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Tuesday 10 – Friday 13 April

Petra the harbourmaster welcomed us warmly and proved a mine of useful information. Her beautiful English put our poor and patchy German to shame, as she explained where in town we’d find provisioning and points of interest, how to handle the Kiel Canal and where to fuel. As an experienced solo sailor herself, she understands exactly what we needed to know, and was happy to share all manner of advice and suggestions.

The facilities at the marina are really good: sparkling clean, warm and well fitted out. Laundry is reasonably priced in the ubiquitous and very efficient Miele machines, trolleys are available and wifi and recycling are offered. It is a pleasant 10-15 minute walk into town, where there is a selection of supermarkets, and a large number of restaurants and cafés.

MATE RATES

For a wide selection of fruit and vegetables, and a lovely Turkish delicatessen, head for Anka on Nordersteinstraße, the main pedestrianised shopping street that runs South from Kaemmererplatz. Anka is just beyond the post office, on the junction with Segelckestraße.

We enjoyed a good lunch at Zum Park on Sűdersteinstraße: generous portions of Balkan-inspired dishes, after an ‘on the house’ appetiser of homemade soup – delicious.

We had a couple of rather bouncy nights in a cold Easterly wind, and feel we may have fared better if we’d tucked further into the marina, to tie up alongside the pontoon that lies inside the Ro-Ro ferry terminal. Meanwhile, Skipper cleaned my topsides thoroughly ie with a sponge and soapy water, as well as a hose – I felt like I was having a spa experience. He didn’t get as far as the polish and wax stage, but there’s always another day… Mate’s still nursing a sore ankle, and took only occasional walks along the rather bouncy pontoon, but they did manage a second shopping trip on Friday morning, from which they returned too late to depart for the canal. There’s always another day… and anyway, sailors are a superstitious lot, and never start a voyage on a Friday, let alone a Friday 13th.

Monday 9 April

Having dropped a couple of possible overnights off the schedule, we had left ourselves a relatively easy last leg of this stage of our delivery cruise, but it still turned out to be an eventful day. First the mist dropped suddenly just as we were preparing to weigh the anchor and depart, so we followed our inward track back out with the help of the chart plotter and radar.

For a while, foghorns could be heard from the commercial vessels in the nearby shipping lanes, but to Mate’s great relief, it lifted as quickly as it had come in, opening her circle of visibility from a couple of boat-lengths to several miles. Before long, today’s passenger arrived in the shape of a slightly bedraggled pied wagtail. This visitor wasn’t as impressed by my ambience, and soon disappeared again.

Even in the mist there was a good breeze, so Skipper had set full main and genoa, and I was enjoying reaching at six knots and more. After a while, Mate decided I was heeling too much, and requested a sail change down to the staysail, which provided no less speed but a much more comfortable ride. The wind increased and our relative angle altered as we changed course to follow the shoreline, and Mate called for second reef, by now feeling less than happy, cold and wet from a couple of full-face ‘greenies’. [An observer may have said her face was that colour by now anyway.] Typically, no sooner had Skipper sweated to bring the mainsail under control than the wind dropped right away, and I was down to four knots with over 20 Miles still ahead of me. Obligingly, he shook the reef back out and I went back to full main and around five knots, a more respectable speed and less unpleasant motion.

The sun tried valiantly to shine all day, but with little success and no noticeable warmth. As we began to pick out the line of towers marking the edge of drying sandbanks, outside the main shipping channel into the River Elbe that leads to Hamburg, we slid carefully over a very shallow patch before slotting neatly between probably the busiest shipping route I’ve ever been near, and beaches of basking seals.

Inbound fishing vessels were trailing their prawning nets across each side deck like ballgown drapes, and a small convoy of yachts accompanied us towards Cuxhaven Yacht Club marina. Clear yellow signage allocates berths according to boat length, with red/green cards on the pontoon at the head of each berth indicating availability. Power is available from the tower labelled for your berth number, and water hoses are plentiful.

