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| 2007 Baltic Adventure |
| The red line shows the route actually followed by Sno' Dog. Some of the other boats took a slightly different route through Denmark. |
| Page 1 |
| Ijmuiden |
| Rauma |
| 08/20/06 - Having decided to join the 2007 PDQ Baltic Adventure next summer, we've started checking out the territory and looking into possible routes (see above map). PDQ, read Salwa Farah, has already put together a beautiful nine-page document detailing Part 1 of the trip: Rauma, Finland to Copenhagen, Denmark. |
| 09/25/07 |
| back to Sno' Dog Log - Index/Cover Pg |
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| Salwa at PDQ has now started a website where folks planning to take this trip can share info. (see below) |
| 02/08/07 Update: Part 2 of the Adventure is now available, check it out. It appears that we now have at least eight 34's PLUS two new 41's. Exciting, but it also means we must choose a route that will accomodate an 18-foot (5.5 m) beam and a 15-foot (4.6 m) height - that's the height of the 41 with arch folded down. |
| Possible routes for our Adventure through Holland. Green line is my choice of a fun and scenic route, red line would be faster. |
| And now, some of my earlier observations - dating back to August 2006... As in much of Western Europe, there are many inland waterways in Northern Germany and Holland. But unlike much of the French waterway system, these tend to be somewhat newer and wider - and still very much in use for commercial transportation. For us, that's both good and bad news - good because of the extra width, bad because of the extra traffic. The problem with the PDQ powercat (either the 34 or the new 41) is that it's too wide (and rather tall) to be an ideal European canal boat. Much of the inland waterway system, particularly in France, is designed to a standard set back in the early 19th century which allows a maximum beam of 5 meters (16' - 5") and, in many cases, a maximum height of only 3.5 meters (11' - 6"). So for us, these small waterways will be off limits, but there are plenty of routes that will accomodate us. The route mapped out above is one of these. An excellent resource for anyone interested in this subject is an "e-book" entitled "Cruising the Canals & Rivers of Europe" by Tom Sommers. It is availble (in whole, or in part) at his website: www.eurocanals.com. I will continue to research this topic and add to this page as I find more information. I'm hoping to detail several alternative routes through northern Germany and into Holland. Stay tuned... |
| This is NOT our Dutch Canal Barge ! |
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| With that in mind, I've been working on an inland route through Holland. The map below shows what I've come up with so far. I've indicated the most Scenic Route in GREEN and the faster, more direct route in RED. Both are passable by the PDQ 41. |
| In the mean time, if you haven't already seen it, check out the pictures and story on our Dutch Canal Barge dating back to 1990. |
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| 2007 Baltic Adventue Topics have now been added to the PDQ Forum. |
| 04/07/07 - So far, I've not seen any official Itinerary with places and dates. Sooo... I decided to create one of my own: |
| Place Arrival Date (actual) Comments Rauma, Finland 28 - 30 June 7/05 hopefully, our boats will arrive before the end of June! Turku, Finland skip ? - (off our direct route, but a scenic port nonetheless) Mariehamn, Åland Is. 5 July 7/08 tortuous route through an archipelego of islands Stockholm, Sweden 8 - 9 July 7/12 open-water crossing is actually only 30 miles Söderköping, Sweden 14 July 7/15 near east end of the Göta Canal which crosses Sweden Gothenburg, Sweden 21 July 7/22 at the far end of the canal system on Sweden's W coast Copenhagen, Denmark 28 July 8/02 many options possible for transiting this area Hamburg, Germany 10 Aug - this is an up-and-back cruise on the Elbe River Delfzijl, Netherlands 14 Aug 8/14 here, we enter the inland waterways of Holland Amsterdam, NL 26 Aug 8/26 hopefully, we'll have a few days to visit A-dam Ijmuiden, NL 30 Aug 9/01 our departure point, an easy day from Amsterdam |
| Henry's un-Official Itinerary for the 2007 PDQ Baltic Adventure |
| A very rough (engineering approximation) of our total cruising distance from Rauma to Ijmuiden is... 2600 kilometers = 1615 miles = 1400 nautical miles. (That means we'll need to average 20 n-mi/day for 70 days!) |
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| Updated 6/08/07 based on latest info from Sevenstar |
| Finland Sweden Denmark Germany Holland |
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| 05/29/07 - Frustration mounts as we wait for our ship to come in! Latest available info suggests loading in Ft. |
| Lauderdale likely won't happen until June 3 or 4th. (We'd been expecting to load on May 30.) Even more frustrating is the projected arrival date in Rauma which has been pushed back to June 26, a full week later than previously expected. Some changes in our Itinerary will now clearly be necessary. |
