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.