Baltic Germany

All but one of the pages featured here are in the former East Germany (the DDR). Enormous sums of money have been spent renovating the buildings and infrastructure, and, as a result, the cities are now places worth visiting. In the former DDR days, most of the apartment blocks were built on the city outskirts, with very little development in the city centre. Most suffered some bomb damage during the war, but many historical buildings survived, and many that were damaged have been fully restored.

Facilities for yachts are good: sailing in this part of the world is very active. Recommendations for moorings are based on my own visits. You will find a mixture of box moorings (in the main), quaysides, and, in more recent developments, pontoons (German Schwimmstegen).

All the pictures on the pages are thumbnails: if you click on them, an enlarged version will appear in a 'pop out'.

I cannot recommend the nv-pedia website too highly: it has charts of all the harbours and pilotage notes etc. The latter are in German, but can be translated using Babelfish or an equivalent.

Stralsund seen from the North Mole across the marina.

Lübeck

If you want to see Lübeck, there are two options - either stop in Travemunde and travel to the city, or sail the eight or so miles down the river to the city. I would tend to go for the city, although there are a few caveats.

The city centre is not that yacht friendly, but on the other hand the mooring is only five minute's walk from the centre.

The entrance to the river is at Travemunde, conspicuous for miles around with its great white multistory building (see pictures). Travemunde is a very busy ferry terminal, so you need to looking both ahead and behind as you enter the river. If you want to stop here, there are plenty of box moorings either side. The Trave was part of the East/West border in former times, and, once you are past the town, there are places where you can still see the concrete bases of the watch towers that were erected on the boundary.

The journey down the Trave is mixed - the early sections are surprisingly rural and beautiful, but then you get into less attractive parts which are surrounded by quays and light industry. There is also a new (2008) lifting bridge a half mile or so before the city, which you may not find on your charts. Opening times are given here. The text is in German, but the opening times - Öffnungszeiten - are fairly obvious. There is also a telephone number if you want to check, if your German is good enough. You can find out more about the bridge here. Allow about an hour and a half for the journey.

Moorings

In some ways, it is difficult to miss the Hanse marina - it is as far down the quayside as you can go before coming to the Willy Brandt bridge. It is one long pontoon with parallel parking. There may be some wash from the Hafenrundfarhtschiffen (tourist boats), so you are better on the inside. The ablutions are a little basic but adequate.

The city

Although Lübeck was heavily bombed during the war, it has been well restored, and is a fascinating place to explore. There are also some good shops, and a good supermarket within easy walking distance.

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The entrance to the Trave River at Travemunde.

An open and shut case - the Eric Warburg Bridge.

The Hansa Marina in the city centre.

Wismar

Wismar is less well known than many of the other of the Hanseatic league cities, yet it still has a lot to offer. It too was bombed, with one of the churches as an aiming point. The tower still stands, however, and is a reminder of the damage done to this part of the world.

Wismar is not down a river, but instead tucked away in the corner of the Wismar Bucht. You need to study the chart beforehand: there are shallow patches, but often not shallow enough for the average yacht to worry about. There are buoyed channels in from the west and from the north, which converge towards the harbour. The first obvious sign of Wismar itself is the very large shipyard building, which is visible seveal miles away.

berthing and facilities

Once into the harbour, there are three mooring places to choose from, and there isn't a great deal in it. The quay to west is called, surprisingly, the Westhafen. Here there are pontoons with fingers, and also some quayside moorings. The Alter Hafen merely has a high concrete quayside with the usual metal piling which really needs the large sperical fenders. The Uberseehafen also has pontoon moorings.

The area between the Alter Hafen and the Unterseehafen is rather derelict at the moment (2009), but there are plans for building apartment blocks. The Unterseehafen is marginally the closest to the city but suffers from noise from the nearby commercial quay; the Westhafen is closest to the Plus supermarket. Any of the three will be quite suitable.

Wismar harbour chart on nv-pedia.

The city

The city centre is not far from the harbour, and it is certainly worth a day or two exploring it. The church of St Nikolai in particular is extremely impressive, and the city still has a large number of mediaeval buildings.

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Two views of the Alter Hafen. The tower of the Marienkirche can be seen in the background.

The Unterseehafen. Left: the final approach, with masts just visible far right. Right: The moorings.

