneek being largest. Nice places to stop. The forecast for July 5th was for hurricane force wind gusts up to 32-50 m/s over central parts of The Netherlands, summer storm Poly. We used all our lines to tie up in the Grou  marina. Strong winds came, but we never saw over 22 m/s.

Forecast from dmi.dk regarding Poly. 

There are lots of opening bridges to pass on such a trip, but generally there was not much waiting time for us. The boaters in The Netherlands are really getting attention. The Amsterdam area may be different. And for railway bridges 30 minutes could happen. 

Passing one of the bridges in Burdaard.

Inbound and through Leeuwarden from the south, there were 9 bridges in a fairly short distance, obviously that will take some time.

Some bridge openings are fairly narrow for catamarans, 8 meters is not uncommon. Usually no problem for our 6,5m beam unless there is much sidewind and slow traffic ahead.  But we went into a narrow canal at Warten. It was unplanned, since we had not understood that the Fonejachtbrug over the canal towards Leeuwarden does not open any more, and thus had to turn back. The Warten bridge is only 7.4 meters wide, and I really felt we filled the whole gap. A couple of fenders sprang into the air.

The canals have murky water, but it is not saltwater. Thus you have a zillion liters of washing water available as the boat gets dirty. And you do not have to go into a harbour or marina to wash off the dust and dirt that will inevitably accumulate on deck.  

A rough outline of the route.

Blessed with good weather this trip was a pleasant experience. Even though the Norwegian currency was really weak in the summer of 2023, costs were not high compared to Scandinavian waters. Mooring fees averaged slightly lower, and the Marrekrites also helped to keep costs down. Food and restaurants were also about the same as home, with the usual exception of alcoholic beverages.

 

A Baltic Route

 

We love to visit new places when we are out sailing. At the same time we love warm weather and real summer. Because of the last, the areas by the North Sea, like the Norwegian west coast and Northern UK,  are not so tempting. Which again now leaves few areas undiscovered in our nearby coasts. 

So we looked southeast to the south Baltic. We had never been there. Maybe for a reason, not too many Norwegians sail that way and we did not know much about what to expect. Maybe relatively small and cramped harbours with simple facilities?

After having sailed much of the standard coastal route down the Swedish west coast we headed for Klintholm, Island of Møn, Denmark. A good starting point for a leg of about 38 nm to the first harbour in Rugen, Germany. 

West- southwesterly winds are common over that route. But the winds had been light and variable this early summer, and even though some SW had been forecast, it did not come. To our disappointment we had to motor most of the way, till the inner waterway entrance. For some reason the wind picked up a bit right there. So we sailed the marked waterway towards Vitte. This area has some real shallow waters outside the marks, so it is important to read the chart and stay inside the narrow waterways. Also, Vitte is the entrance to the popular Hiddensee recreational area, and ferries sail the narrow waters all the time. They expect to pass leisure traffic without problems.

We had of course read up on internet what we could find on marina guidance about Vitte. There seemed to be some guest space in the Vitte Kommunalhafen, but as the harbour master had not answered our calls, we were not sure where to go when arriving into the harbour. No signs to be found other than tying up forbidden all over, there was not much else to do than take a temporary spot and try to find the harbour master. Which was not easy. To our luck, a couple of professional touring sailboats had talked to the harbormaster earlier, and when they arrived we were informed of where we could stay.

Finally tied up. There is actually no designated guest space in the harbour. Boats can go to the Vitte-Lange Yachthafen north of the main harbour, but such a typical German harbour with berths between narrow poles gives few opportunities for a catamaran.

Vitte is a special place. There are lots and lots of tourists arriving with the ferries every day. Because people are not allowed to drive their cars there. So they leave the cars outside Hiddensee and take a ferry. In the very small town there must be a dozen bicycle rental businesses, as by bicycle is the way to move around the area. Horsewagons take hotel guests to and from the harbour, and they also offer sightseeing tours. The town is neat and clean, we even saw someone hired to remove the horsedroppings as soon as they were found. 

Even though Hiddensee and Vitte are full of tourists, the harbour has an authenthic athmosphere with smelly fishing gear and equipment. The Germans love fish, and there are som cosy restaurants seaside.

Some "Backfisch" in one of the waterfront restaurants tastes lovely.

On the west side of the town, there is a loooong white beach stretching to the south, where it should be almost impossible to be crowded.

Harbour fee was around €15 in this harbour, which in 2022 must be said to be very reasonable seen with Scandinavian eyes.

The next place we headed for was Schaprode to the southeast. Which we did in no way find as interesting as Vitte. A small community with some OK restaurants, but mainly people seemed to come there to park their cars before continuing by ferry to Vitte. 