Sunday 8 April

A beautiful orange sunrise heralded an early start, to make the most of the day to gain some miles Eastward. Plans were fluid, as the crew decided to see where we could get to, knowing of a couple of possible stopping places en route. It turned out to be a good strategy, as in spite of little wind, we made good progress along the seaward shores of the island chain. For some considerable time we offered rest and refuge for a willow warbler, in between forays to catch insects low over the calm water.

After a long day in the office, we arrived at our furthest planned harbour on Wangerooge, the Easternmost island of the string, and dropped anchor under the red beam of the lighthouse. It wasn’t the calmest night, once the wind changed direction to dance with the tide; there’s no doubt we’re back at sea.

Saturday 7 April

As often happens, my crew spent all morning preparing me for sailing off. To be fair, there was more to do on this occasion, as it will be the first time I may be able to sail since arriving in Amsterdam some five months ago, and Skipper had taken some measures to ‘winterise’ me, by removing sails and ropes, and stowing un-needed equipment wherever he could find space.

We left our berth at 1300, and motored down the channel, with industrial land to starboard and a low dyke to port, this land cleverly utilised with a row of wind turbines. Eventually we turned North into open water, still well-buoyed and quite busy with ferries, freighters and the occasional fellow yacht – there are others brave (mad?) enough to be out this early in the season. It was a lovely afternoon, albeit without enough wind to sail properly, but we had an easy first sea passage to Borkum, the Westernmost island in the chain of the East Frisians, that are the beads in Northern Germany’s necklace.

Mate observed that it wasn’t really so different from the canals – a clearly marked channel and similar depth of water beneath my keel.
For her, the highlight of the afternoon was to change the courtesy flag: the four we’d been flying in the Netherlands came down, and were replaced by the horizontal black, red and yellow of Germany, still creased from its packaging.

In port, we ended up in a double berth framed by two very short, very bouncy finger pontoons, which Mate found very difficult to balance on in her current state of impaired mobility. Even Skipper practically had to crawl along them to sort my mooring ropes to his satisfaction. Fortunately there was no wind overnight, so nothing disturbed our slumbers.

Tuesday 3 – Friday 6 April

We slipped away from Oostmahorn on Tuesday, motored across Lauwersmeer in a pleasant sailing breeze, and enjoyed a rural potter towards Groningen. Small groups of diminutive deer were spotted in a number of fields, and marsh harriers were prolific on this section. Unfortunately, the skies above were unremittingly grey, grey, grey.

By the time we were nearing Groningen, the bridge keepers had already knocked off for the day, so we tied up to a pontoon meant only as a staging post while waiting for the bridge to open. At this time of year, there is very little leisure traffic around, and technically we were waiting…until the following morning. At least the sun put in a brief appearance, and the road traffic all but disappeared after the rush hour, so a peaceful night was passed.

On Wednesday morning we made our way into the centre of the capital of this province of North Holland. Groningen is picturesque, rather like a mini-Amsterdam, with narrow canals full of houseboats and huge traditional sailing barges, leaving little room between stone walls to manoeuvre me around a couple of tight corners and through slimline bridge openings – thank goodness there was nothing trying to come through the other way. Again we had to stop for lunch, to await the bridge keepers’ return from their midday break.

After another half-a-dozen bridges we were free of the city and into the enormous Eems Canal, wide, straight and much used by barges of the sort we’d encountered on the Nordsee Canal in Amsterdam. The air was still very cool, and the off-watch crew took the opportunity to snuggle into the warmth of my saloon with the latest Kindle blockbuster and regular hot drinks.

Our final port of this section of the journey was Delfzijl, reached through a huge sea lock with a separate, relatively narrow channel for yachts, complete with another lifting bridge. The lockkeeper was busy locking through commercial vessels in the opposite direction, and seemed to keep us waiting much longer than usual. Eventually the high gates swung slowly open and we were able to escape, and follow the marks to the Neptunus Marina, at the inland end of a long channel that leads out to sea.

On Thursday, Skipper made final arrangements to take the liferaft to a local servicing depot, while Mate rested her sore ankle as much as possible, in between dealing with some routine domestic chores. Otto and his fellow harbourmaster made us welcome by being friendly and helpful, although their season has barely begun.

