Stage 16: Back through the Netherlands

Friday 17 August
We had to leave near high water to carry the tide along the coast, but it was at 11.30, and we left a bit before then - not one of our usual early starts. Borkum has a narrow dredged channel from the main Ems river to the harbour, and when we emerged into this, we found an incoming ferry and an outgoing one, with us in the middle. They both passed very close, but we have become used to large fast vessels passing very close! Once we picked up the favourable tide and joined the branch of the Ems which heads westwards, we were able to sail with the drifter. It was hot, the wind was adequate and the sea was blue and calm. This is what sailing should be! We watched the islands pass by - first some uninhabited ones, then Schermonnikoog. We changed the courtesy flag as we passed into the Netherlands, although we were not entirely sure where the border was. Eventually we reached the channel into Lauwersoog, the Westgat. There are some restricted areas that the harbourmaster had warned us about in May, but other boats seemed to be sailing all over the place, so we took a cautious path around where we thought the restrictions were. We sailed a couple of miles towards Lauwersoog, along with quite a fleet of other yachts, but then the channel turned into the wind, and one by one, they (and we) motored the final bit. Everyone seemed to be preparing lines to go into the lock, but it was a few minutes before 7 and the lock-keeper had gone home, so we all filed into the marina on the Seward side of Lauwersoog and moored up. It was reasonably empty, at least it was until our fleet turned up.

Saturday 18 August
We decided to go towards Schiermonnikoog and dry out on the sands. We did it a couple of times in our previous boat, and it was lovely in settled weather. The weather was forecast to be good, so we left just before HW and sailed slowly up the winding and complicated channel, which has lots of branches and lots of buoys. I assured Gordon that the ferry that was approaching wouldn't come our way, but it did, and yet again we found ourselves passing just a few metres from a ferry in a very narrow channel. We got to where lots of other boats were anchored, picked a spot at least 100m from any of them and dropped our anchor (all under sail, so we hoped they were watching ).

We turned out to be rather closer to the channel than we wanted, and when the tide went out, the fast flowing water scoured out holes around our keels. All was ok, except we took a long time to settle and we ended up with a 9 degree list - safe but a bit uncomfortable. However, it was worth it. We waded through the water on firm sand and watched the tide leave miles of exposed sand and mud, and the birds return to feed. We scrubbed Alshira's bottom and changed her anode, but mostly we just enjoyed the space and quiet. It was sunny and hot, so being able to paddle and swim was perfect. In the evening, the water returned and gradually we levelled out and floated. We pulled in the anchor chain to make sure we did not go aground in the same hole that she dug for herself last time.

Sunday 19 August
The original plan was to go to Vlieland, but when we measured the distance and worked out the tides, we realised that we'd get there very late in the evening after a 12 hour sail - no fun! So we went to Ameland instead. This is the next island to Schiermonnikoog, but you have to go a long way around the back of it to the harbour, which would be very full in school holidays. The plan, therefore, was to anchor in one of the sheltered channels behind the island. The day was beautiful, sunny, warm and a decent breeze. We sailed off the anchor as soon as we were floating and headed out to sea. Lots of other boats were sailing too, but they mostly kept behind the islands, or headed off to dry out on another sandbank. We were particularly amused by the crew of a trimaran, who were wearing matching hats... But nothing else. Out at sea, there was a bit of a swell, which was ok while the wind was keeping us going, but when it died, we were just bouncing around getting uncomfortable, so the engine had to come on for the last couple of hours. We rounded a nasty shallow bar called Born Riff and made our way between the islands, and then, after getting quite confused by the different buoys and channels, into the one we had selected, and dropped the anchor. It was quiet and peaceful, about a mile from the island shore and with sand banks behind and in front of us.

Monday 20 August
So we had to complete the passage to Vlieland, abandoned in favour of Ameland yesterday. But since we were already behind the islands, there was an option of taking the inland route over the mud. We could go over a restricted island called Blauw Balg, but only when the tide had risen quite a bit and then over the much longer mud route behind Terschelling, also requiring maximum tide. The alternative was to go around Blauw Balg - an extra 3 miles, but with only one drying section to worry about. We chose the latter. We left in a procession of boats, which separated to go in all directions, some over Blauw Balg. The tide was strong and against us, so we went slower than we expected and came to the Terschelling drying part at, rather than just before, HW. However, it was fine, with more water than we expected. When we emerged into deep water again, the tide was with us, and the direction was good for a fast sail almost all the rest of the way. Here there are branching channels in all directions, and it is a real problem to work out which buoy marks what, particularly when they move the buoys from where they are shown on the chart. We managed it and came around Vlieland island only a few hundred metres after a motoring yacht that we had been sailing alongside for several miles. Lots of boats went into the harbour, but we continued along the island shore and anchored just below the lighthouse - another quiet beautiful place. The only problem is that we have almost run out of food!

