East Coast to West Baltic

Carl and Trina Buck sail their Bavaria 38 from Norfolk to the Baltic, Sweden's Bohuslan archipelago and East Danish islands

- Carl and Trina Buck

Our winter neighbours in Norfolk, the Brent geese, have a spring migration to Scandinavia and the Siberian Arctic Tundra. For 10 years now, we too have followed a north-east route to the Baltic Sea, in search of sheltered waters and the beauty of the archipelagos.

In 2024 we decided to sail to Sweden's Bohuslän islands, an 8,000-island archipelago that starts about 15 miles south of Gothenburg, near Lerkil, and runs all the way to Norway. There are sheltered channels almost all the way north, many anchorages and small harbours, with only occasional detours to the open sea.

Island-bound

Our outbound route was daysailing: Ijmuiden, through Amsterdam to Enkhuisen, anchoring off Companieshaven for the night, continuing North across the Ijsselmeer, to lock through the Afsluitdijk, at Kornwerderzand sluice, into the Waddenzee, the deepwater channel passing Harlingen to Vieland for the night.

From there we sailed seaward of the islands, to the Schiermonnikoog channel to Lauwersoog for the night, then Norderney (accessible, for us HW+/-3 hours).

We had a one-day ic wait for weather a here, then proceeded on past Cuxhaven to the Kiel Canal, 80 miles away.

From Kiel in the South Baltic, we sailed via the South Zealand islands. We stopped at Dybvig Havn on Fejo island after a 42-mile passage, which we have visited twice before and know many of the local people. It's a small harbour, only room for two deep draught yachts, 2.2m maximum, but has more berths for shallower boats.