On Friday, Skipper collected the repackaged liferaft, and took the opportunity to fit new winches to my cockpit coamings, to make flying the staysail easier and safer. He also did his best to wash my decks clean of the evidence of this busy, noisy and dirty industrial port, before filling my tanks with clean water, ready for the next few days out in the islands. Mate waded through a huge pile of washing up that was filling my galley. Non-stop glamour, this life afloat…

Good Friday 30 March

The crew familiarised themselves with our new location of the next few days, and walked the three kilometres to Anjum for some food shopping. The paved cycle track cuts straight across the fields, and they managed to fulfil their shopping list at the very good butcher/delicatessen and the Co-op supermarket. The weather was better than forecast, and the Easterly wind seemed to be confined to the marina; the walk felt a lot more sheltered.

Holy Saturday 31 March

…was a day of jobs onboard: Skipper made full use of the newly restored water supply to clean my grubby decks thoroughly with the pressure washer, and completely fill my water tanks. Meanwhile, Mate was busy in the galley, baking loaves of fresh bread and a traybake cake that smelt suspiciously similar to the birthday cake she made the week before.

Easter Day Sunday 1 April

The day dawned a little warmer, dry and with less wind than recently. Mate suggested a short stroll around the perimeter dyke of the marina “to see the view over the other side”. After a luxury breakfast of Skipper’s famous creamy scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and lovely fresh bread, they set off, not dressed or equipped for a hike.

In the end they walked all the way around the Lauwersmeer dyke to the Lauwersoog flood barrier, enjoying the views across mudflats and the Waddenzee channels, of traditional barges in full sail, occasional sunshine spotlighting their progress, and ferries plying their route to Schiermonnikoog, reputedly the prettiest of the Dutch Frisian islands. They found a scratch lunch, a busy fishing port enjoying its day of rest, and a welcome bus ride home.

They covered a total of 18km, over 11 miles! Unfortunately, the last 2km were more of a slow hobble, as Mate stumbled and tore the ligaments in her left ankle (again), resulting in an instant golfball-sized swelling and acute pain. Back at the marina, the friendly waitress at the restaurant very kindly produced a large quantity of ice and a restorative hot chocolate.

Easter Monday 2 April

Mate made the most of a quiet day to rest, in between supervising two loads of laundry a short walk away across the marina, while Skipper investigated the non-functioning autopilot, which resulted in much cursing and heavy sighs. This is a recurrent problem, caused by water ingress in the gearbox of the steering mechanism. It seems likely another call for help from Jefa will soon be necessary, doubtless resulting in another large bill.

Maundy Thursday 29 March

Today we planned a shorter day, just into Dokkum which looked like an interesting small city, where we really needed to take on water and replenish fresh food supplies. Having reached an early bridge just in time to be waved through before he went off for lunch, we mistimed our arrival at the next and tied up alongside an unattractive plot of industrial wasteland, for our midday meal. Skipper had a useful chat with the keeper on his return, paid another ‘bruggeld’ and again watched a keeper cycle alongside us from one bridge to the next.

Having assured us water would be available after the last bridge in town, he then apologised that it was not turned on until 1 April. Mate made an executive decision that we would press on to our final destination for this leg, the marina of the Allures dealership for the Netherlands in Lauwersmeer, where we could surely fill up with water. She knew it was remote in terms of shopping, but it would be a case of ‘sort it out when we get there’. After all, that’s what the bikes are for…
We had a slightly tricky last lock and lifting bridge out into Lauwersmeer, and then a long slog in strengthening cold wind through this national nature reserve, along yet another buoyed channel. A herd of small, pretty ponies was spotted near the water’s edge, and eventually we made our way into our berth. The harbourmaster came to greet us, with the immortal words “we have a problem with our water supply”. He must have been disturbed by the looks on the faces of my crew, and soon jury-rigged a solution so we could take on enough for our immediate needs.
Mate decided shopping could wait until tomorrow, and dinner in the very good restaurant on site was the order of the day (evening). The restaurant is called ‘Het Raadsel van de Wadden’ – The Riddle of the Sands – as this is where Erskine Childers set his pre-WWI spy novel. Copies (in Dutch) are available on the bar!

