Paddington's 2011 Arctic Adventures: Germany in the rain

Wednesday 10^th August 2011 – British Kiel Yacht Club

We left Fynshav at 0730 with a Beaufort force 4 winds from the west, so at last we were able to turn the engine off and sail. Whilst we were sheltered by the Island of Als we had a smooth sea, as soon as we left that shelter the seas built up and the wind increased to force 5 -6 with gust of 7, so James had to take some sail in. Whilst the motion was not very pleasant we were at least sailing for 6 hours until we reached the estuary up to Kiel, where the rain began. We stopped for diesel at Strande between the heavy down pours, then motored the 20 minutes to the British Kiel Yacht Club for the night.

The plan had been to get the bikes out and cycle into Friedrichsort, the closest shopping area to the BKYC to stop up with wine at German prices – much cheaper than the UK. However, the rain never let up, we did venture off to the club house hoping to find the bar open to enjoy their good prices and find some company, but the bar remained firmly shut! In the past we have enjoyed Hallo pizzas delivered to the club, usually ordered with the help of bar staff, particularly as James likes special fillings i.e. shrimp and hollandaise sauce, I did try to order some pizza’s mine would have come direct from the menu which was easy but I could not get them to understand what James wanted, so nothing arrived!

BKYC is available for non Germans to stop at. Berthing is with long lines to stern posts. The cost for our size boat was E18. The ladies showering area also offers one bath! If the bar is open then good value drinks are available. Also at weekends you can book in for an excellent Brunch for just E2.50

Distance sailed 44 nm

Thursday 11^th August 2011 – Kiel Canal: rain and more rain

The rain continued throughout the night, James did his morning walk in the rain and we midmorning started to walk to the shops, by the time we got out of the BKYC James said “this is stupid, we are already soaked” so we returned to the boat and then decided to order a taxi to town, whilst I put all the wet clothes in the tumble drier!

Between 2 supermarkets we managed to get a reasonable supply of the sparkling wine that we like and some boxes of wine and Martini to keep us going through the autumn and perhaps the winter and re-stocked the fridge for the next few days. The taxi took us back and having loaded the boat we were off round the corner to the lock and entrance to the Kiel Canal. We had rather a long wait for a lock; however, the cost for our size boat to traverse the canal is still 18 Euros. Yachts can only be on the canal during daylight hours, the times being set out in a leaflet I collected as I paid our dues. At present this was until 21.00 hours

Ships in the Kiel Canal

We motored in the rain the 35 miles to the berths at the entrance to the Gieselau Canal and arrived with half an hour to spare. We had to raft up alongside a Dutch Yacht.

Bow wave of a ship passing us in the rain in the Kiel Canal

Distance motored: 37 nm

Friday 12^th August 2011 – Cuxhaven

As we did not want to leave Brunsbuttel at the west end of the canal until the tide down the Elbe was going out, we were able to have a very leisurely morning and both of us took the opportunity to walk in the rain – unbelievably this is the third day of rain. James did his ‘4 miles in the hour’ first thing and I went later on with my Nordic poles for two miles. We eventually left the Gieselau berths at 11.15 for final 24 miles to Brunsbuttell. Again there was a bit of a wait for the lock waiting for a barge that went in first before us yachties were allowed in. We had an English sail training vessel alongside us who had been in the Stavanger with the Tall Ships, not that we had seen her there. They were on their way back to Plymouth due there next Thursday (18^th) and were planning to make their next stop at Ostend!

By the time we exited the lock the tide sluiced us down to Cuxhaven in less than two hours. Having paid for our berth, we then walked into the town and found another supermarket and stocked up with more liquid supplies and a takeaway supper and we took a taxi back with all the boxes!

Later in the evening I was surprise to hear a knock on the boat and then see two Swede’s brandishing a bottle of red wine, it turned out that they were good friends of the Swedish boat “Trud” that we pulled off a spit in the Limfjord, who were heading south and had been asked to keep a look out for us and if they found us to deliver a bottle of wine as thanks. We assume they must also have AIS to have been able to find us amongst the hundreds of boats in 3 marinas.

Cuxhaven – E15 p.n. Electric & showers etc extra

Distance motored: 35 nm

Saturday 13^th August 2011 – Norderney

We had an early 04.30 start to take the last 3 hours of the ebb down the Elbe, at times we had 4 knots of tide with us. It was still dark as we left Cuxhaven along with a lot of other yachts, so I did not return to bed until James had good visibility as there was a lot of shipping coming up the channel. By the time I came up to take over the watch we were in the midst of the anchorage for the Elbe and Bremerhaven which was very full along with ships coming out of two channels, the AIS on the chart plotter looked horrendous, luckily James stayed up until we were out of it, I then had an easy watch! As there was very little wind, James had given up trying to motor sail and other than a little swell we had a virtually flat sea – just the way I like it!

AIS on the Chart Plotter after Cuxhaven

We arrive at Norderney at 14.30 in lovely sunshine, what a difference that makes after all the rain! In the late afternoon we had a gentle stroll (as much as James can stroll) around the harbour.