Saturday 3rd May 2014 Schmergow to Neuendorf via Brandenburg. 31.1kms 1 lock

(We had the day off on the 1^st May as it was a holiday here in Germany, then the next day was cold and wet, so we went shopping in Brandenburg in the car.)

Another feathered hitch-hiker

3.7°C (Glad of a coal fire overnight) Sunny but chilly with a cold north wind blowing. A pair of swans were alongside the boat so I gave them some leftover stale bread. A couple were fishing at the land end of the basin and we’d got three campers overnight (one parked next to the boat very late the night before) Set off at 9.05 am, reversing carefully (I took the mast down to get past the willow tree on the end, didn’t dare go too far over towards the opposite bank as it was shallow and lily pads were growing) out on to Trebelsee, then winded and went slowly back to the deeper water of the main channel. A large cruiser was swinging round a single 

Brandenburg from the Havel

anchor from its bow with the gusting wind. A black kite was hunting over the lake. Mike said there were two yachts in the old basin at Deetz (our alternative mooring to Schmergow). Not much traffic about, just one guy in an open boat fishing. On our left was a range of low hills with an observation tower that we’d said several times we ought to go and find – it’s in the forest somewhere. Three cruisers went past heading upstream on the Havel, then at KP45 we met a loaded Bromberger also headed toward Berlin, still Polish registered at Bydgoszcz (Prussian name was Bromberg)

Brandenburg from the Stadtskanal

. Five minutes later another loaded Polish registered boat, a tug OL-10 from Szczecin (Stettin) pushing three short (32.5m) covered pans. Quiet again, for a while. Cormorants were fishing. Two cruisers were moored to the bank at the back of some small islands to our left. Another large cruiser was anchored at KP47.5 by Lange Reihe island (where Rosy got stuck on the bottom ten years earlier when we tried to go around the island, Mike marked it on our chart as not navigable after that). A red helicopter

Snazzy rent-a-boats. Brandeburg

went over, following the Havel upstream, and on our right a small airplane was towing gliders up, several were soaring on a thermal. At KP52 a cruiser was fast catching us up as a string of seven more came past heading upriver. Shortly after two men in an open fishing boat went past followed by another cruiser. As we approached Brandenburg there were three large cruisers in line abreast coming up from the Vorstadtschleuse as we were about to turn on to the Brandenburger Stadtskanal (boats that can’t pass under the low bridges on the Stadtskanal have to use the big lock) so 

Below Brandenburg Stadtschleuse.

we put a bit more welly on to get into the little canal. A small yacht was just coming out of the Stadtskanal, putting his sails up. Mike laid our mast down on the roof for the low bridges. Took photos of the town as we went searching for a tap to top up the tank with 200 litres of water. No sign of tap anymore by the shop, nor any of the new stopping places on the way down to the lock. A cruiser was just leaving the little lock (22m long x 5.3m wide) so we went straight in and down. Turned right into the town looking for a tap – and didn’t find one that we could get at. Lots of moored boats, mainly tiny ones bows to bank. A yacht haven had blue posts for electric and 

Fred Dibnah where are you......this chimney needs you

standpipes for water but there was no way we could put our 18m in one of their berths we would be half blocking the navigation! We continued through the town, passing new moorings under construction and the quay we stopped at before where Michael Bentine’s double charged us 1,50DM/m (it was 1DM/m for boats under 10m long) for a night’s stop. We crossed the Silokanal (sport boats not allowed past the first road bridge to the left, but OK for bigger boats that can’t get under the low bridges on the Stadtskanal to turn right to use the big lock). Noted there were three commercials on the quay, two empties Orion and Laura and one loaded with steel coils called Ascanien – no tap on the commercial quay either. Went straight across the 

Moored to the former Junkers coal quay. Plauersee

Silokanal into the lake beyond it where there was a regatta course with grandstands on the left and a huge number of rowing skiffs on the bank. Moored boats in one corner, still no sign of a tap. We gave up and turned around. At the crossroads with the Silokanal we slowed off for the tripper, Liberté, which had just come down the big lock to turn into the Brandeburger Neiderhavel and we followed him back into town. A shed came out of the Domstreng (a weirstream to our left) and followed us under the road bridge then turned off left up the next weirstream.

Moored to the former Junkers coal quay. Plauersee

The tripper tied on a quay and we went past. Spotted a replica DB had arrived on the pay quay while we’d been searching beyond the Silokanal. A British flag on a boat called Tadham Castle (sure we’ve seen that somewhere before) no signs of life on board. On down the Havel with more sheds milling about. Cleared the town and headed for the Plauersee. I made a cup of soup as we hadn’t had any lunch yet and the wind was chilly as we left the shelter of the buildings behind. Three large cruisers overtook us and we caught up with a shed. A tripper came in off the lake as we went into reverse to stop us from hitting the back of the shed. It turned 

View of the lake from the old quay.

left in the lake and we turned right, heading for the Junkers wall. A couple of small boats and yachts were anchored for lunch. We tied carefully to the wall’s protruding H-section girders, Mike put a tyre on the underwater wooden piling and pulled the ropes up tight.  It was 2.30 pm. I closed all the blinds on the sunny side before the temperature in the cabin went sky-high knowing what a sun trap this corner of the lake is.