Skipper’s Log 2007 – Part 3
Holland
to Denmark
After a wet
day amongst the reeds, we got away again and continued all the way to Dokkum. Most
of the mooring places were taken, but we managed to squeeze ourselves in
between two larger boats. As in 2005, we were able to access free internet
here, so we updated the website and made a few cheap Skype phone calls. The
next morning, we filled with water from the watering berth near the bridge and
then got under way about 9 am. The next section of canal took us into the
Lauerzoog, which is one of the sea access points, but we continued along the
canal to Groningen.
Progress through the approaches to Groningen
is dependent on the many bridge openings and by the time we reached the centre,
it was 5 pm. The bridge leading out of the town centre would not open again
that day, so we moored up alongside a Dutch Najad 34 boat called “Loki”. I fell
into conversation with our neighbour and discovered he was also heading for the
Kiel Canal. We travelled together along the Ems canal to Delfzil. Here there were some pretty big
commercial barges. We locked out into the tidal harbour and made for the marina
in Delfzil. On arrival, we filled our fuel tank and all the containers as we
knew of no convenient fuel stations until we were in the Kiel
Canal. We waited a long time for the harbourmaster to come but
eventually we moved to a normal berth right by the showers. Soon after tying
up, it started to thunder and the rain came down in stair rods.
In Delfzil,
we met a Danish couple from Århus , Karsten and Jeanie Holm, who bought some
charts from us as they were south bound. I asked him to make an offer for the
older English charts – he suggested an evening meal with them the next time we
came to Århus – this we accepted. We got his address in the centre of Århus. We
were surprised to find that they only had a 6HP outboard motor on their 29ft
boat – they were planning to make it to the Canaries.
We had
planned to leave again next day at 10 am, but we had another thunderstorm, with
a heavy downpour. Our Dutch friend Heinke suggested we wait until 1pm and then
sail direct to Norderney by the drying out channels inside Borkum, Memmert and
Juist. This area was made famous by the book “The riddle of the sands” by
Erskin Childers. I compared my old chart with his new one and there were some
important changes. In particular, the entrance from the Ems
had moved significantly and we had to cross a drying area which was deep water
on my chart.
At 1 pm, we
followed “Loki” out of Delfzil and along the Ems
channel buoys. It was blowing about 15 knots against the tide, so progress was
slow in the rough water. Once we turned out of the Ems
and into the channel, we had the wind behind us and the tide under us and we
had calm water. In the shallowest section Loki touched several times but we
didn’t touch once – his draught was just 10cm deeper than ours. Eventually, the
channel narrowed and the buoys gave way to withies – young birch trees with
their branches pointing upwards for port hand and tied down for starboard. They
also had red or green reflective bands. At the ends of channels, there were
double withies. It was an interesting experience going over the watershed and
out to Norderney at the other end. On the way we saw a couple of shrimpers, one
of them made directly for Loki.
Shrimper
I don’t
think I would have risked this passage without a local to guide me through. The
channels can change significantly after heavy gales such that the channel
entrances can be difficult to find, even with the current edition chart. It is
most important to respect the withies, even if they don’t match the chart!
When we
arrived in Norderney, there were very few places left, but we found one we
could push into. Many more boats arrived after us, so there was much rafting up
against the rough quays. The next day it rained hard and blowing NW F5-6, this
would have given nasty conditions in German Bight. We decided to stay an extra
day. In the morning, I did an engine oil change, ready for the long haul up the
Kiel Canal. Rie walked the 2km to the town to
do some shopping. (Our bike is now so rusty that we can’t ride it). I also dug
out my Danish charts as I had to empty the quarter berth to get at the oil
suction pump.
The weather
decided we should spend three nights in Norderney. The delay meant we could no
longer catch the tide up the Elbe to reach Cuxhaven in daylight. Heinke and I decided we
should sail to Spiekeroog on Friday 13th, a distance of only 20nm in
the right direction. We took the tide through the Dove Tief channel – the
entrance from seaward had moved some half mile eastwards since 2005. Now we had
the wind on the quarter all the way to the Norderiff channel for Spiekeroog.
This channel had also moved eastwards by the same amount. As we sailed down the
channel the seas were breaking on the sands each side of us. It was well after
high water as we followed the withies the last mile into harbour and there was
not much water to spare under us.
