Nordeney Past & Present

We spent the day in Norderney and we're expecting Dave on the last ferry this evening to rejoin the crew. The harbour was so full we had to move the boats several times to make space for other yachts coming and going.

Walking around Norderney there is the feeling that somehow the events of twentieth century Germany have almost passed it by. You are encouraged to see the old seaside resort beneath the surface of the modern tourist centre.

There are streets named after the Kaiser and Bismarck for example. We saw two preserved bathing machines: these used to be wheeled down the beach so that their occupants could undress and enter the sea with a degree of privacy. Old photos show rows of these lined up at the water's edge. Lots of resorts used to have these in Victorian times but I don't recall seeing an example on display before.

In many places throughout the town there are posters showing what the view looked like from the same spot around a hundred years ago. Often there hasn't been a lot of change.

The second photo shows the impressive Conversationshaus. I imagined at first that this was some kind of local parliament building, but it turns out to contain the tourist information office and a coffee shop. The third photo shows that the building has changed little since 1900, even if the fashion in holidaymakers clothes has.

We now have crew and have stocked up on water, food and fuel so are ready to go tomorrow if we get a suitable wind.

Rest day in Nordeney

Today was spent in Norderney. The thick fog persisted all night and lasted till early afternoon, when it was replaced by bright sunshine so we looked round the town. Norderney was a fashionable German seaside resort around the 1900s and still retains the flavour of that era with many elegant hotels, public buildings and open spaces. The town was busy today with lots of holidaymakers. This should be just about peak season and it must be much quieter for much of the year.
The buoyed channel where we came in last night runs close to the sea front and can be clearly seen from the promenade. The beaches here must be fairly wild during the winter gales and there is a raised sea wall to protect the town from flooding. The picture shows D on the sea wall. This has been neatly constructed in stepped form on several levels and faced with different materials so that it gives a much gentler and less obtrusive appearance than is sometimes seen with sea defences. A major concrete structure would be would be quite out of keeping with the character of the town.

Today sadly D had to go home as she is back at work tomorrow. She left on the ferry after lunch and got a train to Hamburg airport so she should be back home tonight.
Getting Bonita back may take some time longer. However we are expecting Dave to come back tomorrow to help us get going.

Nordeney in the fog

We got up at 5am to leave Cuxhaven shortly after high water. Leaving the harbour was considerably easier than entering it last night across the full spring ebb tide. The first picture shows D and Ellen with the famous Kugelbake (Ball Beacon) seamark off Cuxhaven.

D, Ellen and Kugelbake before the fog descended

Shortly after this photo was taken a thick fog came down which reduced visibility to a few hundred yards. The fog lasted all day. There was very little wind so the whole day was spent motoring in fog, a trip of around 60 miles.  Fortunately the only shapes that came looming up in the fog were the ones we were expecting to see, but keeping a constant lookout and a high level of vigilance gets tiring.

We saw no land until we were very close to Norderney, and we crossed the shallow water over the bar about an hour before low water. This is not generally recommended as things can go badly wrong if there is any kind of swell over the bar or if you stray from the marked channel. Luckily today the sea was quite calm and everything worked out OK.

Off Norderney harbour we saw some people waving at us from a German yacht. The waving seemed to be more enthusiastic than the usual greeting so we went over to investigate. It turned out that they had anchored as their engine had broken down. Geoff got a line aboard and towed them into harbour with Calismarde.

Calismarde to the rescue

This evening there continues to be thick fog in the harbour so we are glad not to be still at sea. The harbour is much more crowded than we were here a few weeks ago although there may be a mass exodus of weekend visitors tomorrow.

Norderney has a special significance for D since she was last here as an 18 year old on a camping trip.It was while she was here that she got a telegram telling her that she had got a place at medical school.

Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin & Nordeney in the same picture...

Cuxhaven

We spent much of today motoring through the Kiel canal. It is 66 km from Rendsburg where we spent last night to the locks at Brunsbüttel on the river Elbe.  For much of the time the canal runs through flat countryside but this is difficult to see as the canal is lined with mature trees that are probably as old as the canal.

The bridges over the canal all have a clearance of 40m so can allow quite large ships to pass. The two bridges pictured are obviously old but are in regular use. The plates are riveted together rather than being welded: perhaps they are part of the engineering masterpiece that so impressed people when the canal was opened in 1895.

We didn't stay in Brunsbüttel, but locked straight out into the Elbe at about 6pm. There was a fair tide running down to Cuxhaven. Elbe tides are fairly formidable and can sweep past the narrow entrance to the yacht harbour at 4 knots or more. Getting into the harbour with this sort of cross-current provides a great deal of excitement and a profound sense of relief once in port.

So Bonita is once again floating in tidal salty waters. No doubt this has provided an unpleasant shock to any fresh water marine life that may have taken up residence during our time in the Baltic. We also have to unearth the tide tables and plan our sailing around times of high and low water again.

The Nord-Ostsee-Kanal

We have had a mixed day with some good progress. We woke up in Heiligenhafen to find the wind was still Easterly so we left at 7am. At first we had thunderstorms with heavy rain but then it cleared up to a hot sunny day. We were making a steady 5 - 6 knots with a good fair wind. We got into Kiel fjord about 2pm but then had to wait about an hour for the lock to open. 

D in front of one of the 19th century lighthouses at the entrance to the Kiel canal.

Eventually they filled the large lock with two huge ships and a gaggle of yachts. This is always a bit worrying as any backwash from the propellers or bow thrusters can be dangerous to small craft. Even with the engines ticking over in neutral there seems to be turbulence in the water astern. However it all seemed to be carefully managed and the yachts left first without trouble. 

The canal is maintained at roughly the same level as the Baltic so there hardly seems to be any change in water level going through the lock at the Kiel end.

Yachts cannot transit the canal after dark, so we got to Rendsburg about 30km along the canal and stopped there for the night and recuperation.

So the boats have now left the Baltic. We have stowed away our fat folders of Baltic charts and should soon be back in tidal waters.