So we left the next day for the much more well-known town of Stralsund. A town with a long history of connections with Scandinavia, and one of two larger towns in the area. Greifswald looks to be of approximately the same size. In Stralsund they were arranging "Harbour weekend" these days, with a full marina and regattas in the sound. As the winds were favourable and the weather pleasant, we decided to anchor outside the breakwater. But the marina otherwise looked OK, with quite good capacity.

Dinghy landings close by were not abundant, but if taking the whole trip around the breakwater and into town, this nice place was available. Between bridges, so only small wessels could go there.

The days in Stralsund were good. But due to some necessary work with the wind sensing equipment on board, we did not explore much other than streets and restaurants.

Next on the list was the Usedom area. A name and area completely unknown to us before starting to plan this trip. Rugen has several other interesting harbours, but visiting everywhere was not possible even with our generous summer season. A fresh northwesterly came up, and it was exploited to effectively push us over to Usedom. That was after a delay at Stralsund bridge, which seems to be notoriously opening after schedule. 

Peenemunde was the first available stop for us. The place is known in WW2 history for being the location for the development of V1 and V2 bombs. We found a harbour with limited guest facilities, but lucked in with a wide berth in the main harbour. There is not much to the surroundings today as we saw it, only a few small restaurants, some museum facilities and a camping ground. Still quite a few tourists find their way here at times, according to locals. 

Because Peenemunde was part of former Eastern Germany and thus for many years under Soviet influence, it seemed that there were a lot of military activity here also after WW2. Picture shows an old Soviet submarine.

Going further south, we passed Karlshagen, which might have been a better stop. The town is connected to the gigantic beach strip on the east side of Usedom. On the other hand, Poland would also offer much of the same. 

Now unfamiliar and strange harbour names started to come. We stopped at Wolgast after only a few miles. A nice and tidy little town on the west side of the strait. Funny memory? The waitress in the China restaurant filled our glasses fully to the rim. Unfortunately it was from our own bottle.

It is a good idea to plan the sailing according to bridge openings on the way, as there can be several hours between.

Sailors move with the wind. It was not much of it the next day, but we managed to reach the Stettinner Haff and arrived outside a town strangely named Ueckermunde. Took some time to remember it. The weather was nice and warm. From the seaside a canal goes up a river to the town. By the canal opening was a nice beach area, so we then anchored and had a bath in the sea. The water is really murky inside Usedom (as also inside of Rugen), but we have not heard that it is polluted. Lots of people were bathing. About a mile up the canal the very sheltered Stadthafen can be found. It has capacity for a fair amount of yachts. There are other harbours on the way up the canal too, but they are with between pole style berths. Not for us. There is also the Ueckermunde Lagunenstadt, which is a holiday resort. Not our style. A couple of days in the town center suited us better. The weather was still warm, so the next days afterwards we chose to stay at anchor outside the canal and beach area.

Ueckermunde Stadthafen.

Ueckermunde beach.

Then time had come to visit Poland. Neither of us had stayed there before, so we did not really know what we would find. Had tried to search the internet for some sailors experiences, but had not found much.

First stop Swinoujscie Marina. Another difficult name to pronounce. Unexpectedly large ships sailed the canal we came into from Stettiner Haff, but the reason is the supply line to the big  town of Stettin further south. 

Swinoujscie Marina is a fine marina, with quite good capacity and a well sheltered location. Always a slight queue at the marina office due to oldfashioned procedures, but it was all very orderly. Town center is about a kilometer away. Visits to the grocery store and town center were made quick and easy by the availability of rental electric scooters in Swinoujscie. 

To the nortwest of the marina there is a large area by the beach, with hotels, shops and restaurants. I got a spanish holiday town feeling, except for a bit lower temperatures. Very tidy and orderly. For sure a bit of a tourist trap, but sometimes it is OK to just walk around in the trap, enjoy the athmosphere and see lots of people. 

The beach itself has nice white powdery sand and a lot of space. The Polish coast would be overwhelmed by foreign tourists if it was not for one factor. The water is fairly cold. The Baltic sea is known for it. We had fine warm weather on our trip, but very seldom we saw anyone swimming. People would mostly wade. Then again last part of june may be a bit early for summer waters to be heated. Anyway, the southern coast near Swinoujscie seem to be warmest from temperature charts.

After Swinoujscie it was time for new unfamiliar harbours with strange names. After a day of low wind, we finally arrived outside Dzwiwnow. The harbours in this coast have breakwaters leading into sheltered waters. The breakwater inlets are known to have dangerous cross currents when there is stormy weather. 

