Of all the blockades run by the British navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, the blockade off Texel by the North Sea fleet had to have been one of the most hazardous. The island of Texel and the Dutch naval yard just to the south, Den Helder, made this area a logical point of concentration for Dutch warships before conducting a sortie against the British.
The prevailing winds are generally from the southwest, creating a strong counter-clockwise current. The constricted space brings with it the nasty property of presenting any blockading fleet with a lee shore under most wind conditions.
This satellite image has Texel and the Wadden Sea centered in the frame. If you are interested at the view from ground level, there are a lot of interesting shots of Texel land and seascapes here.