Tuesday 21 August
We badly need to stock up on food and have showers after 3 nights at anchor and one (in Lauwersoog) where we could not get at the showers or shops. We decided to come into IJsselmeer, which involves a fairly straightforward sail along the more popular routes across the Waddensee. First, though, we had to raise the anchor. It was ridiculously heavy - due to a lump of weed about the size of a beer barrel hanging off the chain, being pulled back in the ferocious tide.

Once I had picked that off, frond by frond, with the boat hook, the anchor came up reasonably easily. However, there was patchy mist which limited visibility, which is a bit of a problem when you ate having to follow buoyed channels which twist and turn, and where the position of the buoys is quite different from on the charts. We took a slightly longer route, via Harlingen than the more complex, shallower and more direct one. The tide runs really fast here, in one of the major places where the water enters this vast muddy area behind the islands. We sailed and in some places had to motor, and the buoys and the branches in the channels came by rather quickly, necessitating some rapid changes of direction to keep us in the right channel. When we got to the lock into IJsselmeer, there was a queue of boats waiting in an orderly fashion. Once the lock opened, everyone surged forward, and crammed themselves into it, tied to lock walls and to each other. The lock keeper tried to cram a few more in "English boat - move ahead", so we did. We came into a little sailing club in Makkum - a friendly place that we have visited before.

Wednesday 22 August
The wind was whistling again, but it was quite dry and warm. We needed to stock up with food, clean the sand and mud off Alshira, and do a few more domestic tasks. Makkum is a nice little typically Dutch town - canals, lifting bridges, rather twee little houses and a really excellent supermarket. we've become quite connoisseurs of supermarkets in European countries now, and the Dutch ones we have visited have generally been a lot better than even the German ones. The Swedish, surprisingly, were the worst. While we were in the sailing centre in Makkum, a catamaran was brought in by the Dutch equivalent of the RNLI. It had been dismasted in the IJsselmeer, just close to Makkum, in a 22kt gust. 22 kts is pretty routine - we would expect any mast to cope with twice that. Anyway, no one was hurt, and the crew, a family with teenagers, looked a bit shocked, but no worse.

Tomorrow, we have to go across to Medemblik, the other side of IJselmeer, so that an engineer can have a look at our ailing AIS, which still is not working completely correctly after it was supposed to have been dealt with in Neustadt. After arranging this, we found out that the biggest race in the Netherlands sailing calendar is taking place with a finish in Medemblik on Saturday. It sounds a bit like arranging a visit to Cowes at the start of Cowes week, but the engineer assured us it would be fine, and has reserved a place for us.

Thursday 23 August
We wanted to sail right across the IJsselmeer to Medemblik ready for our appointment with the Raymarine man tomorrow. It was about 20 miles, and the direction of the wind just allowed us to sail straight there, close-hauled. To start with, after the strong winds yesterday, it was a bit choppy, but after an hour or so, the waves were reduced, the sun came out and the wind dropped to a pleasant degree, so that it turned into a nice sail. Our instructions were to go to the Westerhaven and ask for the berth that had been arranged for us, so we moored just before the lifting bridge while I went to ask. I talked to the harbour master (actually mistress) of the wrong harbour at first, but she was also in charge of lifting the bridge, so once I had found the right person and been allocated a berth, she lifted the bridge smartly for us. We are right in the middle of the town, in a large basin surrounded by trees, with small boys swimming and people peering over the bridge at the boats. We wandered around the town to the station (touristy steam train), along the main street. But we will be here for a few days, to allow a nasty weather system to pass over and also to avoid the IJsselmeer race which will take place during the poor weather, so our exploration of the town can wait.

Friday 24 August
The man that Raymarine had asked to look at our AIS problem came. We had left the chart plotter on all night in the hope that it would fail, as it has done in the past, and sure enough it gave out sometime during the night. So when he appeared, we were able to demonstrate the problem. He spent some time looking through all the diagnostic screens and managed to get it working again without rebooting the chart plotter. So at least Raymarine will have to believe that we really have a problem, and we know now how to get it working again when it fails, but we are no nearer finding a solution - presumably it is another software fault that Raymarine will have to work on. We found out a bit more about this 24 hour race taking place today and finishing tomorrow here. Yachts can start at any of about 15 places, and have an initial leg to do, then they can sail any course they like between certain buoys in IJsselmeer, Markermeer and the Waddensee, but must finish in Medemblik 23 to 25 hrs after their start. We went up to see the start. The was almost no wind, and about 40 yachts were drifting about about half a mile from the town. There must have been different starts for different classes, because from time to time spinnakers appeared and a few yachts appeared to drift faster than others.

However, half an hour after the time we thought they started, yachts were still motoring out of the harbour towards the start area. It seemed to be a friendly affair, with quite normal looking cruisers as well as the racing boats with fancy sails. We'll go up to see some of them finishing tomorrow.

Saturday 25 August
There was a used boat show in Hoorn, just 5 miles away, Gordon said. When I measured it on the map it came to about 20 miles, but never mind, we went anyway. The bike ride was classic Dutch countryside - flat fields, dykes, straight roads and super bike paths. As we got into the outskirts of Hoorn - yes it is big enough to have outskirts - we were stopped by a huge street jumble sale.

