If any of you are thinking of visiting the northern part of the Netherlands this year, then you may be interested to know about the changes taking place on August 1st this year to the channels around Ijmuiden. A new TSS scheme will be put in place and much of the buoyage will be changed on July 30th and 31st,

Ammunition dumping grounds will be renamed on charts as ‘areas to be avoided’ (something of an understatement!) and various precautionary areas will be established. New charts will be released in June this year. For fuller details, you may like to have a look at:

• New North Sea Shipping Routes (pdf file)
• North sea: new shipping routes (Rijkswaterstaat)

Many thanks to Rob Crees for letting me know about these changes.

Ijmuiden Yacht Harbour

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, User: Japiot. Licensed under Creative Commons.