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A Sunny Day Once We Reached Helgoland
looking toward the town from the marina Our original plan was to do short day hops up through the various Frisian Islands of the Netherlands and Germany, but once we studied the tides and currents in this area we decided it would be better to just bite the bullet and do an overnight passage to Helgoland. This worked out very well as we left Vlieland just after noon on May 24
th and by 11:30AM on May 25
thwe were checking into Helgoland, an island 70 km ( 44 miles) off the coast of Germany. It is far enough out to sea that it is actually a duty free island.
We had a very nice sail as the wind was in the right direction and it was easy navigation paralleling the ship traffic. The day was overcast but we were moving well at about 8 knots for the first 7 hours with the help of the current. With the distance we were going we knew we would have the current against us for some of the time which brought our speed down to about 4-5 knots so we kept the engine on to keep up the pace. The night was clear so we could see the stars
but there wasn’t a moon to lighten up the sky. Fortunately here it doesn’t get dark until about 10PM and the sky starts to lighten about 3AM so in fact we only had about 5 hours of actually dark. The lights of the passing freighters and other large ships could easily be seen in their separate traffic lane while we were traveling with other pleasure craft and fishing boats.
In order to head toward Helgoland we had to cross a very busy traffic separate scheme (TSS) which you must call on the radio to get permission to cross at a 90 degree angle. They stated we could cross at any time when the traffic looked good to us. We are very happy to have AIS as one of our instruments which identify various vessels that are in our area. This tells us the name of the boat as well as other valuable information such as speed, direction of travel, and destination. With this information we can call any ships that we have any concerns with to discuss with them our intentions. We did this with one of the ships we saw coming. He asked us to wait
One of the Classic Vintage Yachts
being people out the the island of Helgoland for the day until he passed us before crossing which we of course said we would do. We were near an anchorage area designated for the large ships so we hung out there waiting for the ship to pass by. It took much longer than we anticipated and we probably could have easily made it across, but seeing that we told him we would wait, we figured it was best to do so. When he did pass we saw that he was carrying a large load – it was 1 blade from the wind turbines that we have seen dotting the coastline here.
Once safely across the TSS we lost most of our wind and the seas became quite flat which again was going to slow us down considerably. As we were getting tired and wanted to get to Helgoland, the engine kicked in and we motored the rest of the way to Helgoland. One benefit of Helgoland being a tax-free island is that we were able to fill up our diesel tanks much more inexpensively than anywhere else we have been recently. We had bought a few gallons of diesel in Den Helder (just to be on the safe
side as Janice always says) paying 1.56 euro per liter ($8.48 per gallon). In Helgoland the price was much more reasonable and was discounted the more you bought. It ran 1.08 per liter ($5.87 per gallon) down to 1.06 per liter ($5.76 per gallon) when you bought over 100 liters (25 gallons).
The sun came out just as we got to Helgoland but we were quite tired so we checked in quickly, then walked over to talk to the fueling station and found out that we needed to move over to the pumps within the next 2 hours or there would not be enough water for our draft of boat. We quickly moved our boat over to the other basin where the fuel docks were, filled up, then moved back to the marina, and then walked around town looking for wi-fi as it was not available at the marina. We were fortunate to find a wi-fi café that was going to remain open for 20 more minutes so we quickly downloaded weather files, sent a couple of quick emails and then meandered back to the boat. We found out that this island is quite a tourist spot
Helgoland Is Definitely a Tourist Island
with its pastel colored places along the promenade as ferries bring people out regularly from the mainland. There were traditional looking ferries, but they also use what appear to be vintage cruise ships from the 30’s and 40’. They drop anchor in the harbor and people are shuttled to shore in smaller boats. These people come out for the day to walk around the island, possibly go to the spa that is located here, buy perfume and other duty free items, or just have a leisurely lunch at one of the many restaurants located here. We were glad we asked about the diesel as later in the day when we were walking around we saw a sailboat that had gone aground before getting to the pumps. They were sitting within sight of the pumps, but they had to wait for the water to fill in before they could move. Quite an embarrassing situation – we were glad it wasn’t us!
Just across the harbor there is another small island called Dune. It is a nature reserve and we understand many seals visit here regularly. Originally the two islands were connected, but in 1720 a storm surge swept away the land that connected the two islands.
The main island is a huge red sandstone rock that towers 61 meters (200 ft.) above the water, quite impressive when you first spot land.
Unfortunately we didn’t take the time to check out the upper part of the island of Helgoland, but we might have a chance to do that on our return out of the Baltic. Due to our short time on the island most of the photos here are of what we saw on our way so have put them into a slideshow to give you a taste of what we saw throughout our 23 hour passage. During the night it was great to see the bioluminescence on the leading edge of our bow wave and even when we pumped the head! We haven’t seen that for a while and we always enjoy seeing it. Next stop will be the mainland of Germany.
I have tried to put the slideshow in this blog but if it doesn't show up you can see it on YouTube (under Janice Waller)
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