| I suppose, our choices are to speed up the trip a bit, or to postpone our return to the USA. I'm beginning to understand why PDQ has never posted a schedule for this trip! And I'm sorry if my Un-official Itinerary (below) has given participants a false sense of certainty as to the schedule for this adventure - I was just trying to be helpful. |
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| Speaking of participants... Here's the official list (Tyger to load in Newport, RI, all others in Ft. Lauderdale): |
| 1) Havin' Fun (mv 41-01) Bob Bazinet & Charlene Lonick 2) Horizons (mv 34-79) Paul & Ann Gooding 3) Lu Lu (mv 34-60) Rob Cheek & Mamie Hutton, et al 4) Rhumb Line (mv 34-104) Dick & Carol Tuschick, David & Beth Simkins, et al 5) Sno' Dog (mv 34-87) Henry Clews & Nancy Chandler, Bob & Janet Bunnell, et al 6) Tyger (mv 34-93) John & Barbara Mills 7) Watermelon (mv 34-24) Peter & Jeanne Pockel |
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| 06/04/07 - Still waiting to load... Just received a new ETA for our ship, the Suomigracht, she's now due to arrive in Fort Lauderdale at 5PM on Tuesday the 5th of June.. We're expecting that some boats might load Tuesday evening while the rest - including Sno' Dog - will load on Wednesday the 6th. This is one full week later than we had expected. |
| 06/07/07 - The adventure begins... Six PDQ's were successfully loaded aboard the Suomigracht in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, June 6th. Naturally, the event was well documented - despite the pouring rain - to see the full report click here: 2007 Baltic Adventure - Page 2 - Loading Day |
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| Page 3 - 06/15/07 - We're off to Finland!!! Our boats headed across the Great Pond... On June 13th, the MV Suomigracht departed Newport, RI. The ship's ETA in Rauma, Finland is June 29th. |
| PDQ Baltic Web Log - New! |
| Page 4 - 07-01-07 - The Adventurers have now assembled in Rauma, FINLAND where we are awaiting the arrival of our ship. Once again, the Suomigracht has been delayed - this time, due to bad weather in Holland. The latest ETA for our boats is Thursday July 5th - a full week later than we were told when we left the USA. If you'd like to know what we've been doing since we got to Finland, click here to see: Baltic Adventure - Page 4 |
| Page 5 - 07/08/07 - Our ship has come in! Our boats are in the water, we're cruising in the Baltic! We're off to the Åland Islands - Baltic Adventure - Page 5 |
| Page 7 - 07/29/07 - The Göta Canal - Söderköping to Berg |
| Page 8 - 08/01/07 - More photos from the Göta Canal - Days 3- 6 |
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| right-side-up! |
| FLASH! PDQ has now started an official web log for this trip, click here to see their latest update. |
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| Page 9 - 08/01/07 - Göta Canal continued... Lake Vänern, Läckö Slott castle - on to Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Page 10 - 08/06/07 - Gothenburg, Varberg, Mölle, Helsingør DENMARK |
| Page 11 - 08/06/07 - København, Denmark |
| Page 12 - 08/15/07 - Southern Denmark - Dragør, Kavehave, Svendborg, Aerøskøbing |
| Page 13 - 09/02/07 - GERMANY - Maasholm, Kiel Canal, Cuxhaven |
| Page 14 - 09/04/07 - Friesian Islands - Langeoog, Norderney + Delftzijl, The Netherlands |
| The Dopellganger, a vision on Lake Roxen |
| Page 15 - 09/05/07 - Groningen & Friesland - Lauwersoog, Dokkum, Leeuwarden, Sneek, Lemmer |
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| The Little mermaid |
| Page 16 - 09/07/07 - HOLLAND - Urk, Elburg, Spakenburg, Nieuwersluise, Amsterdam, Six Haven |
| 09/02/07 - The Adventure has ended! All 7 boats were loaded aboard Sevenstar's m/v Slotergracht on 09/01/07 in Ijmuiden, NL. They are now headed back to the USA. ETA Newport: 09/17/07. |
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| Roode Haan, NL |
| Page 17 - 09/09/07 - Touring Holland on foot and by train. Delft, Zaanse Schans windmill museum - The Last Page! |
| Ship's Log - 09/11/07 - Complete Summary Table - Rauma, Finland to Ijmuiden, NL + Final Thoughts (scroll down) |
| 2007 Baltic Adventure |
| Route Map |
| To see a map of our actual route through the Netherlands - click here. It turned out to be quite close to our planned route shown below. |
| 9/22/07 Update - Our actual mileage turned out to be: 1184 nautical miles. To save time, we took a shorter route through Finland and we also skipped Hamburg. A complete Ship's Log can now be seen by clicking here. |
| The Actual Route followed by Sno' Dog: |
| 09/25/07 - Sno' Dog Comes Home - The Page after the Last Page of our 2007 Baltic Adventure - click here to see Page 18 |
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| Link to: Sno Dog Log - Page 1 |
| To see a MAP of our Adventure from Finland to Holland, scroll down to the middle of this page. |
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