All along a long residential street were stalls and tables, mostly just junk from lofts, but some proper market stalls selling clothing and stuff too. It was heaving with people - a major local occasion. We came across the same sort of event in Edam a few years ago - perhaps it is a part of Dutch culture. The boat show was in the main harbours in the town centre. There were dragon boat races, trips round the harbour, and lots of stalls and boats for sale.

We went around an old lifeboat, which used to be based in what is now Lauwersmeer but was then open sea.

We then had a look at a couple of classic boats which were for sale. We told the owner or dealer that we were only looking for curiosity, but they were charming and showed us round all the same. The second had been designed by the present owner, who had arthritis in his wrists, forcing him to sell the boat. He was surprisingly positive about it, although it must have broken his heart - it was a lovely boat! Soon after we got back to Medemblik, the boats that had been racing started coming in. The finish was in the Osterhaven, which is a narrow channel which leads through an opening bridge into the harbour we are in. It was raining hard, so we didn't watch them come in, but lots of boats came into our harbour. There is a raft about 12 deep blocking the whole of the channel between our pontoon and the next, and the harbour probably has twice its normal number of boats.

It was very good natured, with everyone helping everyone to moor up. There is a really excellent jazz band in a hospitality tent just ashore from our boat, so we can enjoy the music without venturing out.

Sunday 26 August
Heavy showers on and off all day stopped us from doing much. The Raymerine man was supposed to come to have another look at the chart plotter, too, and we waited in for him, only to find he had forgotten and sent an apologetic text a couple of hours later. The main excitement was watching the huge number of race boats disentangling themselves from their rafts and leaving in some sort of order. Again, it was all very friendly, with people fending off, untangling and casting off lines etc. Back in Oosterhaven, as the boats headed out into IJsselmeer and home, the race people tried to get them to detach their race numbers and throw them onto the quay to be collected - lots of fun there too. By the afternoon, Westerhaven was back to normal. It is a huge event for the town.

Monday 27 August
We have got to the point of trying to work out the best day to cross the North Sea, and making our way to the NL coast at the right time. It doesn't look to promising for wimps like us till Thursday or Friday, so we have a day or two in hand. We decided to go to Muiden, just on the Markermeer close to Amsterdam, because it looked nice in the free guide to marinas and harbours that we picked up somewhere. The text (in Dutch) said you should phone to book a place, so we did that. The Raymarine man turned up early, and admitted he had no idea how to solve the AIS problem, but he will report back to Raymarine. We headed straight out through the opening bridge, and towards the lock at Enkhuizen. The wind was forecast to be SE, which would have been nice, but it wasn't, it was south, on the nose. We tacked all the way. At times the sea was a bit choppy, so we headed towards the shore, but most of the time, it was a lovely easy sail with a reasonable wind. However, I had measured the distance at a bit over 20 miles, and Gordon reckoned about 30. It turned out to be 42 miles, including a lifting bridge and a very efficiently run lock. Muiden has a royal yacht club, with a rather splendid flood lit castle overlooking it. We will take a day looking around tomorrow.

Tuesday 28 August
On the map, Naarden, not far from Muiden, looks extraordinary. It has two star shaped rings of concentric dikes and ten town is in the middle. The Rough Guide describes it as looking as if someone has used a giant sized pastry cutter. We briefly looked around Muiden - a fine old typical Dutch town, cycled off to a shopping centre along lovely bike paths along the side of Markermeer, but devoted the afternoon to an expedition to see if Naarden is as odd as it looks on the map. As usual, the bike paths were lovely, through agricultural land, mainly cows and sheep in contrast to further north (and this is about 10 miles from central Amsterdam). Naarden really is extraordinary. There are high fortifications, brick faced, about 20 m high or more, on the inner ring, and grassy mounds on the outer ring. Each ring is zigzagged. In the middle of all this is a reasonably normal small (though a bit precious) Dutch town with cobbled streets and canals.

Wednesday 29 August
It is just a few miles from Muiden to the canal through Amsterdam. At the Markermeer end of it, there is a lifting bridge which opens 3 times an hour and a lock. Every time we have been through it before, we have approached the bridge just as it is closing, and have had to double back and wait. This time, we got the timing right and were surprised to see that we were the only boat through the bridge in our direction, and were alone in the lock - Dutch children must have gone back to school - everywhere is empty again! The North sea canal, through Amsterdam is fairly boring, except for the worrying bits, like when a large ship being towed by two tugs suddenly veers across the canal in front of us blocking it completely so that it can be manoeuvred into a side dock. At one point Gordon observed that the block of flats at the side of the canal, roughly the same height as many others there, was actually a cruise ship.

We arrived at the lock into the sea at IJmuiden to find that again, we were alone in it. Leaving it, we relished that the lock alongside was emptying at the same time, so a very large barge emerged alongside us, with several barges queuing to come in to the locks we had vacated - another of those worrying moments. IJmuiden marina was also half empty.

