Klaipeda Guide for Sailors

Entrance

* Safe water buoy - 55° 43.857N 20° 59.760E.
* Center of harbor entrance - 55° 43.697N 21° 04.686E.
* There is enough depth for pleasure boat to enter harbor from any direction.
* Minimum distance at the end of entrance breakwaters':
-> Under calm conditions - not less than 20 meters;
-> Under rough conditions - center of the entrance;
* Southern approaches deeper than Northern ones.
* Warning: remains of the boat (underwater) at the end of the North breakwater. The black buoy is the mark of NW approaches to the Northern breakwater.
* The current in the harbor - up to 1.3 knot. Its' direction depends on wind: outbound - when wind direction is from E to SW, Inbound - when wind direction is from W to N.
* The current on the approaches of the harbor gates - up to 1 knot from S to N when the wind direction is from S to W.
* Prevailing round the year wind direction - W/SW.
* Harbor working hours - 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
* Coast Guard VHF 73. Call sign "Impuls 3". It is mandatory to report before entering the port: Ship's name, national flag, number of crew members and citizenship of crew members. No Custom and Passport control for citizens of Shengen Countries.
* Harbor traffic service - VHF 9. Call sign - "Radio 5". It is recommended to announce the entrance and departure to the traffic service in order not to disturb the traffic of big ships at the harbor gates. Big ferries due to high seas sometimes arrives at speed of 20 knots.

Port fairway

* Marking system -IALA lateral, region A (direction - from the sea; green - right; read - left).
* Depth in waterway - 12-13 m.
* Depth at the distance of 30 meters from West shore - 5 m. All Eastern shore is forbidden for pleasure crafts from entrance till river Dane.
* No hidden underwater obstacles in the harbor.
* Yacht traffic under sails is forbidden in the waterway. 10 meters from the edge of waterway is appointed for pleasure crafts.
* Crossing the waterway is allowed at the angle of 90 degrees, not closer than 500 m of an approaching vessel.

Coastguard and Custom control

* There is no Custom and Passport control for citizens from Shengen Countries.
* You can follow directly into river Dane and further to Castle harbor (East shore 55° 42.372N 21° 07.353E at the entrance of river Dange).

Old Castle harbor

* Old Castle harbor can be found 0.2 NM from entrance river Dange.
* Entrance channel to the harbor lagoon is on the right hand. The depth in the entrance channel and in the harbor is up to 3 meters.There is mechanical bridge, that swings every hour and it is left open for traffic 15 minutes.
* Harbor has pontoon equipped boat berths. Water and electricity on the quay. You should pay deposit in the Harbormaster's premises in order to acquire plastic card for Electricity, Toilet and shower. Only cash. Price 10-20 euros per day depends on LOA.
* Harbormaster's phone number is +370-652-30408. It is wise to make a call for the bed in advance.
* It is secure to leave the boat. Whole territory is watched by video cameras, entrance gates operated with plastic cards (same as for electricity, shower and WC).

Smiltyne Sailing-club Harbor

* Out of operations from 2010.

Sailing into internal Lagoon till Nida (Kursiu Marios - Kursiu Laguna)

* The water way of Lagoon starts at the end of the harbor, near the island "Kiaules Nugara" - Pork's Back. The island should be left on the East side.
* High voltage electrical cables are in 28 meters high over the Western pass of the island. There is no enough depth in the Eastern pass nor high as well - the high voltage wires are just in the 8-9 meters high.
* The narrowest part of Lagoon waterway is near Juodkrante.
* The lowest level of soundings in Lagoon waterway is 2.1 m. The fluctuation of the depth depends upon the water level in Lagoon and differentiates by +0.3 m.
* There are plenty of nets in Lagoon, which are mounted on the piles. Usually depth near the last pile (from both sides) is 3 meters. It is save to pass the last pile even in 1 meter distance.
* It is strongly recommended to follow the waterway from Kiaules Nugara island to the light house (Roterman) near Pervalka village. This waterway is supplied with lights. After the light house the depth is bigger.
* The sandbanks direction around the light house - East to West till the shore. Secure distance from the East approaches of light house ~ 0.3 NM, green IALA buoy should be left on starboard.
* After Roterman light house there is enough depth between Nida waterway (marked by green buoys, which are lit during the dark period of the day) and Nemunas waterway (market with red buoys supplied with lights).
* There is long sandbank from Bulvikio cape, the last cape before Nida. It is strongly recommend to leave green buoy in the West.
* 0.3 NM before Bulvikio cape green buoy on the left hand are remains of drowned barge market by isolated danger buoy (black buoy with red horizontal stripe, supplied by light). Barges' chimney could be seen in rough conditions in NW direction from the buoy at the distance of 10 meters.
* There is one green buoy on the passage from Bulvikio cape to Nida which should be left in the NW as well.
* There are two harbors in Nida: fisherman's' - Northern entrance (not operational for visitors), and guest harbor - Southern one. To avoid sandbanks on the last Lagoon leg it is recommended not to cross straight line from the last green buoy to the fishermen's harbor entrance.
* Guest harbor approaches are secure from any direction. Harbormaster's phone number is +370-610-20990. It is wise to make a call for bed in advance. Harbor is supplied with the anchored white buoys with rings on top in distance of 20-25 meters from western concrete quay. Prices in 10-20 euro's level. Water and electricity on the quay included. Shower and WC service in Harbormaster's building ashore and payable separately. All payments should me done in local currency, cash. No credit cards available.

(Prepared by Sailing Captain Arturas Dovydenas, 2014-04-05, arturas.dovydenas eta gmail.com)