Friday 23rd May 2014 Pente to Ibbenbüren. 27.6kms no locks

A few of the thousands of wild lupins along the canal

13.0°C By contrast to the last couple of days it was grey overcast and much cooler when we set off and rain started which lasted most of the day. Mike said the first commercial past woke him around 5am, but the cruiser that went past at high speed and started the boat rocking violently at 6.15am woke both of us. A private contractor’s tug, pushing a series of workboats including a craneboat, went past as we were untying at 8.35 am. Back to wearing warmer clothes, jeans and a fleece – and a waterproof later. Police launch WSP20 was moored by the Police station on the junction with the Osnabrück branch. There is a long loading quay at KP29 Wackum

What an elegant bird! Egyptian goose again.

where Mike slowed down to keep out of the way of a tug which had pulled out and winded using the whole width of the canal to turn, then went to the other end of the pans he was pushtowing to move them along the quay for loading grain at the silo. The rest of the quay was occupied by a huge heap of scrap metal. Not many minutes later we were overtaken by loaded boat Mucki from Duisburg (86mx10.14m 1635T). It started to rain when I went in to make tea as we went into a long section devoid of villages through moorland with thick belts of trees on both banks. I took photos of the banks full of wild purple lupins. A quiet 6kms before the next boat overtook us, Mariëlle, a loaded Dutch boat from Farmsum (84.9mx9m 1397T) at KP21 and shortly after Livia from Duisburg (80mx8.2m 1096T) went past helping to stir up the mud from the bottom of the canal even though it was close on 4m deep. We were overtaken by a large cruiser from Berlin then a large British cruiser went past, Dawnside from St Peter Port Guernsey, at KP19. The rain stopped so Mike took the brolly down, five minutes later he had to put it back up again as it was pouring down –

What are they thinking of? Navi lights!!

then it continued until well into the afternoon. 4kms later a German cruiser went past with full navigation lights on. Mike took a photo and shouted to the crew as they went past “You’ve got your lights on!” – expressions of bewilderment (car drivers!!) Visibility, although it was raining hard, was at least 3kms in each direction. Where the little river Recker Aa went under the canal there was a large crane with a skip on chains, which they were tipping mud from onto a pile on the canal bank, they must be dredging the river. Strange way to do it - with a skip! Quartzit from Ibbenbüren went past loaded with what looked like soil at KP15 as we were overtaken

Emptying dredgings from a skip

by Claudia, a loaded boat from Seevetal (80mx7.9m 960T). We were passing a large farm on the left bank, pooh! – a pig farm! Another smelly one! Views of the distant Teutoberger hills. Quiet again for a few kilometres then at KP11.5 Energie (80mx9.2m 140T) loaded with damp woodchips went past – downwind of it the smell was disgusting. A large steel Dutch cruiser went past at KP10 followed by a loaded boat (86mx9.35m 1311T) called Desiree (the bows had been repainted, the name was on the tender, but no flag or port to s

An unloading staging near Obersteinbeck

ay where it was from). Took photos of an old unloading place with a conveyor on rails at KP9 by a big winding hole at Obersteinbeck. A pair of light coloured (some sort of hybrid?) ducks were by a quay wall, then we saw a pair of mallard having a frenzied feast in the middle of the canal – they were eating a very large dead carp! Never seen ducks eat fish before. At KP7 Xena (105mx9.5m 1864T) a loaded boat from Peissen went past with a car on its bow under a car port. He was followed by Recaro, an empty from Bad Pyrmont (77mx8.20m 1044T). There were three boats on the quay at Ibbenbüren, an empty called Amazone from Douai (first

A pair of mallard ducks devouring a dead carp

French boat!!) 80m x 9.5m 1500T), Morane from Ibbenbüren ((85mx9,5m 1044T) who had just finished loading and was washing down, plus a loaded boat called Corrado from Groningen NL (80mx8.5m 1352T). We turned left into the old arm and winded to moor behind the Berlin cruiser that had overtaken us earlier, it was 1pm. At last a quiet mooring, if you don’t count the shunting engines on the railway on the far bank, but nothing should go past us here,

Car port on the bows of Xena

except private boats to a marina, as it’s a dead end. Noted that the old arm was 3.7m deep by the piling next to our bows. It continued to pour down with rain as we had lunch.