Balaton Cruising Guide
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Lake balaton Cruising Guide
An online cruising guide for yachts sailing in the lake Balaton.
Background
Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Central Europe. It is in the transdanubian regin of Hungary. As Hungary is a landlocked country, it is also called "Hungarian Sea". Its hungarian nickname is "Balcsi". German name is "Plattensee". You can find the factual data in Wikipedia's Lake Balaton article, so let's get down to the real background: It is a famous destination for summer vacation. In fact in the communist era it was the best such destination reacheable for most of the population of the country. Hence it has a nearly mithological role for the middle aged and older generations, commonly associated with summer, happiness, young age and love. Lake Balaton was also the meeting point for german families divided by the iron courtain. The mountains in the nort shore have a good climate for grape, so there are some very nice wines there. The most famous wine growing region there is Badacsony.
Hydrology
Balaton is a rift lake. 77 km long, roughly in east-west direction, its maximal width is 14 km. The lake is filled from the Zala river and several streams. Te only outflow is the Sió canal, which is used to keep the level of the lake constant. Sió have water only in "planned shipmove times", one or two times a year. It is the hardest to navigate waterway in Hungary. The lake retention time is 2-3 years. There is one peninsula in the Northern shore, called Tihany peninsula. It divides the lake to two basins. The narrow between the basins is called "the pipe" ("a cső" in Hungarian). The north shore is mountaneous, and deepens more quickly than the southern one. There are two under-water dunes in the south shore, which means that some 500m from the coast is recommended if you are not heading to/from a port. The main wind is N-NW, so surface currents are southbound, and underwater currents are northbound. These are slow ones. Wind can make differences in the water level on the shores in an order of half a meter. When it is from west or east, this can drive noticeable currents in the pipe.
