Curonian Spit - Neringa  national park

At Klaipeda, the Curonian Bay begins. A remarkable peninsula, the Curonian spit, also called Neringa, now a , leads southwards along the coast, mile after mile. Behind the peninsula you find the lagoon, the protected Curonian Bay.

To sail here is a strange experience. The nature is very different to the western shores of the Baltic Sea with it's skerries, islands and islets. This is instead the land of the gigantic sand dunes!

Close to the fairway the dunes loom and in some places the reach 60 m high. After a days sailing south from Klaipeda, close to the Russian border, we find our destination, the old health resort and fishing village Nida.

The voyage southwards follows the buoyed fairway. The bay holds generally 3 m depth, but with huge sand banks in some places. The fishing is intensive and you have to look up for the fish trap stakes.

The bay is a protected lagoon and grounding in the sand is no catastrophe. But to avoid too close studies of the local fishery or the dunes, we strictly recommend you not to sail in the night.

We met some quite large sailing vessels in the Bay. The navigable depth is obviously enough even for bigger boats. However the larger vessels took a different route, choosing the leg from SE lighthouse Ariljo to the inlet of river Nemunas, and then to Nida. Smaller crafts followed the fairway close to the split, all the way down to Nida. It could be wise to discuss the route at the yacht club in Klaipeda, before departure.

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