4.8°C Cloudy and cold, but no wind
until later in the afternoon, sunny spells and short, light showers of rain. Set
off at 8.20 am. At the far end of the mooring where a couple of commercials had
tied up overnight there was a fire on the towpath and the Fire Dept had an
appliance there, they were putting it out as we left. Mike took photos
and said it looked like paint tins. We were overtaken within minutes by an empty
commercial that had come down the Salzgitter branch. Another empty went past in
the opposite direction, then we were overtaken by loaded boat Berolina. At
KP207 a tripper called Prince Albert
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| Passenger boat Prince Albert |
overtook us, a charter boat from the Elbe
at Dresden. Minutes later another empty went past, Peeneland (67mx8m), as it
was overtaking a small yacht with a motorbike on its side deck. At the railway
bridge Amicitia (86mx10.5m 1789T), an empty Dutch boat from Vreeswijk went
past. Two trains went over the railway bridge as we were going under it, the
noise was deafening, I had my fingers in my ears. Shortly after a Polish tug
Nawa54 from Wrocław went past pushing two loaded 500T pans. At the hafen in the
short arm in Peine there were two boats at the scrap berth and another on the
main line waiting to
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| Coal unloading berth at Mehrum power station |
unload. For a short while there were open fields on our
left before the trees closed in again. A tug called Edo went past, trying to
water the towpath with its wash as a man in a kayak set off from the canoe club
at Peine. Four cruisers were fast catching us up at KP200, the first two
overtook us as Polarstern, a loaded boat from Delfzijl NL, went past. The chap
in the kayak had turned to face into the cruisers’s wash so we went past him, then
he turned to head the same way as us but along the far right hand bank. Next
boat past was at KP198, Havelstern an empty 72m boat, followed less than a
kilometre later by a loaded boat called Thorsten (79mx8.0m)
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| Shallow cutting at Schwicheldt |
which was
registered in Berlin and flying a German flag but had a Polish car on its stern
cabin roof. Into the shallow tree lined cutting at Schwicheldt. At KP195
another Polish tug, Nawa S2 from Wrocław, went past with two loaded pans of
scrap – we know where he’s going, there’s a queue. There were no coal boats at
the coal fired power station in Mehrum. We were overtaken by another cruiser as
one went past in the opposite direction by the silo quays on the left bank in
Mehrum and a fuel depot on the right. Back into open countryside for a while.
Festina (67m 700T) from Rotterdam NL went past at KP191. A swarm of small black
houseflies
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| Another feathered hitch-hiker. |
landed on the boat roof, then took off again as the breeze caught
them as we went under the Haimar/Dolgen road bridge. Now empty, Niedersachsen12
(the boat we’d taken photos of yesterday) from Hannover went past by the road
bridge at KP188.5, heading back (to Hamburg maybe?) to pick up another load.
The next boat was in sight, a Berlin tug called Argo pushing an empty 65m pan;
it had two German cars on the back of the tug’s cabin. We passed it at KP187
and the Dutch cruiser that was trailing behind it, looking for an opportunity to
overtake it. Took photos of Sehnde boat club as a few spots of rain started
falling. An empty Dutch boat, called Variatie (62mx8m) from Akkrum, went by as
we passed the WSA depot at Bolzum just before the junction of the Hildesheim branch
(they were still building a new lock alongside the old one). It was followed by
another empty called Nordland (67mx7.3m 700T) from
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| Sehnde boat club |
Berlin. Just after the
junction another empty went past, Wodnik (66.6mx7.9m 797T) from Szczecin PL. A
man with a dog on a long lead let it swim in the edge of the canal at Wassel.
At KP179 an empty boat called Consensus (80mx8.20m 1067T) from Utrecht NL went
past. It went colder and more spots of rain fell. At KP178, by bridge 310, a
little tug called Miss Ed went past pushing an empty 65m pan, followed by a
loaded Bromberger (56.6mx6.02m) from Szczecin. Two cruisers overtook us 2kms
before the lock at Anderten. They had filled the waiting place when we arrived.
We asked if they were going down the lock, they said yes so we
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| Hindenburgschleuse at Anderten. Full ready to descend. |
moored in front
of them (in the mooring that was not for sport boats). It was 2.20pm. I went in
to do the chores. One of the skippers told Mike they were going to the
Netherlands. At 2.55 pm, after two commercials and three cruisers came up out
of the Hindenburg schleuse, we followed two commercials (an empty called Ewa
and a loaded boat called Oriana from Ruhrort) into the left hand chamber and
went on the right hand side while the two cruisers went on the left. We thought
there were floaters on the left, nope, must be in the right hand chamber which
is closed for maintenance work). Down ten bollards, nice and slowly. The
cruiser opposite us used a centre rope on one set of hooks, we did fore and
aft, while the cruiser at the back had
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| Lock empty - how about that for a lock cill? 14.7m drop |
problems – the lady on the bows moved
their bow rope down the ten hooks OK but the skipper couldn’t reach the ones at
the stern so he kept adding ropes together, leaving it attached to the top hook
14.7m higher up. Both cruisers kept their engines running while the chamber
emptied. We watched with bated breath when the guy started pulling his 30m of
rope in, fearing the knots would get stuck round the hook at the top.
Thankfully it all came down OK. Even with bow thrusters, both cruisers didn’t
manage to exit the lock behind the loaded boat without bumping the lock walls
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| Gate going up |
due to its wash. There were two ready to come up, Mocha was tied to the left
hand wall but didn’t move, an empty tanker called Janina was powering its bows
off the right hand wall with its bow thruster and an 80m empty called Geeste
was already heading for the lock and Angelus-Dei, loaded with scrap, was moored
on the right hand wall and showing no signs of moving. The two cruisers were
soon overtaking the two commercials. I finished the chores and made a cuppa.
Nawa6 from Wrocław loaded with scrap went past, followed by Chan-su-bod
(85mx9,5m 1498T) by the windmill in Bothfeld.
At KP168 an empty called AGT-06 from Wrocław went past as we went into
outskirts of the city of Hannover. The walls along the towpath were covered in
the usual graffiti. There were lots of people walking, cycling or feeding the
ducks as we went through the city. A cruiser went past and we went past loaded
boat Berolina now moored by bridge 233 (KP165). An empty called Gloria (85mx9.35m
1291T) from Moers went past followed by empty Vota (80mx8.20m 1129T) from
Wrocław and another empty, Otrate (80mx9,50m 1531T) from Lauenförde. The local
youth were out in
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| Windmill at Bothfeld |
short canoes at KP164, playing canoe water polo. A heated
argument started on VHF radio with a German skipper berating a Polish one for
chatting on VHF with another Polish skipper in Polish. The German said “in
Germany we speak German on the radio” (as well as a torrent of stuff we didn’t
understand). They certainly won’t like it when in 2020 all of Europe will have
to use English for boat communication like Air Traffic Control for aircraft. A lot of German skippers are not best pleased
with the recent influx of Polish boats taking “German” jobs. At 5.45 pm we tied
up at KP 161 after the cruiser that was moored in the middle of the mooring
moved up to give us enough space.
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| Moored at Hainholz, Hannover. |
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