Wednesday 28 March

We made an early start and were soon passing through the huge sea lock at Stavoren, without difficulty, and out into the IJsselmeer once again. We turned right and made our way North along the coast, in the usual grey and murky conditions, but with just enough wind to give the genoa an airing. It was good to feel like a sailing boat again.

A couple of hours later, we arrived at the next lock, that would take us through the Afsluitsdijk and out into the North Sea proper. In fact, this area, between the Frisian Islands and the North Dutch mainland, is the Waddenzee – ‘wadden’ are sandbanks, of which we could see several, well-populated by a variety of waders and gulls.

Once again we were obliged to follow clearly marked channels all the way to Harlingen. This is a large port, accommodating the KNRM: the Dutch RNLI, ferries to the offlying islands, fishing trawlers and a variety of cargo vessels. The electronic chart plotter made easy work of finding the correct channel to the lock that would allow us to enter the Harinxma canal to reach Leeuwarden from the other side. Frustratingly for Mate, this is the route she’d originally suggested, before it was decided to explore inland from Lemmer.

We had to pause at the waiting posts of one bridge on the outskirts of the town, while the bridgekeeper took his afternoon break and let the rush hour traffic flow. It was a good opportunity to enjoy a hot drink to alleviate the discomfort of wet and cold. This former had been mitigated by Mate’s brainwave to open out the bimini, usually a sunshade, which does a great job of sheltering the cockpit from the worst of the rain.

Eventually we were able to make our way through the city, the capital of this region of Friesland, waiting for the attendant to cycle from one bridge to the next. He held out a clog on a fishing line at one bridge, for us to make a contribution to his holiday fund. [look very closely!]

We decided to carry on beyond the outskirts of Leeuwarden to find a peaceful spot on the Dokkummer Ee. We made a tidy landfall at the end of a long day, covering 45 miles in eleven hours.

Tuesday 27 March

Because we’re only allowed to move on canals in daylight hours, and all the bridges have strict operating times anyway, we called it a day a little early yesterday, and so set off bright and early to get through Leeuwarden and on to Dokkum today, where we hoped to be able to fill up my water tanks, and the crew to fill up the fridge.

Unfortunately, as we arrived near the next bridge the ‘brugwachter’ declared it shut, as the one after is a damaged railway bridge, closed for repairs until 10 April. If only my crew had checked the website for announcements… They took an extended coffee break while they worked out what to do instead, and we set off again, back past where we’d moored last night; a round trip of three hours to achieve nothing.

We had to retrace our path two-thirds of the way back to Lemmer before we could turn right and make our way to Stavoren, another entry point into the canal system on this side of the IJsselmeer, and therefore a way out for us. It was windy and grey across several shallow open lakes, reminiscent of the Norfolk Broads, with a few dinghies out for a daysail.  We opted to stay in the buoyed channels, and not to bother hoisting sail – it just seems like too much effort for the short distances over which we could use them.  The skies are full of huge flocks of starlings, and long skeins of various species of geese, on the move as the weather allegedly warms. Actually, Mate considers it’s more likely the lengthening daylight triggers their activity.

At the end of another tiring day, we didn’t quite make it to Stavoren, but tied up alongside a swimming pool! Sadly, the machine rejected our payment card, so we had neither power nor water, and Skipper was unable to locate either refuse disposal or shoreside facilities.

Tuesday 25 – Thursday 27 September

We eased gently out of the marina and into the Holtenau Lock, in the company of ten other yachts and a couple of commercial barges.  Having waited our turn to get on the holding pontoon to pay our canal fees we motored to Rendsburg, where we were denied an anchorage and directed to spend a night in the marina, for €19.

On Wednesday we completed our second transit of the Kiel Canal, filled up with diesel at Brunsbüttel and spent the night in the small marina just inside the sea lock.  After a less than peaceful night, we had the outbound lock to ourselves once again, and realised we were out of practice with tidal calculations, so slogged under motor up the estuary of the River Elbe and back into Cuxhaven.