The city centre. The building on the left dates from the fourteenth century.

The Nikolai church dominates the skyline - this picture was taken from the Unterseehafen. It has a very impressive interior. The Marienkirche was the aiming point for the USAAF raid in 1945. The tower survived, but the body of the church was badly damaged and blown up by the DDR regime in 1960. Currently, work is going on retracing the outline. The brickwork on the tower is blackened by the fire, as you can see.

Rostock

Rostock was severely damaged by bombing in the war, and many - though not all - of the historic buildings have been lost. In the former DDR days, it was, apparently, distinctly grey and drear, but it certainly not that now. It has a thriving commercial centre, and also is home to an ancient University.

The city is about an hour's journey down the Trave river from the entrance. Travemünde itself is an extremely busy ferry port, and also has a lot of commercial traffic, so you need to be alert at the entrance, and for the first mile or so once inside. After that, the river becomes quieter, and is well buoyed.

If you have a long journey from the west, one place that might be convenient for a 'pitstop' before you get to Rostock is Kühlungsborn. This a new, purpose built marina directly on the shore, so it is quite convenient, being about 12 miles west of Warnemunde. It isn't a place to linger, however - the ambience is something of 'Port Solent on the Ostsee'.

berthing and facilities

If you're going to go all the way down the river, then you might as well tie up at the closest point to the city. This is the StadtHafen Ost. There are various other moorings along the quayside, but this is the very last one you come to. One pontoon is set aside for visitors. The fingers are rather on the short side, and stern buoys are provided as well. If you are much over 35 foot or so, it is probably a good idea to pick one of these up as well as tying onto the finger. There is an excellent chandlers - one of the best to be found on this stretch of the coast - on the quayside directly opposite the pontoons. They also take your mooring fee!

Rostock harbour chart on nv-pedia.

The city

The one drawback to mooring anywhere along this stretch of quay is that there is a very busy main road between you and the city! Once you have negotiated that, however, you are only a couple of minutes walk from the centre. Rostock was an important port in the days of the DDR, and there are some substantial buildings dating from that era. In addition, Rostock was sufficiently damaged in the war to need a lot of rebuilding. However, there are still quite a few mediaeval buildings left, and ther has been an enormous amount of money spent on the city in the last twenty years.

On the other important issue - there are several stores and supermarkets within easy walking distance, so obtaining supplies is not a problem.

Left: the moorings. The fingers and stern buoys can be seen quite easily. Right: the quayside by the moorings. The chandlery is the nearest white building.

Left: the city centre. Right: one of the surviving mediaeval buildings in the city.

Stralsund

The city lies on a channel, the Strelasund, which is about 15 miles long. The entrance to the south is from the Greifswalder Bodden, which is about 10 miles by 10 miles, with reasonably deep water and several harbours. To the north are much shallower boddens, and it is about 8 or 9 miles out to the Baltic proper. The Strelasund is blocked by a large bridge just to the south of the city. There is a lifting bridge which lets you through, but it only opens a few times a day.

Of all the channels leading down to these Hanseatic ports, the Gellen Strom is the trickiest. The channel starts by the island of Hiddensee. From here, you follow the buoys with very great care. The channels have been dredged through the surrounding sand which is covered by only a few tens of centimetres of water, and, quite often, large areas dry out, depending on the water level. You need to study the charts carefully before trying the passage, and it is not one to be attempted at night unless you are very confident in your chartplotter!

The church spires of the city are visible literally for miles away, as is the new bridge and the pale blue Volkswerft building.

If coming up from the south, you will have to time your arrival for the opening bridge, or klappenbrücke, at Dänholm. In 2009, the opening times were 0820, 1220 and 1720. It would be a good idea, however, to check these haven't changed. All the local harbour masters will have the timings.

Stralsund harbour chart on nv-pedia.

berthing and facilities

The city waterfront is surrounded by a mole with two entrances (caution - the part of the mole parallel to the shore is only about a metre above water. If you come in from the Baltic, the high brick wall of the northern mole is very obvious - the entrance is at the end of this section of the mole. It is well marked. Although there is a buoyed approach channel, there is at least 3m of water across the sound at this point.