The wind suddenly got up during the afternoon, but it was hot enough to tempt me onto the beach for a swim in the rising surf. We will now wait here till the weather is good enough to cross the North Sea.

Thursday 30 August
The original idea was to leave tomorrow, when the wind was forecast to be NW, whereas just about every other day it is forecast to be west - the direction we want to go. But the latest forecasts for tomorrow are horrible - gales, thunder and gusts of 50 kts - we will stay put! Anyway, last evening a towel that I had put out to dry blew off its pegs and sank into the harbour, so I said I would dive for it today. For some reason, I got quite nervous about this. I used to love diving for things when I was a child, so I don't know why I got worried. In the event, the harbour was clean and quite warm, so I slipped quickly into the water, put on a mask and retrieved the towel on the first dive. Luckily, the clothes pegs were white and they were easy to spot against the dark weed at the bottom. I rinsed out the towel, hung it out, with a few extra pegs and it has nearly dried. We got the bikes out, shopped, and then rode north across the locks and sluices to see what the big industrial area of the town looks like. There is a huge cement works - acres of coal and sand, and presumably lime too. Everything comes in by barge or ship. It is vast, and since we have only seen it from the sea or the canal before, it was interesting to get another view.

We were caught by a rain shower, and in the evening there was an intense thunder storm - with the sky turning black, lots of lightning, thunder and heavy rain.

Friday 31 August
The thunderstorm turned into a proper gale overnight. The rain lashed down and the gusts shook us and all the neighbouring boats. The wind screamed in the rigging and no one slept very well. By morning it began to clear a bit, and we went out to look at the sea. The waves were splashing over the harbour wall - the outer harbour, that is, where the wall is a good 20 m high. The kite boarders were loving it. The yachts stayed in harbour! We went by bike to shop, but for the first time this trip, riding our bikes was not particularly pleasant, because of the gusty wind. So apart from finding a really good fish shop, we didn't explore much and spent most of the day reading. By the late afternoon, the wind had really abated, so our plans to cross the North Sea tomorrow look feasible, which they certainly didn't earlier on in the day.

Stage 15: The Kiel canal and German Bight

Wednesday 8 August
The wind was down and the showers had (mostly) stopped, so we set off for the canal. When we got there, a Dutch boat was loitering, and the skipper explained that the yacht lock was being repaired, so we'd have to use the big ship lock, and that we'd probably have an hour to wait - they always say an hour, whenever you ask. We loitered for about an hour, while about a dozen other yachts and a tug arrived. One of the arrivals was Irish, and they were pleased to find that we had been through the canal before, so that we could answer some of their questions. When, finally, we did enter the lock, we moored up in front of a Danish yacht, but the occupants were also Irish and they, too, had no idea how to pay etc. We were able to help them too. The lock emptied and one by one the yachts overtook us, until they were all held up while a large ship passed, while we motored blithely on to nearly catch them up. Near Rendsburg, 3 huge ships were coming the other way, and one was trying to overtake us, and yet another coming up fast behind. The canal is broad at that point, and everybody passed happily.

We came into the wide lake in Rendsburg - a sort of cul de sac off the canal, and moored up in the marina which we have visited several times before. It's a very pleasant stop-over on the canal. Torsten had sent us some text for an English prospectus of one of his boats which needed to be translated from his English into proper English - that took most of the afternoon!

Thursday 9 August
We wanted to exit the canal when the winds were favourable, which meant another day inside, so today was just a relatively short trip to a sort of lay by about 10 miles north of the southern end of the canal. We have stopped here every time we have been through the canal. The trip was only notable in that the two huge ships which were about 2 miles behind us when we emerged into the canal at Rendsburg were only able to overtake us 4 or 5 hours later. They kept on being held up by oncoming ships - there is a system of red lights which signal that certain categories of ships must wait in the wide passing places. We watched the ships behind us as they stopped and started. One of them passed us, but then had to stop, and we passed it again (overtaking a 500ft container ship, while another is approaching, both within 100 m of you is not very pleasant!) when we got to our lay by, we moored fore and aft to two tree trunk piles. This time, it went reasonably well, but we have never managed it completely properly. There was more to do on Torsten's brochure, while we watched the ships and yachts pass. Many yachts are Dutch, now, as was true in Rendsburg - they are almost outnumbering the Germans. Several other yachts came in during the afternoon - all had some trouble mooring up, some more than others - we gave them marks out of ten. We'd have scored about 7.

