Caen — Amsterdam

From Caen we’re Northbound again. It’s summer and we gotta go home, to the Baltic Sea. But this leg just starts the journey. We won’t reach the Baltic till the next one. Those bold enough to join us for both of these legs are getting a serious 800 nautical miles in their logbooks as well as navigating in the English Channel, the North and Baltic seas, the Kiel canal and ports of 4 to 6 different countries: France, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, possibly Belgium and Denmark. 

Apart from the usual sail training agenda (setting and trimming the sails, tying knots and standing helm watches) this leg we’re going to have a more in-depth studies of weather phenomena, modern forecasts, recognizing clouds, calculating and using to our advantage tides and tidal currents. 

We start in Caen and leave the safe and friendly harbor along with the whole fleet of other tall ships participating in the festival. Then we have to sail through the English Channel and the Strait of Dover and enter the North Sea. Depending on the prevalent winds we then may stop by Vlissingen, Rotterdam or Scheveningen. 

From Vlissingen to Rotterdam we can either sail the open North Sea or take the inner Dutch canals with a few locks and a bunch of draw bridges.

Europort in Rotterdam is a huge marine hub accepting ships from all over the world. It is located in the Maas estuary behind the largest lock in the world. 

Just before Amsterdam we’d pass another lock and enter the city through the North Sea Canal.