In
Spiekeroog, the harbourmaster was very helpful and helped everyone in. It
wasn’t long before we settled into the mud. Rie had not realised this and had a
nasty shock when she tried to flush the toilet – black stinking water – she
thought we must have spilled a lot of waste oil! I went for a walk up to the
only town on the island, and it suddenly dawned on me how quiet it was. Then I
realised what was missing – no traffic noise! There are no cars on Spiekeroog,
other than the electric trucks used to transport goods up from the ferry. The
only means of getting about is by foot or by cycle!
Spiekeroog
at low water.
We thought
we could sail further next morning, but discovered we had to wait until after
half tide before there was enough water for us to leave the harbour.
Furthermore, we received a forecast of F7 in the Elbe
estuary by the evening, so we decided to stay another day in this peaceful
place. We went out for walks, and enjoyed the island, which must be one of Germany’s best
kept secrets. We ended up staying a third night in order to be able to leave in
daylight.
Main street, Spiekeroog.
Local
transport.
Dutchmen
dry out.
Eventually,
on 16th July, we left Spiekeroog at 0440hrs (half tide), in company
with Loki again. We found plenty of water in the harbour channel, but even with
just a F4 wind, the seas were breaking outside the Norderiff channel. After
reaching the clear water buoy, we set course for the entrance to the Elbe. Our course passed through the anchorage off the
Jade, where the pilots were busy embarking and disembarking from ships to and
from Bremerhaven.
We had a fine following breeze all the way to the Elbe.
For once, the Elbe was calm, and we had a fast
run with the tide.
Loki, an
older Najad 34
We decided
to carry on past Cuxhaven
as we still had the flood tide. We arrived off Bruhnsbuttel around 2pm, and
locked in to the Kiel Canal, to moor up at the
marina just inside the locks. By now our stores were a bit low, so we walked
over to the local Aldi – here we could buy decent ryebread at last.
An English
boat “Quadrille” moored up alongside us, they had locked through with us
earlier, they had a young girl and a baby on board. The marina was not as busy
as we have seen it, but the noise from the ships locking through continued day
and night. We left Bruhnsbuttel mid morning next day, and soon had the genoa
out as we had a fine 20knot following breeze. This held for many hours. At one
point, not far from Rensburg, we came to a narrow section where the red lights
were blinking and there was a traffic jam of ships! Eventually, a large cruise
ship came along, which explained it all – the ships were waiting to let it
pass.
As we
neared the turn off to Rensburg fjord, we caught up with the cruise ship again,
but we turned off behind an island on the north shore where Loki guided us to a
quiet little marina, with really good facilities for its size. It was close to
Borgstedt, and is known as the Schneider marina. We parted company with Loki
here, as Heinke was going in to Rensburg to shop the next day.
Saying
goodbye to Heinke and his wife.
We met a
Swedish couple, they were going the other way. We were amazed to find they had
an electric motor, which allowed them to travel at 3 knots for eight hours –
they then had to recharge their batteries. We didn’t think it was a very practical
arrangement as they had to use a small generator for the charging in the
absence of mains power. They had no wind generator or solar panels, and they
were planning an extended tour.
We left
again early next day and continued to Kiel,
where we just managed to enter the lock before they closed the gates. We tied
up alongside a Dutch boat as the lock walls were already taken. Here, I had to climb up the ladder on the
lock wall and walk over to the lockmaster’s office to pay the canal dues – just
12.50€ in our case.
After
leaving the lock, we stayed on the west side of Kiel Fjord and made for the
harbour at Damp. Heinke had recommended it as a convenient stop on the way to Flensburg. Soon after we
arrived, we had a thunderstorm, the rain started as I was on my way back from
the harbourmaster’s office. Damp is a holiday village, full of German
holidaymakers. There were many facilities, as well as the long beach.
It was
great to be back in the Baltic again – no significant tide and no swell. We
stayed just the one night in the outer harbour (the inner harbour was full) and
set off the following morning for Flensburg Fjord. The fjord is about 20 nm
long and our destination was the Statshavn, right in the city of Flensburg. The reason for
going to Flensburg
was that we were to meet some friends of ours who have recently moved to Krså,
which is just over the border from here. Poul was there to meet us, and after
we had completed the formalities, we went off in his car to his new home. On
the way, we called at the tiny harbour
of Skomagershus where he
has his new boat.
Pouls new
boat
This harbour is on the boundary between Denmark and Germany. There are just two
pontoons – on one side they fly German flags, on the other they are Danish!
Over the stream forming the entrance, was a small bridge, and at each end were
the former border guard posts. Each of these buildings is now the clubhouse for
each respective yacht club.
Skomagershus
clubhouse.
