Difficult to reach harbor

[dutchpp]

IMG_0684.jpg
This is perhaps the most difficult to reach harbor in the Netherlands, Cocksdorp ( excuse me) on the island of Texel, position approx. 53.158975 N,
04.885610 E.
You have to pass multiple shallows during falling tide and have to anchor during low tide to map out the ever-changing little channel to the harbor before you can enter it at high tide.
What is the most difficult to reach harbor in your sailing area?

[heimlaga]

There are a few rather hard to reach "harbours" around Revifjärden between Björkö and Replot. First and foremost Revifjärden is rather shallow and absolutely full of crisscrossing reefs consisting of builders left there by the last ice age and most of them are completely under water.
Secondly there are no sea charts of Revifjärden. The map makers gave up. It was a too overwhelming job to measure all those reefs and channels so they left a white spot on the map as noone except the locals would go there by boat anyway and they don't use sea charts in their home waters.
Thirdly there are very few buoys and sea marks there and a significant part of them are unofficial and of cause not found on sea charts.
Plus the water level may vary around two metres and the land rises from the sea 8 millimetres per year so everything changes over time.

[Breakaway]

Here's Mecox Bay which only opens to the ocean by force of storm...or bulldozer. For millenia, Native Americans opened and closed this, "seapoose," as they call it, as they saw fit for raising oysters and generally managing the health of the little bay.

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When it is open, it's great fishing, as all the fish and crabs flushing from the pond draws predators. Which is why I was there to get this shot.

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This cut, up-island a bit at Bellport, is termed "Old Inlet." ( because it was). It's a breach that was opened by Super Storm Sandy. Officially closed to navigation ( which means it is neither marked nor dredged), it makes a nice shortcut for those who'd rather not run the 5 of 8 miles or so in either direction to the next cut into the bay.

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Kevin

[Peerie Maa]

The Rver Stour to the port of Sandwich was always a bit of a pig.
http://fishing-app.gpsnauticalcharts...51.3041/1.3703

[SKIP KILPATRICK]

Makes me think of "The Riddle of the Sands".

[The Q]

Blakeney is also difficult to enter and technically a port. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.96.../data=!3m1!1e3
Also Norwich is a port, though it's not seen ships since the 1970s. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.6397171,1.4911264,40986m/data=!3m1!1e3 , it's about 6 1/2 hours inland at legal navigation speeds.

Big storm going on at the moment as Norwich city council want to weld shut Carrow road, lifting bridge which has an air draft of 14ft, stopping many boats reaching the center of the city..

[dutchpp]

Makes me think of "The Riddle of the Sands".

That's correct Skip, the Island of Texel is the most western island of the Waddensea (the green island on the left side of this map). The story of the Riddle of the Sands is situated in the German part of this area, on the center part of this map.
waddensea.jpg

[Garret]

Wasn't Texel home to a large portion of the Dutch navy during the Napoleonic wars?

[dutchpp]

Wasn't Texel home to a large portion of the Dutch navy during the Napoleonic wars?

You're well informed Garret!
Traditionally the Dutch war fleet and the fleet of the East Indian Company were anchoring along the south eastern part of the island of Texel (The Roads of Texel at Oudeschild, approx. 20 km south of the little harbor of Cocksdorp)
But it was a vulnerable position, sometimes storms caused a lot of damage.
Eventually Napoleon ( who occupied the Netherlands back then) decided that the war fleet should get a proper base in Den Helder ( just visible on the map above below the island of Texel)
Den Helder still is the main port of the Dutch navy.

[Garret]

You're well informed Garret!
Traditionally the Dutch war fleet and the fleet of the East Indian Company were anchoring along the south eastern part of the island of Texel (The Roads of Texel at Oudeschild, approx. 20 km south of the little harbor of Cocksdorp)
But it was a vulnerable position, sometimes storms caused a lot of damage.
Eventually Napoleon ( who occupied the Netherlands back then) decided that the war fleet should get a proper base in Den Helder ( just visible on the map above below the island of Texel)
Den Helder still is the main port of the Dutch navy.

Ha! From reading historical novels. This came from Alaric Bond's Fighting Sail series - # 3 True Colours.

However, I am part Dutch & work with a lot of folks from the Netherlands - so I tend to notice things about the country

[dutchpp]

^cool!

[Hugh MacD]

The Oregon/Washington coast doesn't have any really tricky entrances...it doesn't have many entrances at all. When the weather gets snotty the bolt-holes are few and far between and you'd best just plan on standing off for a day or two.
Here's one of our smallest:
Depoe Bay Stormbound.jpg

[John B]

Slightly different context but it is difficult to get to. Fiji is nominal 1000 or 1100 miles from NZ.
Fulaga in the Southern Lau group is about a third of the way to Tonga from Viti or Vanua Levu and is south east . You have to go to one of those to clear in and then you have 2 or 300 miles to go against the trade winds to make Fulaga.
When you get there you need to time it for slack or maybe some incoming tide to avoid the stand up waves. The pass is about 50 metres wide and 500 metres long. 50 metres and coral walls seems very narrow from on board, especially after the sea passages. The pass is generally pretty straight but if you look in the water you can see you approach slightly port( where the whitecaps are in the photo)stay in the middle for most of it and crucially ,hang tight port at the inner end around the rock islet to avoid the shallow coral ' spillway' at the inner lagoon.
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Its paradise in there, we stayed 3 weeks in 19 and nearly as long in 17.
Leaving without a perfect tide window.
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[cluttonfred]

That brings back some memories. My family and I were living in Luxembourg about 16 years ago and, based on the number of Dutch people driving south with their caravans, decided to head north to the Netherlands to do some car camping since there must be space up there. We were right and had a great time including on Texel.

...on the island of Texel....

[Whameller]

The Rver Stour to the port of Sandwich was always a bit of a pig.
http://fishing-app.gpsnauticalcharts...51.3041/1.3703

Yes indeed ! Though it's well worth it if you have a boat small enough (and with low air draft or a lowering mast) to get all the way up to Fordwich - the port of Canterbury in the Middle Ages.

[skuthorp]

Tooradin on Western Port Bay has a torturous, narrow and shallow entrance, high tides are better as there's not a lot of water in the harbour at low tide.……….

The 'channel' goes lft at the LH edgeo f the pic, then right around the long sand spit,and of course the sand moves all the time…………….

[Chris-on-the-Boat]

The Oregon/Washington coast doesn't have any really tricky entrances...it doesn't have many entrances at all. When the weather gets snotty the bolt-holes are few and far between and you'd best just plan on standing off for a day or two.
Here's one of our smallest:
Depoe Bay Stormbound.jpg

Depoe Bay, about 12 miles north of Newport where i fish out of. I've crossed most of the Washington & Oregon bars, and would easily rate Tillamook (at Garibaldi) and the Umpqua (at Florence) as the most dangerous. Both have killed multiple people in the past year.