All shipping traffic to and from Esbjerg, which is among the largest commercial ports in Denmark, goes through the channels Grådyb and Grådyb Barre. A narrow and challenging area for navigation at low tidal conditions.
All ships pass the Wadden Sea’s northern-most island Fanø. Off the island’s northern part Grønningen the channel is squeezed in between the sandbanks Sandende and Skallingen at the Blåvandshuk.
From the vast north-western beach at the Fanø Vesterhavbad and the Ringby Strand, the huge sandbank Søren Jessens Sand gives a spectacular dessert-like foreground for ships passing through Grådyb Channel.
Finally Fanø eastern-most part Halen overlooks Port of Esbjerg, which in recent years has been expanded with new terminals towards south aimed for the offshore wind industry and now also comprising DFDS’ terminal for the daily Immingham freight route.
The Wadden Sea-series:
The UNESCO World Heritage protected Wadden Sea stretching from Blåvandshuk in the southwestern part of Denmark southward along the German and Dutch North Sea coast down to Texel.
The unique environment of the Wadden Sea provide an interesting setting for maritime photography. In several special “Wadden Sea entries”, I visit some of these locations, where commercial shipping interacts with this very distinct marine landscape – or maybe more accurate “seascapes”.
Wikipedia about The Wadden Sea::
“The word wad is Dutch for “mud flat” (Low German and German: Watt, Danish: Vade). The area is typified by extensive tidal mud flats, deeper tidal trenches (tidal creeks) and the islands that are contained within this, a region continually contested by land and sea.
The landscape has been formed for a great part by storm tides in the 10th to 14th centuries, overflowing and carrying away former peat land behind the coastal dunes. The present islands are a remnant of the former coastal dunes.
Towards the North Sea the islands are marked by dunes and wide sandy beaches, and towards the Wadden Sea a low, tidal coast. The impact of waves and currents carrying away sediments is slowly changing both land masses and coastlines. For example, the islands of Vlieland and Ameland have moved eastwards through the centuries, having lost land on one side and added it on the other.”
paxpix - maritime photography 