The pleasant green banks of the canal

Friday 10 August
We motored down to the Brunbuttel lock at the south western end of the Kiel canal. As the lock came into sight, it was open and several yachts were going in. Inevitably, as we got close, it closed and we had to wait. But not for too long, the other yacht lock took us and about a dozen other yachts - a mixture of Dutch and German, and disgorged us into the Elbe. As we emerged, there was almost no wind, so like all the others, we motored up towards Cuxhaven, but soon the wind arrived - zero to 15, then 20 knots in about half a minute. We were able to sail, with a few tacks right up to Cuxhaven. With the wind, the sea got quickly choppy, particularly in the main shipping channel, so we tried to keep to the sides, between the buoyed and dredged channel with big shipping and the sandbanks. After the canal, passing just 100 m from a huge container ship feels almost routine! The tide was strong and we were making 8 knots at times and tacking through 50 degrees! When we dropped the sails outside Amerika Hafen, which has a wide entrance, we realised how strong the tide was. We were going sideways had to race the engine to get between the very solid piles!

Large ships dock in Amerika Hafen, luckily not when we were coming in

We had to buy new charts for the German Frisian islands, and the usual food shopping, but we know Cuxhaven by now. It is the best place to find fresh or smoked fish that we have visited. Smoked fish, of lots of types, is very popular all over the Baltic.

Saturday 11 August
We had decided to go to Hooksiel on the mainland, but reconsidered before we left and decided to go to one of the islands instead - Wangerooge, which we visited last year. The first bit of the route was the same anyway, because you have just one way out of the Elbe, along with all the major shipping from the canal and from Hamburg. The tides run very strongly, too, as we had seen yesterday, so we left at HW to get the full benefit for the 24 miles out of this huge river. Lots of other people had the same idea, and most of them looked at the very light wind and fired up their engine and steamed away. We tried to sail, and made some progress in the first couple of hours, with loads of other boats passing us, but it became too slow, so we, too, motored. At this point, we decided to go one further island, to Spiekeroog instead. There was a bit of a swell, but otherwise it was quite easy and very boring. We threaded our way through the group of anchored ships off the Jade and Weser estuaries, and eventually got to the safe water buoy off Spiekeroog. I had been a bit nervous about coming between the islands, after the bumpy ride we had had in May, but it was fine this time. There were lots of boats sailing inside the islands, and the harbour was pretty full. A Dutch lady indicated an empty place for us - probably the last empty place, and then all evening we watched boats come in and raft up in untidy tangles in any corner of the harbour that they could cram themselves in. We will stay here another day - it looks like a nice holiday island that would be worth a proper look.

Sunday 12 August
We stayed another day at Spiekeroog. We wandered around the town, bought a town map from the information place and totally failed to find the tiny supermarket amongst all the souvenir shops and cares. It is a real holiday island, with no cars allowed, and one end is a nature reserve, with just a few sandy paths. We got the bikes out and cycled right round the part which you are allowed to access, avoiding the sandy paths. There is a gorgeous sandy beach which stretches the whole length of the island, with a sand bar out to the west end with a few boats anchored behind it. We noted it as a good anchorage for consideration in future. We found the shop, but it was shut, it being Sunday afternoon!

Monday 13 August
Time to move a little further west, so we left just before HW and carefully retraced our course from Saturday to exit the harbour and the route between the islands, but this time we could sail it. The wind was quite strong, so we had a reef in, but it was east, so for most of the trip it was behind us. We sailed quickly along the northern side of Langeoog, Baltrum and Norderney, before turning into the buoyed channel round the end of the island and into Norderney harbour. There are several routes, so the buoys get a bit confusing, but all went well. About a mile from the harbour, a ferry appeared which needed to be in the same bit of water that we wanted to be in, and by this time we had turned into the wind, so the sail came down and we motored the last mile. The harbour was full, but a small German boat moved out so that we could raft to his neighbour and he could raft to us - very kind. In the afternoon, I was shamed by the lady on the next boat into taking a swim in the harbour, after seeing her doing so. It was very refreshing, on a hot, but windy, day. We went into the town, where there was some sort of wine festival with live music and stalls in a main square. Lots of families were there - its really a family oriented holiday island, but a lot more civilised and organised than the other ones - big hotels, casinos, etc. Both our neighbours recommended Juist, the next island along, so we hope to go there tomorrow.

Tuesday 14 August
We warned the Germans in the boat rafted to us that we wanted to leave at 7. They were not happy, and they had moved so we could have a space, so we felt bad about getting them out of bed, but in the event they got up and helped efficiently. We needed a high tide to go the overland route (inside the island) to Juist. We wanted to sail it, of course, and the wind was a strong easterly. It was a bit hectic as we negotiated the winding channels between the islands, but we managed to miss all the buoys and the boats who were going the same way as us, but under engine. Amongst them was a Norwegian, following a Dutch boat, both of which had been moored near us - we had established that they were going to Borkum, led by the netherlander, so that was our fall-back option. The route followed a buoyed channel, then withies, which are set very close together.

At this point they were port withies - bits of silver birch with the bushy tops intact (starboard ones have the tops tied down). We were proud to see that we kept up with the motoring boats when we were under sail, and actually had to slow down a bit so as not to overtake at one point. The route turned out to be quite easy, despite the easterly wind depressing the tide by about half a metre below the charted level. We turned away from the other boats to come into Juist, and dropped the sails, just as they raised theirs. We had some starboard withies as well as the port ones - the channel winds a lot and the withies are replaced to follow its winding path. Juist is a very long island with its town in the middle, and a harbour which dries at low tide.

