Sunday 27th April 2014 Basin on Seddinsee to Schmöckwitz 2.29kms no locks

Mooring by the wall at Schmockwitz

10.9° Grey skies and not very warm, brief sunny spells. The blue-hulled cruiser that had moored by us at Schmöckwitz left around ten. Mike wanted to go back to Schmöckwitz so that he could get some fresh bread in the morning before we set off for Treptow. One of the small boats behind us had left and we didn’t notice it go. Just three small boats left in the basin when we set off at 1.20 pm. A bunch of medium sized yachts were sailing at the north end of the Seddinsee lake as we turned south. Just a couple of cruisers up and down and a few inflatables and open speedboats looking after more dinghy sailors at the southern end of the lake. Turned left on the Dahme, passing the old Chinese restaurant and turned right to moor next to the park – except there were three cruisers moored there and not enough room for us. Nothing else for it but to tie to the posts along the base of the wing wall of the road bridge. We had just tied up at 1.45 pm (with an audience up above us on the bridge) when a tug and two empty pans went past heading up the Dahme to the coal berths. I made a cuppa, put the laptop on to do the log and blog and Mike went out to take some photos  from the bridge of a tug and loaded pans of coal heading down the Dahme. As he came back the crews of two of the cruisers gathered all their BBQ gear back on board and set 

Tug and two pans of brown coal heading down the Dahme

off so we moved back into our usual spot. The other boat was the blue-hulled cruiser which had been moored here last week and had also been in the basin on the Seddinsee. Mike said an animal (probably a fox) had been climbing on the car and left muddy paw prints over the bonnet, roof and front and back windows, he took a bucket of water and the mop to clean it down then he drove up to the supermarket to see what time it opens - 7 am. The blue-hulled cruiser had moved down the quay to close up the gap and leave space for anyone else who wanted to moor. He left early

Tug and two pans of brown coal heading down the Dahme

evening. 

View from the bridge. Schmockwitz

Wednesday 23rd April 2014 Wolzig to Schmöckwitz 31.6kms 1 lock

Misty morning Wolzigersee

10.2°C Grey skies and everywhere was wet after yesterday’s downpours. The sun burned through the mist by lunchtime, then late afternoon grey clouds rolled in but no rain fell. We set off at 9.10 am on to a misty, windless lake. Nothing but us moving on the Wolzigersee. There was a lone goldeneye duck fishing along the reed bed by the canal entrance. The first passing boat of the day was an inflatable powered by an outboard motor with two men in lifejackets which went by as we entered

More fishing nets and poles

the Langersee, winding our way through the fishing nets to the buoyed channel. We paused in the middle of the lake while Mike put the pins in to test the new washing machine on Markon power. Turned right into the Dahme channel leading to the Dolgensee. Both banks were lined with chalets and houses of all shapes and sizes, no two were alike with simple wooden bungalows next door to mansions. Under the footbridge and out on to the lake. It was still, dead flat calm and only two cruisers were anchored by the banks. In the far distance was a cruiser which had set off from

Recovered wreck. Abv Neue Muhle lock

the Langersee. The sun was still hazy but getting warmer. Two paddlers went past heading upstream, keeping to the edge of the lake. Mike went in the cabin and said that the washing machine had stopped and had an error code E5. I had to put the Internet on to find out what that was, overvoltage. Now that Mike knows it’s very fussy about voltage he’ll keep it below 230v, it must have gone higher when the heater went off. Had to turn the power off completely and start again. Put it on a cool programme as it had already heated the water. It started again OK and continued washing. I did the washing up

Painting the bollards. Neue Muhle lock

and kept an eye on it. Made a cuppa and sat out, except I caught the speed lever and increased power, shut it down again as soon as I did it but the machine had another error code LE – huh, it thinks the door is open! Switched it off again, Mike brought the engine back up to speed and I set it to rinse and spin (no manual advancing of stages of the programme like the old machine) and it said it would be 17 minutes. Mike said we’ll be at the lock in 12 minutes according to the GPS. I kept watch on it. It finished spinning as we reached the lock waiting area. I turned it all off

