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Neringa |
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Neringa |
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At Klaipeda, the Curonian Bay begins. A remarkable peninsula, the Curonian Split or Neringa, 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 they dunes loom and in some places the reach 60 m high. A days run south from Klaipeda, close to the Russian border we will find our destination, the old health resort and fishing village Nida!
The voyage southwards follows the buoyed fairway.
The bay holds generally 3m 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.
An odd detail was that we found that all buoys had the wrong colour. Obviously the direction of the fairway had been shifted, compared with our chart.
Down in Nida, the approach offers no problems. The port is surrounded by two piers and the port itself is divided into two parts. In the northern you find fishing vessels and the hydrofoil. In the southern part you find the yacht harbour.
Nida ha an old history as a health resort, and you
still find sanatoriums here, but nowadays most activities is
targeted to develop normal tourism. This is a tourist trap in
it's positive meaning. To Nida many Lithuanians go themselves in
holiday, and in resent years many cafes and other tourist
services have emerged.Why not rent a bike to explore the
peninsula? In Eastern Europe commodities can still be quite
primitive and service not developed. To find a place with good
service and low prices felt perfect!
Close to the harbour you will find one of the bigger area of the mighty dunes. Along the pedestrian way the small resorts and villages is situated one after the one. A kilometre to the east you find the endless beaches at the shore to the Baltic Sea
From Nida you can take a trip with a rocket! "Raketa" is a typical Soviet stile hydrofoil, and its appearance makes you think about science fiction from the 50:s. The rapid boat sails over the Bay and up river Nemunas to the city of Kaunas. .
The harbour is situated close to the small village Joudkrante, and the port was once used for shipping amber from the amber plant at the site. However we didn't find any huge heap of left amber. Today the port is used by some fishing boats. The inlet is quite shallow and could be a problem. We found our way in from NE, thus avoiding some sandbanks blocking the inlet.
The village was busy restoring and constructing facilities for tourism. This will very soon become a resort like Nida. In Juodkrante you will find a pedestrian way in the wood, lined with wooden statues. In the dim light among the trees, the twisted and grim features seams pagan. To o the story we must add that Lithuania was the last country at the Baltic sea to be Christened. Perhaps it has something to do with statues..
You can also sail upriver Nemunas at the eastern shore of the Lagoon and call the port of Minge.
The southern part of the Bay is a part of the Russian Kaliningrad enclave. You can't sail southwards over the border since the Russians has no border point for Sea vessel. If you have a visa to Russia you however can pass the border by car or buss at the peninsula. The only estuary of the Corunian Bay is in the north at Klaipeda. If you want to call Kaliningrad, the proper way to do it is to sail via Baltijsk and Bay of Kaliningrad.