Harbour

Etaples

3.7Etaples, FranceOpal Coast and Bay of Somme

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Maximum length: 45 ft
VHF channel: 9
Maximum draught: 4 ft

Tidal marina of 240 berths on the Canche estuary, opposite Le Touquet, in the Pas-de-Calais.

Guide

Approach and anchoring

The Canche entrance is shifting and poorly marked offshore, the outer buoys are hard to pick out from seaward and the entrance is dangerous in any onshore swell. Enter only on a rising tide from about HW minus 2 h, following the buoyed channel past Le Touquet, and expect a hard current in the entrance. On low coefficients around 48 there can be as little as 1.05 m in the channel and the harbour is not reachable even at high water. Maximum draught 1.5 m at the pontoons at neaps. VHF channel 9. Avoid at night or in strong westerlies.

Practical

240 berths, around 30 for visitors on the hammerhead of pontoon C. Water and electricity on the pontoons. Toilets and showers at the capitainerie. A Carrefour Express, a bakery and fishmongers are within walking distance, with restaurants nearby. Diesel at Le Touquet across the estuary at 3 km by water.

Ashore

Maréis fishing discovery centre at the quay, 200 m from the marina. Maritime quarter with fish sellers directly at the port. Canche estuary nature reserve on the opposite bank, footbridge to Le Touquet 1 km upstream.

History

Étaples was a fishing port documented since the Middle Ages and hosted a British military hospital and camp during the First World War. The Étaples Military Cemetery 2 km from the port holds more than 11 000 Commonwealth graves.