Researching Dzwiwnow we had found four potential places to stay. The first one to starboard, Marina Polmax, looked like not much more than some old wooden jettys, and it was on the opposite side of town. We turned into the the first one to port. It was mostly a fishing boat harbour. Possibly we could have stayed, but it did not appear cosy. So we continued to a brand new marina called the Port Jachtowy. It was closed, there was a European dinghy sailing championship, and there must have been a hundred sailing dinghies in there. Only one possibility left. By chance we were right in time for the bridge opening  needed to continue inbound to Dzwiwnow Stadthafen. The berths there fitted catamarans perfectly. Did not appear rock solid, but the weather was calm. 

 Dzwiwnow Stadthafen. Not packed at the time we arrived. The harbour fees we paid in Poland were at about half or lower of the price level common in Scandinavia.

Dzwiwnow had quite a lot of tourists, mostly Polish it seemed. Only a few hundred meters to the northwest of town  a vast stretch of nice beach could be found. 

Main street Dzwiwnow was nice and tidy with lots of souvenir shops.

The ubiquitous polish tourist boats. We saw them in all harbours. There must be a lot of Polish landlubbers on vacation at the coast. The boats unly motored a mile or two outside the breakwaters, but they managed to attract the tourists. 

Biedronka became a favourite grocery store in Poland, all kinds of good food........

...like delicious strawberry cakes.

It is best to sail this polish coast in summer when the weather is mostly calm, as there are no archipelagos or islands to shelter behind. We were in luck. A warm southeasterly set in. It made it a bit unpleasant in the harbour in the morning, but once out it in open sea it was silk sailing towards northeast. 

Arriving outside the Mrzezyno breakwater, we anchored and enjoyed the warm weather. Afterwards we went up river, and were guided to a berth by the harbour master. 

 Good shelterd harbour, and lots of room for us.

Attractive waterfront in Mrzezyno.

Wind for the next destination Kolobrzeg was low, but it is only 10NM away, so no problem. With a temperature in the high twenties and calm sea  we decided to just anchor south of the breakwater. We do not see many sailors doing such anchoring for the night. Hardly at all. We find that in the right weather conditions, especially when it is really hot and nice for bathing and relaxing, it is perfect. In such conditions the marinas are just too hot.

It was not so easy to spot on Google Earth a good place for tying up the dinghy in town, so we found a place inside the breakwater. Where we should not have been according to signs, but there was no trouble. 

As a cruising sailor, one must find opportunities, also when a bit non-standard.

We stayed two nights outside the breakwater. Consequently we do not know much about the town marina. But it looks fine from pictures and information. The next day, still in fabulous weather, we took the dinghy to the beach north of the breakwater. There is a nice area, again resembling a Spanish beach strip. 

Kolobrzeg beach.

Silk sailing continued to Darlowo, Again we stopped outside to enjoy the weather. But not for the night. A weather change was forecast. 

The calm anchorage turned to this overnight.

The Marina Darlowo is situated 2,5km from the town center. But it is a fine harbour with facilities in the harbour office, close by the marina. And there is a busy restaurant and tourist street in the vicinity, by the inlet bridge. There is also the Marina Rybacka on the other side of the river, slightly closer to town. But we found it a bit in the middle of nowhere.

We wanted to see Gdansk, and it would have been attractive to go by our own boat. But our plan was to go to the Danish island of Bornholm after Poland. The prevailing winds are westerly, so it would be much better to leave from Darlowo. The solution was to go by train to Gdansk. And after spending some time sorting out apps and webpages for routes and tickets, so we did. Spent a couple of hotel nights there.

Brisk westerlies prevailed when it was time to leave Darlowo, there was only one weather window with a more southwesterly component in a whole week. So we felt we had to take it. Even with a close reach it was not pleasant, the sea was very choppy. It took around 8 hours to reach Nexø, Bornholm.

Because we did not know what to expect, this Baltic route turned out to be better than anticipated. Good weather contributed a lot of course, but then again I believe warm weather is more common by these coasts. Harbours and anchorages were fine, there were no problems finding good food. Prices in Poland are not as comparatively low as they used to be known for, however still cheaper than we find in Denmark and Germany. We are glad we tried it.

Freetown Christiania

I will not debate climate, but as of today I believe the similar of the summer of 2018 will not occur again in my lifetime. We have been sailing in sunshine and warm weather for 3 months.

Visited Copenhagen medio August from an anchorage northeast of town. And decided to see Freetown Christiania. With the sunshine and warm air my mind immediately went back to the Caribbean small islands. The area really appeared laid back and relaxed. The smell of pot. Only a few cars to be seen. (But quite some tourists like myself).

Christiania has managed to establish itself as an alternative society in the capital Copenhagen, and exists in some kind of truce with the authorities.