It is traffic-free, holiday-centred and about as relaxed as the Germans get!

We met some people from Juist when we were in Denmark, and they recognised our boat and invited us for a barbecue in the evening. Their daughter, a management consultant who works in London was also there. It was a very nice friendly evening.

Wednesday 15 August
The wind was whistling again, but it didn't matter because we had already decided to spend today exploring the island. Despite the wind, it was quite hot and sunny all day. We cycled towards the east end of the island but were only allowed as far as the airfield, about 3/4 of the way along, before being required to leave our bikes and continue on foot. Even then, access is very limited to avoid damaging the dunes or disturbing breeding birds and seals. We walked through the dunes as far as we were allowed to and emerged onto the beach at the northern shore, which is wide and sandy and extends the full length of the 17 km island.

The sand was blowing in the wind, making drifts like snow drifts behind any obstacle, so it was best to walk with the wind behind you. There are small sandbanks just off shore in many places leaving small lagoons behind them, so we were able to paddle in warm quiet water. It was a lovely walk, except we missed our way back to the bikes and had to retrace our steps for a couple of miles. Cycling back with the wind on our backs was very easy, though. I went off for a swim, again. It is one of the best beaches I have come across, and lovely to swim from. It was a bit colder than yesterday in the strong wind.

Thursday 16 August
We wanted to take the route inside the islands to Borkum, the next and last German Frisian island. That meant leaving as soon as Alshira was floating in the drying harbour to get clear of the shallows inside Juist, crossing the Osterems channel and doing another drying route behind Borkum, all in the 2 or 3 hours when we'd have enough water. It is real Riddle of the sands stuff - you go close to Memmert, now a nature reserve, but in the book, one of the central places in the plot. When we tried to leave, it was still a bit shallow, and the man from the boat next door had to push us hard through the soft mud - we'd have waited for the tide to rise a few more inches, but he wanted to push! Apart from a ferry coming in to the narrow channel as we came out, and passing within about 3 m, it all worked fine. It isn't always easy to work out which is the next withy, when the channel winds about, but presumably we got it right.

The Borkum channel was even more windy and difficult and by this time the tide was falling, so any mistake and we'd have been there all day. In both sections, the marked channel was quite far away from the charted one - the channels change frequently and the buoys and withies are moved accordingly, but even this year's charts are often out by many hundreds of metres. We went back to the commercial harbour in Borkum, with the friendly yacht club, harbourmaster and his Glaswegian wife. We were moored to a huge floating pontoon, just in front of where the ferry docks overnight. It is a bit industrial, but better than the run down marina next door.

Stage 14: Neustadt and back to the Kiel canal

Wednesday 1 August
It is time to go to Neustadt, where Alshira was launched. It was an easy pleasant sail in a moderate and very variable wind, which had us furling and unfurling the drifter, speeding along at 6 knots and drifting along at 1 knot and baking in the hot sunshine, or adding an extra jumper, in various combinations. We arrived in Neustadt and moored up in our old place, after being instructed to do so by Alshira's yard boss, Torsten.

Another Sirius 310 was launched and it arrived with the full family on board. It was very hot, and I found the local beach was sandy and had a long shallow sandy approach into the water - you had to wade out about 100 m before it was deep enough to swim, but the swim was very welcome.

Thursday 2 August
We had almost no food left, but at least we know where the best supermarket is in Neustadt, so the first task was to stock up. After that, the SIM had to be sorted out - the one sold to us in Cuxhaven which we had bought another 15 euro credit on in Rostock had continued not to work (hence the blog silence, following on from the expiry of the Danish Internet credit!) luckily there is an O2 shop in Neustadt, and the girl there, with some considerable difficulty, managed to sort out the problem for us. It was hot again and I even managed to get Gordon in for a swim! We went out with Torsten for an Italian meal in the evening. It was our opportunity to tell him all the things that could be improved on Alshira - he is always interested in hearing of improvements or new ideas. In fact, there wasn't much we could add!

Friday 3 August
A second hand Sirius arrived from the Med, was launched and handed over to the new owners today - it was great to see their excitement! And the one launched on Wednesday had its hand over sail, too, with Torsten making the boat do pirouettes along the box moorings.

We did lots of small jobs - for example, yesterday Torsten noticed that a couple of the catches on the lifting floorboards had broken their springs - this morning ten appeared in the boat, so we fitted the two replacements, and have plenty of spares! It was hot again, but quite a violent thunderstorm arrived in late afternoon, so we'll see if this is the end of the hot weather.

Saturday 4 August
Torsten had noticed that then drifter sheets rub the teak decking, and although it didn't bother us, he decided that they needed to weld a higher tang to fix a block on the pushpit. The welder arrived early this morning, and did an excellent, careful job.