Loading pans with 1000 tonnes of brown coal

and we hung on the fence above Neue Mühle lock. Took photos of a boat strapped on a WSA workboat, the cruiser had been mostly submerged at the top end of the Langersee for ages. There were no signs of damage or fire so we wondered why it had sunk. The lock gates opened, there was a small open WSA workboat in the lock chamber on the left hand side and a guy was standing in it painting the bollards and ladders down to waterline with bright yellow paint. We went over to the right hand side and I held the string while Mike took the keeper a pot of

Empty pans waiting to be filled with brown coal

seedlings. A younger man, he spoke English and seemed pleased to have a present from the odd English boat. Below the lock the brown coal loading staithes were working again now the holidays were over. Took photos and waved to the crews and crane drivers as we went past. There was a train of filled pans waiting for a tug to deliver them to the big coal-fired power station on the Spree in the north of Berlin near Spandau. Not much was moving still, then a tug set off from the Möllenzugsee heading towards the coal loading staithes by the Nottekanal hafen. I made some sandwiches for lunch

Tug motoring out of the Mollenzugsee

and we ate it on the move. An open motor boat followed us up the Zeuthenersee. I took photos of the Kuhnle hire base, all their boats tucked up again after last weekend’s holiday. The boatyard next door to it was decked out with fluttering metallic bunting – a favourite here for dissuading birds from perching on yacht masts, etc, and covering the boats with bird pooh. A police helicopter circled as we motored on up the lake. Another designer shed went past heading upstream. A black kite took us by surprise, snatching a fish about a foot long from the water about 50m from us and taking off before we could get the camera switched on. The quay at Schmöckwitz was completely empty so we backed into the corner at 2.20 pm and tied up. 

Monday 21st April 2014 Schmöckwitz to Märkish Buchholz 40.6kms 3 locks

Six empty coal pans moored at Koenigs Wusterhausen

9.7°C Sunny with white clouds, turning grey later and showers. We went out in the car to get some bread and a few groceries from the Rewe supermarket, but it was closed for the holidays so we went to the Total garage, which sold bread, and Mike bought six buns. Back to the boat, we got ready and set off at 9.50 am. Two large loaded commercials had gone past already, heading up the Dahme on the Zeuthenersee – same way as we were going – but they would be stopping in the Hafen at Königs-Wusterhausen. A rescue boat had just been launched and was s

Boat loaded with scrap in the Nottekanal hafen

etting off so Mike took a photo of it as we went past. Not much was moving yet, a few rowing skiffs and one solitary yacht under sail. The first boat moving was a Kuhnle hireboat with crew out on the top deck – they’d just set off from the hire base a few kilometres up the lake – they all looked stunned. Further up the lake, at Zeuthen, we spotted a small moored Luxemotor, couldn’t see a name on it - and it may have been longer than 15m; it was moored next to a tripper called Olympia. A collection of six big empty pans was moored by the A12 autobahn bridge, they were waiting to be loaded with brown coal for the power station from a loading staithe a

Two canoeists being apprehended by the police 

bit further on, each one was 67m long by 8.2m wide and carried nearly a thousand tonnes. Tugs usually push either two or four pans. Mike took photos of the boats in the Nottekanal Hafen at Königs-Wusterhausen, one large boat was loaded with scrap metal. We’d passed a cruiser at the top end of the Möllenzugsee (one of the smaller lakes on the Dahme) who had gone past, winded, and overtaken us and was now hovering in the middle just beyond the silent (on holiday) loading station for brown coal. Looked like he’d decided to get some fuel as

Leaving Neue Muhle lock

there was a useful (if expensive) bankside Tankstelle. Mike took a photo so he could have a look later to see how much they were charging. 1,42.9€/litre! We’d paid 1,35.9€/litre yesterday. A police boat was just in the act of apprehending two canoeists, what for we have no idea. As we approached Neue Mühle lock two cruisers came out of it and we got a green light to go in. Another cruiser (called Santana) joined us and we rose 1.4m. The skipper told Mike he had a book on English canals with lots of pictures of boats like ours. The keeper went to have a chat with him. Above the lock the crew of another Kuhnle hireboat were having

