Passage Planners

The routes run from west to east along the Channel. From the Solent, Cherbourg lies about 67 nautical miles almost due south of Lymington, across the open Channel and its western shipping lanes. From Poole, Braye Harbour on Alderney is about 61 nautical miles south-south-west, approached past the fast streams around the island.

Further east, Newhaven to Dieppe is about 64 nautical miles and Brighton to Dieppe about 70, a crossing that runs just west of the Dover Strait reporting area. In the Dover Strait itself, Dover to Calais is about 22 nautical miles and Dover to Boulogne about 25, the shortest open-water passages to the Continent. From Ramsgate or Dover, Dunkerque is about 40 nautical miles, with Nieuwpoort and Ostend in Belgium further along the Flemish coast.

All distances on these pages are straight-line distances between harbour positions. The distance actually sailed depends on the tide, the lane crossing and the approach to each harbour.

The tidal streams in the Channel run broadly east and west, so a north–south crossing is pushed sideways by the stream for most of the passage rather than helped or hindered along its track. Each planner gives the stream at points on the route, taken from the tidal stream tables on the ADMIRALTY small-craft charts, with times referred to high water at Dover.

Spring rates are roughly double the neap rates at the same diamond. In the open Channel south of the Isle of Wight the stream reaches about 4 knots at springs; in the Dover Strait it reaches about 3 knots; around Alderney it runs much faster, and the French government’s environmental authority records that the Raz Blanchard (the Alderney Race) can approach 12 knots on equinoctial spring tides.

High water times for Dover are published by the UK Hydrographic Office through ADMIRALTY EasyTide, and the tide times on our harbour guides come from the same service.

Rule 10 of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea governs traffic separation schemes. A vessel shall, so far as practicable, avoid crossing traffic lanes, but if obliged to do so shall cross on a heading as nearly as practicable at right angles to the general direction of traffic flow. The rule fixes the boat’s heading, not its track over the ground, so in a cross-tide the track will run at an angle while the bow points straight across the lane. A vessel of less than 20 metres in length or a sailing vessel shall not impede the safe passage of a power-driven vessel following a traffic lane.

In the Dover Strait the lanes form the Dover Strait Traffic Separation Scheme, monitored by radar from Dover Coastguard and CROSS Gris-Nez. According to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, more than 400 commercial vessels use the scheme each day and more than 100 ferry movements cross it, with ships often moving at over 20 knots. West of the scheme, between the Off Casquets scheme and the Greenwich meridian, the ADMIRALTY folio for the Channel Islands shows recommended directions of traffic flow, and states that ships crossing them should do so on a heading as nearly as practicable at right angles.

UK Coastguard stations announce maritime safety information on VHF Channel 16 and broadcast it on Channel 62, 63 or 64. Solent Coastguard covers the central Channel coast and Dover Coastguard covers the Dover Strait, which it shares with the French CROSS Gris-Nez. CROSS Jobourg covers the Cotentin peninsula and the Channel Islands approaches. French CROSS stations broadcast weather in French on their own channels; the times are listed in each planner.

Channel 16 is the distress, urgency and calling channel, and Channel 70 is reserved for Digital Selective Calling. Harbour and marina channels are listed on every planner, so the boat is ready to call the port on arrival.

Leaving Great Britain for France, Belgium or the Channel Islands is a journey you must report. gov.uk asks for a pleasure craft report before you sail. Online, through the service 'Tell Border Force and HMRC you are sailing to or from the UK in a pleasure craft', the report goes in at least 2 hours and no more than 24 hours before departure, and it can be amended or cancelled if plans change. The report covers the boat, the skipper, passport details for everyone on board and the planned departure and arrival times. The emailed sPCR fallback template and the paper form C1331 remain available.

On arrival in France or Belgium you enter the Schengen area and pass border control at a designated port. Each planner gives the procedure for the destination, and the Crossing the Channel guide sets out the documents the boat and crew carry.

Coming back to Great Britain, gov.uk requires the yellow Q flag to be flown as soon as you enter UK waters (the 12-mile limit), and kept flying until you have finished reporting to the customs authorities. Anyone on board who is not a British or Irish citizen needs a Border Force officer’s permission to enter the UK before leaving the boat. Goods over the personal allowances, goods bought abroad worth more than £270 in total, animals and restricted foods must be declared, and gov.uk states that pets can only be brought into Great Britain on a private boat when travelling from Ireland or Northern Ireland.

Each planner is organised in the same order: the route and distance, the tidal streams by the hour, the traffic rules, the radio channels, the harbours at each end and the paperwork. A set of questions and answers closes each page.

Tidal stream figures are given as published on ADMIRALTY charts for a specific diamond position, and the full picture for each area is in the ADMIRALTY tidal stream atlases: NP250 for the English Channel, NP233 for the Dover Strait, NP337 for the Solent and NP264 for the Channel Islands. The maps on these pages are for general orientation only and must not be used for navigation.