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Through the Wadden Sea. Part 12. Spiekeroog – Büsum – Cuxhaven
Planning
14 August 2025. Precision needed leaving Spiekeroog: at low water, a sandbank links it to Langeoog. High water 4.04am. For a little more sleep, departure at five, clear of the shoal by 6.30 or risk a hard grounding. Destination Büsum. Descriptions said its lock opened with at least a metre of tide and no strong southerly. At 5.07pm, three metres of tide, north-westerly nine knots. Ideal.
Into darkness
Pitch black, like floating in space. Kolya’s torch picked out branches marking the fairway edges. He called from the bow; I followed our recorded track, anxiously checking depth. No lights or reflections, just black water.
No wind, engine on. Current carried us at 7.5 knots. Offshore by six, towards Büsum, among yachts, fishing boats and container ships. Altostratus formed an endless grey dome.
Meeting a front
Halfway, clouds lowered: usually an approaching front. Nothing forecast; no internet left to check. Wind eight, twelve, eighteen knots. Genoa up, engine off. Nearer Büsum’s channel, the wind shifted more. A couple of miles out, north-easterly 28 knots, two-metre waves.
Furled to the second reef, headed north to turn into the fairway from the east. Worse: buoys disagreed with the chart, wind knocked us off course, sea boiled. Requested an inReach forecast update. Still nine knots, as though the storm existed only for us.
With the same conditions tomorrow, we couldn’t leave Büsum. Better not risk it. Divert to Cuxhaven.
Turning towards shelter
A couple of hours later, wind eased, clouds gone, sun out as if nothing had happened. Smooth sea; the storm seemed a dream. Engine pulled strongly. Cuxhaven at five: sixty-two miles, twelve hours.
Evening in town
A waterfront walk released the tension. Setting sun turned the water into fine threads of light. Cruise ship AIDAb appeared, ablaze in colours, a floating city passing the wooden Kugelbake navigation mark. Here since the eighteenth century, once the Elbe entrance’s essential landmark, now Cuxhaven’s symbol. I stood beneath it awhile, then slowly returned aboard.
#passage
Planning
14 August 2025. Precision needed leaving Spiekeroog: at low water, a sandbank links it to Langeoog. High water 4.04am. For a little more sleep, departure at five, clear of the shoal by 6.30 or risk a hard grounding. Destination Büsum. Descriptions said its lock opened with at least a metre of tide and no strong southerly. At 5.07pm, three metres of tide, north-westerly nine knots. Ideal.
Into darkness
Pitch black, like floating in space. Kolya’s torch picked out branches marking the fairway edges. He called from the bow; I followed our recorded track, anxiously checking depth. No lights or reflections, just black water.
No wind, engine on. Current carried us at 7.5 knots. Offshore by six, towards Büsum, among yachts, fishing boats and container ships. Altostratus formed an endless grey dome.
Meeting a front
Halfway, clouds lowered: usually an approaching front. Nothing forecast; no internet left to check. Wind eight, twelve, eighteen knots. Genoa up, engine off. Nearer Büsum’s channel, the wind shifted more. A couple of miles out, north-easterly 28 knots, two-metre waves.
Furled to the second reef, headed north to turn into the fairway from the east. Worse: buoys disagreed with the chart, wind knocked us off course, sea boiled. Requested an inReach forecast update. Still nine knots, as though the storm existed only for us.
With the same conditions tomorrow, we couldn’t leave Büsum. Better not risk it. Divert to Cuxhaven.
Turning towards shelter
A couple of hours later, wind eased, clouds gone, sun out as if nothing had happened. Smooth sea; the storm seemed a dream. Engine pulled strongly. Cuxhaven at five: sixty-two miles, twelve hours.
Evening in town
A waterfront walk released the tension. Setting sun turned the water into fine threads of light. Cruise ship AIDAb appeared, ablaze in colours, a floating city passing the wooden Kugelbake navigation mark. Here since the eighteenth century, once the Elbe entrance’s essential landmark, now Cuxhaven’s symbol. I stood beneath it awhile, then slowly returned aboard.
#passage
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