It meant that we couldn't leave till late morning, though. There wasn't much wind and it took us a long time to get anywhere, so after a couple of hours tacking pointlessly, we motored to where the coast turns northwards, and we could sail. A heavy thunderstorm with torrential rain overtook us, but it only lasted 20 minutes and the sun came out again. Once we could sail, we made excellent progress up the coast which has quite a few holiday hotels and caravan parks. We wanted to sail into the almost enclosed "Binnensee" at Grossenbrode, but another thunderstorm was threatening, and the wind had almost died, so we had to motor just the last mile. We anchored the far side of the lagoon, with 5 other boats - it's a sheltered and peaceful spot - or would be except that one of the camping sites nearby was playing loud music! The threatened thunderstorm arrived just as we were anchoring with really heavy rain, but by the time I had cooked dinner, the sun was out again.

At midnight we were woken by a huge bang - it was the start of an excellent firework display, which we could see perfectly across the water, sitting in our deck saloon.












This feels like the first step on our way home, although we have really been homeward bound since we left Bornholm.

Sunday 5 August
The morning was clear and fine, but a little short of wind, so we had to motor off the anchor and out of the lagoon. We sailed for a while, but when we turned to go under the bridge to Fehmarn, the cross current threatened to take us out of the narrow dredged fairway, so the engine came on again. We decided that it was either going to be a full days motoring to the Kiel fjord, or a relaxing days sail to a tiny harbour about halfway - not a difficult choice to make. The wind came and went, but more usually went, but we got to Lippe, which is behind a military gunnery area, not in use this month, we learned. We seem to have a one hour rule in these winds - 5 miles to go, we are doing 5 kts, 4 miles to go and our speed has dropped to 4 kts, and so on. There is a good differential equation covering this, which predicts an infinite time to get there, but that is just maths, and frustration means the engine comes on when our speed drops below 1 kt! Lippe is a little harbour with a beach and campsite and very little else, but it is friendly and in a convenient place, although few boats seem to visit it. We were the only foreigner, but that has been true even in big German marinas like Neustadt and Warnemunde.

Monday 6 August
It was raining this morning - the weather has really broken. We set off anyway, and were able to sail up the coast towards Kiel with the drifter and mainsail - it was quite pleasant except for the rain, which intensified, but eventually cleared, then it was really pleasant. Shortly, though, the rain returned with a vengeance and the wind got up, so we had to furl and then drop and lash down the drifter. The wind backed (which meant that as we turned left along the coast into Kiel fjord, it came straight against us), and we had to tack around the headlands and numerous shallow patches. That was ok while we could tack out of the main shipping channel connecting the Kiel canal with the Baltic, but the fjord becomes very narrow, with some interesting chicanes around sandbanks, lighthouses etc. I was trying to navigate, keeping an eye on the shipping, and Gordon was enjoying helming, free from that responsibility. As we approached a particularly narrow section, less than 1.5 miles from Moltenort, where we were heading, the wind rose to 22 kts, and veered all over the place, a couple of ships were a bit too close for my nerves, and I wimped out and suggested it would be best to motor the last bit. It had been a lovely sail, though, and we are within sight of the Kiel canal and the next section of our homeward journey.

The lighthouse in the particularly narrow part of the Kieler Fiord

Tuesday 7 August
It was a day of very heavy showers and squalls of strong wind. We stayed at Moltenort and did very little, except dodge showers whenever we tried to go out to do anything. Never mind, we both read a lot, and we did manage to fill up with food for the next stage.

The kids in oppies sailed in the marina, coping well with the viscous squalls

Stage 13: Germany - Warnemunde to Neustadt

Friday 27 July
We set off early, sailing off the anchor in a very light wind, but had to motor out of the lagoon. It is a tortuous winding channel, with quite a few buoys showing the way. The charts say that the depth in the channel is at least 2.1 m, but we saw the depth oscillating wildly, several times dropping to 1.3 m, and since our draft is 1.25m, that was rather alarming. We had set a shallow water alarm to 1.5 m, and it was shrieking frequently. We decided later that it was the weed which the depth sounder was detecting, and we had probably had plenty of depth all the way. Eventually, we emerged into the open sea. There is a huge wind farm there - 162 turbines, apparently. One of the nearby marinas listed among its attractions the excellent view of the wind farm - it almost convinced us to visit the marina if that was the best it could offer!

The ferries at Gedser













Once we got out into the open sea, we had to join a ferry route between Gedser and Warnemunde, so we were in constant look out for ferries, of which several passed. We were able to sail, though rather slowly, with the drifter and mainsail in a flat calm, blue sea.

When we got to the deep water route which takes all the shipping bound for or coming from the Eastern Baltic, we felt it advisable to motor in order to cross reasonably and predictably quickly.









So we passed back into Germany. Then the engine was switched off and we sailed the rest of the way into Warnemunde. We chose the huge new posh marina, for a bit of a change, and after showers and a bit of a spruce up after our nights at anchor, we actually went out for a meal in a restaurant.

