10.6°C Grey hazy clouds first thing,
sunny spells later and very windy. Showers in the
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| Red kite hunting over canal embankment |
afternoon. The two cruisers that
had moored overnight had gone before we got up at 7 am. Made a note that there
are no rubbish bins by the mooring. It was blowing a gale as we crossed the
wide section of canal by the turning to the new lock that leads down on to the
Elbe where there is a big commercial port at Magdeburg. An 80m boat had just
turned into the lock channel as we set off. A two thousand tonne tanker called
Detmer140 (86m x 11.45m) went past at KP315, followed by tug Nawa52 pushing two
empty 49m pans.
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| Wind farm and colza fields |
The chart marked water, toilets and mooring at KP315 but there
was only a small canoe club there, so I crossed that out. The blades were all
turning on the big wind generators near Meitzendorf, making good use of the
very high wind. A large Polish cruiser went past with the odd name of Press and
Play, its crew waving. As we went past Groβe Ammensleben there was the sickly
stink of colza on the wind from fields and fields of the stuff growing on the
slopes of the hills to the west. Before the big silo at Vahldorf there was
another big wind farm with a field full of solar panels below the wind
turbines. Polish boat Megan (67mx8.2m) was loading fine gravel
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| First floodgate. Haldesleben. Mittellandkanal |
at the end of
the silo quay. The first pair of Egyptian geese that we’d seen this year went
paddling past as loaded tanker Beate went by at KP304. The widened canal section
finished as we approached Haldensleben and there were restrictions for the
commercials, one way working. A cruiser went past as I took a photo of the
first Sperrtor (floodgate) on the Mittellandkanal. There was a long section of
moorings for the commercials with blue electricity boxes along it, each one had
an X of bright orange tape on it, ie out of use, likewise the box with a water
tap. The commercial hafen on our right was busy and boats were loading and
unloading along the quays both sides. Noted two cruisers were moored in the WSA
hafen along with the usual
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| Railway bridge. Haldesleben. Mittellandkanal |
WSA workboats, tugs and a WSP police boat. The sport
boat hafen looked full, so maybe that’s why there were two cruisers in the WSA
hafen. Slowed off as a craneboat and pans that were working under a road bridge
moved out of the way as there was another loaded commercial coming towards us.
Both banks of the canal were under reconstruction due to the widening work.
There was a queue behind Marjolien, a Dutch-flagged boat (80mx8.20m 1100T)
loaded with coal slack. (Strangely it had a car on the back that was
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| Moored at Bulstringen. Mittelandkanal |
registered
in Hamburg.) First boat behind it was a small replica Dutch barge called Lily,
whose crew came out of their wheelhouse to wave and take photos. They were
being tail-gated by a Polish tug. Next was Elan, a loaded square-fronted tanker
(80mx9m) and another cruiser behind that, all going slowly through the canal
version of road works. The banks were being pushed back on both sides all the
way through the town. As we went under the elegant suspension bridge
Füβgangerbrücke Flora we passed a small German yacht, then all was quiet as we
left town and had trees along the banks for the first time since we’d started
on the Mittelandkanal. The woods didn’t offer much shelter from the gale. We ate lunch on the move. A few drops of rain
started to fall just as we winded and moored at Bülstringen at 1.20 pm.
Immediately a loaded boat went past in either direction to test our mooring
ropes. Mike waited for the light shower to stop then we unloaded the bike off
the roof, easy as the quay was almost roof height, and he went to retrieve the
car from Parey.
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