A circumnavigation of Texel is quite an achievement. Since my fitness was near zero during Easter 2019, I decided to get some support from my Flat Earth sail. A helping hand is never lost. The trip with five fellow kayakers, all member of Never Dry in Rotterdam (Marianne, Erik, Iede, Jan) and Chris from Nijmegen went very well, but I was only able to paddlesail for 15 percent of the time. The wind wasn't really cooperating. Sometimes too much headwinds, but more often from good directions but too weak.
ebb current
In view of the tide, it was decided to depart from Den Helder on April 20 at noon and to kayak via the western side along the North Sea to campsite Robbenjager in De Cocksdorp, about 34 kilometers. The ebb current pulled us smoothly through the Marsdiep under an indigo sky that faded into an equally blue sea. I immediately set up the sail because the wind was east-north-east. So almost on a beam course I paddled a bit, but the wind was only force 2 or 3 so it wasn't much. Beyond the Noorderhaaks, the divine ebb tide soon diminished. Once north along the beach with dogs barking and children playing, we were on our own. But the wind was blowing a little harder here, despite the lee of the dunes, so I was able to take a lot of advantage from the sail in the meantime. I could do with half the paddle strokes my fellow kayakers made, paddling about forty degrees close haul. That was nice. Also this time I noticed how easily you can get quite a bit of speed from only a few paddle strokes, despite the tight upwind course of about 40 degrees. I did hear 'hey, you lazy pig' every now and then, but I'm used to that now
Fun ended
Unfortunately, all fun ended as we continued on because the Texel coast is not straight up north as a ruler but gradually bends to the east. So the further we went, the more upwind I had to paddle. It was pretty much over near the beach dwelling De Koog. I lowered my sail and continued just paddling. After a break at beachpost 16 and another one at the Slufter, things got serious with the wind. It picked up further and now was right against us. According to fellow sailor Iede, this was because the eastern wind at the head of Texel curles more or less around the sanddunes in a direction coming from the north. The last kilometers to the tip (Eierlandse Gat) were indeed quite a challenge. Especially for me, as an undertrained sea kayaker on longer distances. My buddy Iede had to give me some encouragement, as I got a little anxious not knowing how rough it would be between Texel and Vlieland. As a child, countless islanders warned me to stay away from the Amelander Gat and other gaps between all islands with raging currents.
Once past the tip, we were caught by the now-reversed current that pulled us into the gap. My goodness, that was a beautiful sight. A pylon type buoy six meters high lay almost flat on its side groaning and grunting by the supercurrent. Behind this pylon a seething mass of water drew a deep pit. I shot right past it at the speed of a biker. The tide was now against the eastern wind, so we were bobbing on through the steep waves. After about ten minutes we moved onto the beach at De Cocksdorp, where a grueling climb up against the dunes followed with fully packed kayaks, just to find our camp spot.
Vlieland
The next day the most sporty people did a half round of Vlieland, which was cut short because Chris was not feeling well and returned under supervision. On the way Jan shot a beautiful picture of a seal chasing the group.
I wisely stayed at the campsite to recuperate, but Erik asked if I would go with 'a walk'. Ah, why not? What started out as a nice promenade through the dunes in my sandals, eventually became a death march of more than twenty kilometers along the beach, the Slufter, the polders, the new residential areas far outside De Cocksdorp, just a detour to a supermarket, a hot snack and a liter of beer on a dull terrace and then off to the campsite. After seven hours of marching at Erik's pace and four blisters, I collapsed on a borrowed air mattress because I had forgotten mine. After that I don't remember anything.
Retreat
More dead than alive, I started the retreat on day three. Back across the dunes with full kayaks with the carts dangling loosely at the bottom. Iede showed the route on the laminated maps one last time: an impossible route way out on the Waddenzee through narrow shallow waters among sandbars just hidden under a high tide. From my kayak all you could see was ocean so following a complicated path onto the horizon seemed illogical. But we knew it was a matter of one or two hours before the sandbars would pop up, terminating our trip. Finally we approached a larger passages, the infamous Texelstroom that has been in use for centuries. Here we caught a low tide back to Texel with great speed of about three miles an hour of current. The whole detour which you can clearly see on the map took us about two extra hours. In my mind I heard myself ask the question why we couldn't just paddle straight along the dike on the east of Texel. A stupid question, I suspected. The Waddenzee is well known for it tides, riptides, shallow waters en steep waves. Paddlesailing in a straight course is almost impossible.
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| Going south and way out in the Waddenzee to avoid shallow waters. |
Anyway, it was little consolation after going so far out east, that I could raise my sail again going back south-west on a quarterly course. However, no spectacular paddle sailing on this day either. Although wind force four to five was predicted with waves of one meter which led to a quick prayer during breakfast, but it would be limited to windforce two, at most three, all day long. With that gentle breeze at my back, I soon went so fast that I didn't feel any wind at all.
During our arrival at the carparking in navytown Den Helder it became clear how extraordinairy that was. Though almost no wind at sea, the predicted windforce did occur right above land and Texel. A divine hand had draped a gentle bubble over our position at sea. I guess my eary morning prayers did help. But please, dear Lord, a little bit of wind would have been nicer. Thank you.
Thanks to Jan (photos) and Iede for the organization, especially all calculations of the tides and the correct departure times. It was a fun puzzle.