Poul and
Linda had another guest staying there, so we were driven back to Restless for
the night. He fetched us again next morning for lunch and afterwards we went
for a walk along the path which the boundary police use to walk every day. We
saw the copper mill that Christian I built, and the associated village of Kobbermøle. This lies in Germany now,
but at one time this area was Danish. It still feels very Danish, many of the
residents are Danish speaking, and they have a Danish school etc.
Rie
Poul and Linda’s house was once the living
quarters for the customs men, and their communal garden backs on to a nature
reserve, with the mill lake which is rich in bird life. We spent the night with
them, it was great to sleep in a proper bed for a change!
With Poul
and Linda.
Poul drove
us back to the boat next morning, complete with a bag full of clothes which
Linda had washed for us - Thanks Linda.
Poul helped us out of the awkward berth we found ourselves in and we said
goodbye. We had intended to have a short sail to Sønderborg, but we had such a
good breeze on the quarter that we decided to carry on to Søby on the island of
Æro.It was a wonderful day, and good to be back in Danish waters again. Soon
after arriving in Søby, we had another thunderstorm, but it soon passed over.
Aærø sunset
The
following day was very wet and with little wind. We put the aft part of the
cockpit tent up and motored. We cut through the channel between Avernakø and
Drejø into Svendborg Sound, then past Troense and then headed north to
Lundeborg on Fyn. This was a small harbour, and
as there had been a harbour festival and it was packed out. Just after we
arrived it poured with rain again. We found another boat to lie alongside for
the night and had a fish supper at the fishmonger/café.
The next
day, 23rd July was dry and breezy from the NW. We left around 9 am
and sailed towards the Great Belt bridge and passed under the western end,
keeping out of the shipping channel. We then sailed past Romsø to Ballen
harbour on Samsø. Ballen was packed out as usual for this time of year. The Samsø
festival had just ended, so as well as the expected German invasion it was full
of Danish boats. We rafted up as number 8 outside some big German boats and two
more rafted up outside us. It blew up during the night to a near gale, and I
woke up to a creaking noise on the bow. I got up to have a look and found that
the outside boat of the raft in front of us had taken a line to our bow,
running the rope through our fairlead. None of the other 10 boats had a
shoreline, so all 11 were hanging on our fairlead. There was someone up on one
of the boats so I shouted to him to get a shoreline on, otherwise I would cut
the line! I looked again a little later sure enough they had a few lines out!
The next day, I noticed that their inside boat didn’t even have springs!
The
forecast for the day was for strong winds so we decided to stay put, the same
happened the next day too, so it was the 26th before we left Samsø.
Thursday was bright and breezy with 20 knots from SW. This gave a cracking sail
up to Snekerløb, the short cut through the reef off Sjællands Odde, reaching 7
knots at times. After the short cut, we had the wind on the beam, so we decided
to continue to Hundested instead for stopping at Odden as planned. We had a
reef in the main and a few rolls in the genoa. We came so quickly to Hundested
that we decided to continue into Roskilde Fjord and Frederiksværk harbour. We
had sailed 60 nm in ten hours – not bad going for us!
We had told
our friends we would arrive in Kignæs
Harbour on Saturday, so
we “hid” in Frederiksværk another day. E would have had to anyway as it blew a
full gale on Friday. Rie’s brother Claus came down to see us from his nearby
summerhouse on Thursday evening. Frederiksværk
harbour was fine for us as it is a member of the “Frihavn” scheme, like
Kignæs. This arrangement means that another FH member can use our berth free
when we are away from base, likewise, we can stay three nights free in a
participating harbour.
Saturday,
28th July was dry with a strong SW breeze. Here in Roskilde Fjord we
had to stay in the deeper channels, and we found we were too close to the wind
to sail, so we motored most of the 8nm to our home harbour – Kignæs.
Approaching
Kignæs
Home again
in Kignæs.
As we approached we could see a few yachts
“dressed overall” with signal flags and a group of family and friends waiting
on the quay to welcome us home.
Dressed
overall.
Welcome
home.
After tying
up, Rie went over to the clubhouse and bought some beer, and we had a good time
on Restless.
This year, we
have sailed 1469nm by the log and the total for the whole voyage since May 2005
is 4948nm. Apart from the engine repairs in 2005, Restless has given us trouble
free sailing. Now we look forward to being grandparents in December, so a new
era begins. We now have a new ship’s dog, her name’s Queenie.
Our new
crew member
We still
want to continue sailing to new places, but in the near future we will stay in Scandinavian
waters.
