It amazes me how the depth of the North Sea barely reaches more than 40 metres on average where we cross with the King of Scandinavia to get to Amsterdam (IJmuiden). The ship is rather large with a height of approximately 44 m above water and a depth of 6 m under the water.
The water that we sail as we pass the break water to IJmuiden is only 16m deep and needs to be constantly dredged.
The River Rhine is very productive and brings lots of sediment as it moves to the mouth and out into the open sea. The port at IJmuiden is very busy and on a daily basis there are big cargo ships and other ships that use this area to load and off load their cargo.
It is pretty amazing to see these large ships with the knowledge that they are only a couple of meters off the bottom on the water.
Rosie
Wildlife Officer.
This is a picture of the dredger as we approach the dock in IJmuiden
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