6.1°C Sunny spells, lots of clouds,
still windy (N) and light showers. Mike went by car to get
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| Rain clouds over the junction Elbe-Seiten-Kanal and MLK |
bread from Netto and
a few carrots. The garage had dropped the price of diesel to 1,36.9€/litre so
Mike filled up two cans for the boat. Set off at 9.20 am. There was a load of
wind-blown debris, rubbish and brown foam between the boat and bank so we set
off steadily, to avoid getting any on the prop, with the wind trying to blow us
back on to the wall. Just after we set off, tug Fabrico1 pushing an empty pan
(70m 1300T) came off the Elbe-Seiten-Kanal and turned towards Braunschweig
(same direction as us) and within minutes overtook us. At the first bridge we
passed Aaliyah, a
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| A push tow pair loaded with containers |
loaded 80m boat from Zwolle (no sign of a Dutch flag),
followed minutes later by Renata from Enkhuizen (62m x 6.75m 755T) with a Dutch
car on the cabin roof. We were a bit more sheltered from the north wind
(blowing had from our right) by trees along the banks of the canal and the sun
came out briefly making it feel much more pleasant. There were dog roses
blooming along the bank along with ox-eye daisies and pink campion. Just before
Thune we were overtaken by loaded coal boat called Niedersachsen12 with hardly a
ripple – nice hull shape. Tanker
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| Oops, somebody missed! |
Janina (80mx8.20m 1123T) was moored in the
layby before the hafen in Braunschweig, it was well-loaded so Mike took photos
of its gunwales awash. The hafen was busy with traffic, the old brick-built
silo on the left had been replaced by a shiny new one on the right of the arm.
There was a big heap of coal, one of scrap metal then a container
loading/unloading base. Took a photo of a small Bobcat digger that is lowered
by crane into the holds of the barges and used to scrape the last bits of cargo
together for unloading. The wind had turned to a Westerly as we cleared
Braunschweig and was blowing in our faces again, luckily not for long. The Fire
Dept were on
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| Fire Dept about to do training exercises with big pumps |
the towpath with four vehicles by a large slipway, looks like they
were about to do practise exercises with big water pumps. The biggest single
hulled boat yet went past at KP218, an empty called Richards Bay it was 100m
long x 11m beam and capacity 2,040 tonnes. Two young crewmen were on painting
duty, sanding the coamings. It was followed by another empty, called Medem
(80mx8m 1020T) as we were passing a boat club in an offline basin that had a
gate to protect its boats from the wash of passing traffic. A Dutch cruiser
went past heading for Berlin. Shortly after we passed a cruiser attached to one
of the metal hoops atop the security
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| We waited until the wash died down before attaching to the bank |
ladders. What a place to stop for lunch!
An empty called Drebkau overtook us (67mx8.20m 867T) an old Czech boat from
Decin. The latter started his bow thruster engine up as he passed us, a plume
of smoke rising vertically. Mike said I bet he’s going to turn left at the
junction to go up the Salzgitter branch, that’s why he’s powered up his bow
thruster. He was spot on. Why does he need a bow thruster when the junction is
like a small lake? Oberon from Minden (80mx9m 1118T) came out of the arm, also
with bow thruster running and turned towards Berlin passing us. It was
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| Moored at the junction with the Salzgitter branch canal |
loaded
with sand. A large cruiser going the opposite way to us arrived at just the
wrong time, making loads of wash as we slowed down to wind and moor at the end
of the long commercial moorings at KP213. We bobbed about for several minutes
after he’d gone before we threw ropes round bollards, just as the first shower
of the day started. Just a brief short shower.
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