No time to explore the island as we were up at 5am again today to catch the flood tide to Helgoland. We had read the dire warnings about straying into the shipping lanes along this coast and had plotted a route just to the south on our new BSH folios of the "Ostfriesische Inseln" and "Helgolander Bucht". The first part of the journey was to retrace our course out to the Fischerbalje beacon and then turn north past the beach fringed westerly end of the island. We could see the scores of beach huts arranged over the sand even at this early hour so it must be true what they say about Germans and sun-loungers. With the westerly wind in harmony with the east-going flow there was only slight seas over the Borkum Riff so we could cut the corners of or plotted route and skirted round the 5m contours.

From here it was a straight course along the Inshore Traffic Zone to a waypoint north of Spiekeroog where we turned north east to the much-visited island of Helgoland. Originally British, conspicuous red sandstone rock was exchanged for Zanzibar and became German territory in 1890. The islanders were evacuated after Allied bombing in World War 2 and the RAF continued to use it for target practice until 1952. As a duty free resort it receives regular parties of visitors and the town is crammed with shopping opportunities.

The binnenhafen is given over to the refuelling berth although it was very quiet today with only one other yacht arriving whilst we were there. At €0,80/l for over 700 litres it was much cheaper than IJmuiden although still pricey by UK standards. Fuelling complete it was back round to the Sudhafen where rumours of yachts rafted ten deep were also unsubstantiated. We had an alongside berth to ourselves next to the ramp - the best place as the only electricity is in a locked cupboard at the top. For a depost the key is available from the harbour office.

Our exploration of the Uberland, that part of the town at the bottom of the 55m cliff, confirmed there were indeed numerous places to buy cheap spirits, cigarettes and giant Toblerones but little else of interest. Fortunately our schedule had us leaving the next day and the evening was just long enough to plan our onward passage.

Cruising Statistics

Distance: 77 nm

Total to date: 550 nm

Avg Speed: 12.5 knots

Duration: 6:00 hours

Diesel: 472 litres, €0,80/l

Wind: S3

Mooring: €10/night

Electricity: €0,30/kWh

Water: None

Charts

BSH 3015.2

BSH 3015.3

BSH 3014.1

BSH 3014.2

BSH 3014.3