There are two places to chose from - either 'box' type moorings on the island of Dänholm, or the new [opened 2006] Citymarina, which has pontoon berths and all facilities. Dänholm is some way from the city, whereas the new marina is on the north mole and only five minutes walk from the city centre. Shelter in the marina is good, although strong southeasterlies may make it a little uncomfortable. The berths closer to the city are rather cramped and often reserved: your best bet is to try the three outer pontoons. Room for manoeuvering is a little limited.

The marina has a novel way of charging you for extras. You get a card from the marina office, and pay, say, €10. To pay for electricity, you then place the card onto the post with the sockets, and a menu appears on a screen. You type in which socket you are using, and then how many kWhrs you wish to pay for (€0.5 per kWhr). Similarly for the showers: each minute costs you so much; you type in the shower number, number of minutes, press the card against the screen, and off you go (yes, you pay by the minute!). The same card is also used to pay for the washing machine and drier.

The city

Of all the Hanseatic league cities, Stralsund is probably the most spectacular, and, apart from Greifswald, the best preserved. It is worth putting aside a couple of days simply to explore the town.

It is also quite a reasonable town for shopping, although there is only one supermarket within easy reach (not quite a supermarket, but more upmarket than the average lebensmittel. This is tucked away behind the Peek and Clopperburg department store (the marina will give you directions and a map of the city).

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Left - Stralsund skyline seen approaching from the north. Right - a distinctly 'out of season' view of the marina.

Left - a distinctly 'in season' view of the marina. Right - the Rathaus, or Town Hall, in the market square.

Left - The Volkswerft just south of the bridge. This is visible for miles around. It also has a webcam which gives weather conditions.. Right - The klappenbrücke or lifting bridge south of the city.

Sassnitz

Sassnitz is a pleasant but slightly faded and genteel holiday resort built on the hillside of eastern Rügen. The harbour is purely artificial and protected by what is apparently the longest mole in Europe!

Being built on a hillside, the town is easy to see from a distance; the harbour entrance lies at the souther end. About a mile further south is a large new ferry harbour.

The ferries have now left Sassnitz, but it is still home to a fishing fleet and some large excursion boats, whose wash can make the harbour uncomfortable at times.

The entrance is very straightforward: head for the green light at the end of the mole, turn to starboard, and head up into the harbour.

Sassnitz harbour chart on nv-pedia.

berthing and facilities

New finger pontoons were installed in 2008, but were still unavailable throughout 2009. I have no idea why, and my German is good enough to find out. In the meantime, there are some rather cramped box moorings, or the quay wall. It is then a very long walk to the facilities - 1 kilometre(!) to the nearest showers! It's also a very long walk to the loos, although that problem was 'solved' in 2009 with chemical Portaloos decorating the mole.

The city

It is something of a walk up a rather steep hill to get to the town. There is quite a reasonable supermarket there.

Sassnitz is not an historic town like those of the Hanseatic League, but more of a nineteenth century resort. It is still very popular with holiday makers.

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Sassnitz entrance - the mole can be clearly seen in the left hand picture

Left: the forbidden pontoons. Right: tying up on the mole, with adjacent facilities ...

Kröslin

Kröslin is the ideal place to stop if you want to visit the cradle of rocketry, Peenemunde, where Werhner von Braun designed and built the V2. It also boasts a new, modern purpose built marina with all the amenities.

Kröslin is an easy day's sail from Stralsund, Sassnitz, Greifswald or even Swinoujcie in Poland. The channel at the top of the Peenestrom is narrow, with shallow water either side, but it is well buoyed. This is one area where it is unwise to stray from the buoys. Navigation down the Peene channel is helped by the excellent leading lines/lights down the entire length of the river. Kröslin church also makes a good landmark.

Kröslin harbour chart on nv-pedia.

Kroeslin marina website.

berthing and facilities

There is plenty of room to reconnoitre before choosing a berth: reserved spaces are marked with a red plaque, free ones with a green. There are four pontoons with finger berths which, unless you are very large indeed, you will find room.

The town

Kröslin is not much more than a village, although it has a few shops including a lebensmittel and butcher. The church dates back to the fourteenth century.

A ferry runs across to Peenemunde from the end of A pontoon every two hours, allowing you to walk round the museum there. The peninsula here is very flat, and you can hire bikes at Kröslin - well worth doing.

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Right: Kröslin entrance. Left: the marina

Left: the ferry to Peenemunde. The old power station can be seen in the background. Right: Kröslin church.