Solo North Sea Crossing by Sea Kayak: Dimitri Vandepoele

Posted on Sunday 16th August, 2015

Solo North Sea Crossing: Dimitri Vandepoele

He had a dreamed, he had trained hard, totally alone and under his own power, he paddled day and night and on the 31 of July 2015 Dimitri Vandepoele completed his unsupported crossing of the Southern part of the North Sea by kayak!

This is his story....

I had this dream to do the North Sea crossing for years and now the weather conditions were perfect. So I planned, made calculations to counter the tide and prepared myself mentally.

The Crossing!

On Thursday 30th July, I said my goodbye to my family. Right before starting I sent a message to both the Belgian and the British Coast Guard to inform them of my plans and estimated route. At 21:30 hours sharp I sat in my sea kayak and paddled towards the open sea; waving a last time to my family when passing the pier. I had luck on my side - after sunset I still had some light due to the full moon. The downside however, was the current , full moon equals spring tide! Until the Trapegeer buoy I had the tidal stream in my favour. After that point, and that was fully calculated in advance, I had to paddle 6 hours against a strong tide. At 04:48 hours I arrived at the 'DY1' buoy.

It was slack at that point, the tidal current would change direction soon. I had radio contact one last time with Marc, the friendly Belgian Coast Guard radio operator (Ostend Radio), to give him my current position and state. He was in close contact with Sylvie, my wife and onland support team, to keep her informed. After that point I was on my own until I was in radio contact with the British Coast Guard. I paddled on, the current now in my favor, to the buoys Ruytingen SW and Ruytingen NW. In the meantime the sun was rising what made the crossing of the international fairway a bit easier.

According to the Coast Guard almost 500 sea ships are passing through that shipping lane every single day - I had to keep watch in order to stay as far away from those big ship as possible as I doubt that they would even spot me! So on this section I paddled as hard as I could even with having a strong tidal current on the right side. I managed to get over the shipping lane, along the buoys 'Sandettie WSW' to the South Falls without troubles. I only spotted 4 big sea ships but I’ve passed them in the distance. After that I changed my course and diverged from my planned route to a secondary planned route.

I did that in order to counteract the very strong tidal current that was pushing very hard on my right side. So I went on to the 'East Goodwin' light ship.

At the light ship I established radio contact, this time with the Dover Coast Guard. They were already fully aware of my intentions and also keeping my wife informed of my position and state. I was treated very well by the friendly crew on the radio (as was my wife). The 'East Goodwin' ship is an 'unmanned' lightship that warns seaman of the very treacherous Goodwin Sand Banks nearby; Dangerous for almost every other vessel but ideal conditions for a seasoned kayaker!

With almost no wind at all there were still waves between 0,5 and 1 meter height! In that area I saw numerous seals - wonderful!! The sand banks were the last but one landmark of the crossing after that I set sail to my final destination - Ramsgate harbour. The tidal current was now pushing on my left side so I had to compensate a lot in order to reach the harbour. I reached the slipway in the harbour of Ramsgate at 15:06 hours (Belgian time). I was so far ahead on my estimated planning that my support team had not arrived yet! Luckily I was prepared for that having dry clothes and plenty of food and drinks with me. After a few hours my lovely wife and kids arrived, it was a happy reunion, and we took the ferry back to the mainland.

I would like to thank my wife Sylvie for her constant support in the chasing of my biggest dream, the North Sea crossing, as well in all my other so called foolish plans regarding sea kayaking! I want to say thanks to Marc, the radio operator from the Belgian Coast Guard (Ostend Radio) for looking an eye out for me just until the DY1 buoy, and also thank you to the friendly crew from the Dover Coast Guard! To those people; your help is very much appreciated both by me as by my wife!

We hope this crossing has put Belgian sea kayaking on the map! A big thanks to my other Northseakayak-members for their continuous support!