Saturday 28 July
The posh marina is close to the channel into Rostock, and when I got up this morning, I saw a huge cruise ship moored just the other side - the Costa Fortuna.

It sounds like a bad joke, but it really exists! We needed to get Internet access again, so we looked up (using the marina free wi-fi) where the O2 shop in Rostock was, and took the ferry across to Warnemunde Alter Strom and then the S bahn to Rostock (with the usual wrestle with the German ticket machine, which keeps on asking silly questions). After a 20 train journey through the suburbs, we arrived at the grand end of Rostock with big smart houses. The centre is very busy, and it was very hot. We felt like real country mice. The O2 shop sold us what we needed and set it up, but it didn't work, and the nice lad helping spent a long time on the phone determining that there was a fault at the server end. He promised it would all be ok tomorrow and gave us a phone number in case it wasn't.

We visited the Marienkirke, which is immensely tall and light, making us feel even more country mouse like, after the Danish churches. It has a super astronomical clock, which a guide to a party of the Costa people was explaining can be used to tell the sun rise, sunset, date of Easter, astrological signs, moon phases and so on as well as the time.

We ventured out into the heat, and wandered along impressive the city ramparts towards a surviving gate tower, which is tall and impressive, but with a big glass shopping precinct built almost on top of it.

By this time we had had enough of a big city in the full heat of summer, and came back to Warnemunde to stock up on food for another few nights at anchor. In the evening, there was a huge fuss of ships' hooters and foghorns, and the tourist boats were all milling around, and people lining the dockside. It was Costa Fortuna leaving the port and Warnemunde was saying goodbye. Later still the other cruise ship that had been berthed there also left, but only a few hooters saw her off.

Sunday 29 July
We left Warnemunde on a cloudy but fine day, still warm, but not nearly as hot as recent days. The wind was east, but there was not a lot of it, so we sailed very slowly. Eventually we turned the corner and could sail a bit faster, and we headed down into a very narrow channel round a peninsula into a big lagoon called the Salzhaff. By this time, it had started to rain, so we rapidly left the buoyed channel which goes to the village at the end (of which we'd passed the seaward side a couple of hours earlier), and headed past the fishing stakes to find somewhere to anchor. The depth oscillated wildly between 2 and 8 m, where we'd have expected 3-4 m from the chart (weed, again, probably), and we dropped the anchor in the middle of a bay of this lagoon. The fishing stakes seem to mark eel nets, and we think that provided you do not actually run them over, you are probably ok, but they always make us a bit nervous. Alshira started singing again as soon as we were anchored, and the rain stopped, and we are roasting a chicken for dinner - pretty good, eh?

Another boat sailing in the Salzhaff













Monday 30 July
During the night there were some squally showers, but the morning was calm and clear. We sailed off the anchor, as usual, and made our way back to the main channel. The anchor came up draped in enough weed to cover it completely, but it had held well. We turned around the end of the peninsula which encloses the lagoon from the sea, following our track on the chart plotter from last year. Suddenly there was a depth alarm and immediately we went aground. We could see the sandy bottom, and the deeper water just a few metres away. Gordon got the engine on, and we backed quickly off the sand and sailed off, feeling rather chastened! However, the rest of the sail to Timmendorf was lovely, with just one tack to clear a shallow patch, ominously labelled with a warning about numerous large stones. Timmendorf is a tiny fishing harbour on the western coast of the island of Poel. It is quite sheltered, except from the south west (which is where tomorrow's wind is supposed to come from, of course). We helped another boat which had gone aground as he tried to leave his box - winching him backwards. We explored the village - nothing here except for holiday houses, a campsite and ice cream shops, and walked along the beach below the clay cliffs to the south.

There have been some thunder showers, but sunny intervals between them. Tomorrow, we intend to explore Poel by bike.











Tuesday. 31 July
It is pretty bouncy in the south west wind, but our next door neighbour, a motor boat is tossing around far more than us. We got the bikes out to explore the island. It is only about 5 or 6 km across, sort of U shaped with a narrow channel from the south to the main village, Kirchdorf. We had been there last year, by boat, but had not seen the rest of the island. It has lovely sandy beaches all around the northern coast, with woods through which we cycled - a lovely path except when it went through deep soft sand, when our bikes sank and we had to walk. On the eastern end there is a separate tiny island with a very shallow channel to Poel. Lots of families were wading across and setting up their picnics on it, so we waded across too.

It is partly a bird reserve - there are many restricted wildlife areas around here with no access, or access only outside the breeding season. We cycled down to the causeway that links the island to the mainland, and then up the main road to Kirchdorf and back to Timmendorf. In one of the fields, we saw two roe deer, who leapt away from us, jumping through the wheat field. Kirchdorf has a couple of quiet harbours which we will visit again sometime.

Back in Timmendorf, a boat whose engine had failed came in and tried to berth next to us. A concerted effort from half a dozen men on the pontoon, us and the crew hauled them in past the stern post with the sacrifice of some of their varnish.