Those sands can't half shift

[Zophiel]

I’m sitting here in the Dutch port of Lauwersoog, or ‘Unpronounceable’ as it’s known in English, waiting for the right weather to nip round some of the Frisian islands to Germany.

I thought I’d just cross-check a couple of chart details. In particular the fairway buoy marking the end of the channel out through the sand banks.

Between 2007 – when I bought the charts for my PC – and 2012 – when I bought the ones for my new chartplotter, the fairway buoy has moved ten miles. Ten sodding miles! The last 7 miles or so of the channel now goes WNW instead of ENE.

How’s a skinflint with cancelled paper charts from the 1980s supposed to keep up with that? Talk about the shifting sands of time.

[wully]

Riddle of the sands huh?

[Zophiel]

Riddle of the sands huh?

If you have to throw all your charts away and buy new ones every 3 or 4 years it's the fiddle of the sands.

I know the channels shift about in these waters and you have to keep an eye out for the buoyage, but I didn't know just how much. Arriving on this coast with a 6 year old chart you wouldn't have a chance of getting in. You couldn't even just follow a fishing boat. They're ten miles to the west, over the horizon.

[Fingal]

You simply need Carruthers on he foredeck with a long sounding pole, and tea brewing on the Ripingille stove.

[Zophiel]

You simply need Carruthers on he foredeck with a long sounding pole, and tea brewing on the Ripingille stove.

I suspect Carruthers might tell you where to put your sounding pole if you sent him onto the foredeck in a 10 ft North Sea swell approaching a shallow lee shore. In a very gentlemanly manner of course.

Though everyone here drives a lift or bilge keeler for the shallow Waddenzee, they all tell you that you can’t pass behind the islands but need to brave the open sea. I wonder if perhaps they are building the facilities for some sort of invasion force and don’t want a British yachting gentleman poking around. Johnny Foreigner can be a frightfully devious cove don’t you know.

[Arghiro]

What do you expect? How many thousand miles of fetch is there down the North Sea for Northerlies before they hit the shallow sand around the Fresians?

I sail the Caernarfon Bar which only has a hundred or so miles of SW'ly fetch & that changes regularly. That is why you need to get the current A4 chartlet off teh harbourmaster or follow the bouys very closely. Err except that two are off station & one has disappeared completely in the last few weeks.

Chck out the Dutch Harbourmasters, I'll bet they know EXACTLY what thecurrent situation is & may well produce their own chartlets to augment charts which are never going to be up to date.

Oh, & spare a thought for the dingbatss that believe in the pinpont accuracy of their GPS plotters. You see, you lot are spoilt oop north where the rocks never move & charts can be a couple of hundred years out of date with nary a problem.

[Zophiel]

Dutch Harbourmasters, I'll bet they know EXACTLY what thecurrent situation is & may well produce their own chartlets to augment charts

I’m sure they do. That’s why it’s not really a problem getting out of these places. It’s getting in alive to speak to them in the first place that concerns me.

When I left Lauwersoog 2 days ago both channels were buoyed. The new one and the completely non-existent ten year old one which the harbour master said nobody but a dullard would attempt.

Last year I almost made for Lauwersoog from the open sea. I changed my mind because of the confusing info. If I had done I would have taken the buoyed channel that doesn’t exist and might not be sitting here to tell the tale.

Oh for a good dependablerock to bump into.

[Arghiro]

Dutch Harbourmasters, I'll bet they know EXACTLY what thecurrent situation is & may well produce their own chartlets to augment charts

I’m sure they do. That’s why it’s not really a problem getting out of these places. It’s getting in alive to speak to them in the first place that concerns me.

When I left Lauwersoog 2 days ago both channels were buoyed. The new one and the completely non-existent ten year old one which the harbour master said nobody but a dullard would attempt.

Last year I almost made for Lauwersoog from the open sea. I changed my mind because of the confusing info. If I had done I would have taken the buoyed channel that doesn’t exist and might not be sitting here to tell the tale.

Oh for a good dependablerock to bump into.

Caernarfon Harbour Trust resurvey regularly & post their chartlet (with actual bouy positions in a table) on t'interwebby thing so you can print it off before you go. I would be surprised if the Dutch were less efficient & tech-savvy than an 18thC Welsh Slate harbour.