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