No sooner had they got it tied up than the lock was ready!!

great difficulty (even with a bow thruster) with the light breeze to get next to the 1.5m high fence for boats to moor next to and wait for the lock. A small yacht was cowering at the end nearest the lock. They got a rope around the stumps just as we left the lock. The yacht’s skipper called them past him to send them into the lock first, sensible chap! Out on to the Krimnicksee which joins the Krüplesee forming an upside down W-shape (with an additional long narrow lake pointing north) heading eastwards back into the river. As we crossed the lakes there was one lone rowing boat and a windsurfer, nothing else moving. No signs of the cruiser,

Smarter than your average floating shed, eh?

maybe he’d tied up, there were loads of moorings all around the lakes. We were sheltered from the wind by the forest as we went into the next river section. Before Bindau we saw a very unusual hire boat, an elegant designer shed. A smart open boat, with two couples having a picnic, overtook us - the type of dayboat very popular in the Netherlands with a thick rope fender all around it. At KP17 there were fishing nets with sticks for markers (lots of these about) that stretched out to the middle of the river from the right hand bank just before a left hand bend – under normal circumstances we always take the outsides of bends where the water is usually deepest, luckily here the middle was about 1.5m deep. Mike saw the first FKKs (nudists) of the year,

Half sloping sided lock - Hermsdorfer Muhle

a not-so-young couple paddling a canoe. At the entrance to Dolgensee we were overtaken by two very large and expensive cruisers – they won’t be going where we are, too high and too deep in the water. It was windy on the lake and nothing about except the two big boats, who were very quickly leaving us behind. Mike noticed that our chart said the next lock, Prieros, was closed until 1^st May. We carried on to have a look anyway and as we got closer the lock started to empty. The keeper, a man with white hair, came out to say hello and work the lock for us.

Goldeneye ducks. Beautiful but shy.

The notice board said the lock was open all year, but with different hours in the winter to the summer. He asked if we were going on to Märkisch Buchholz and I said yes, coming back through the next lock, Hermsdorfer Mühle, tomorrow and back here on Wednesday. OK. Mike gave him one of his pots of seedlings and told him it was for the house and would have beautiful flowers in two years’ time. He looked very pleased. We continued up the next section of river and into the Streganzersee, a small lake with a reedy island at the top end by the entrance to the next river reach where our friend Bob got his boat stuck back in 1999. There were nice little houses and chalets around the lake, two fishing boats went past, their crews smiled and waved. It was surprisingly quiet beyond the lake with few moored

Trolley on the bootschleppe
to take canoes up to the canal above the weir

boats and just a couple of bungalows in the forest. The further upriver we went the more it became remote, with water meadows backed by forest. The old quay we’d planned to moor at on Tuesday night had gone, now the layby had sloping rocks to the meadow above and had a fence around it. Disappointed with that as we’d been thinking of having a BBQ there as we’d done twice before. Below Hermsdorfer lock there was a crowd of fishermen, all fairly amiable, their cars were parked by another old quay. Sandbanks were forming below the weir off to our left, so the channel was marked with red buoys to keep boats very close to the right hand bank. We’d

Greenfinches by the bootschleppe

forgotten that the lock had been rebuilt shorter (28m long instead of 43m) and with the right wall sloping. We attached to the vertical poles on the right and Mike took photos then went to see the keeper and gave him a pot of seedlings. Beyond the lock we chased a pair of goldeneye ducks for ages, they would fly off in front, land, we’d catch them up and they’d take off again. Mike stood on the front deck and took photos of them. Two trees had fallen across the navigation at KP 36 and were blocking

Moored across a slipway for small boats.
Markisch Buchholz

three quarters of the river. A bit further on, at KP37.5 another tree had fallen in the river and was half way across the navigation. Neither looked like it had been felled by beaver, although there was a lot of evidence of the presence of beaver in the forests. A couple were hauling canoes into the river in Märkisch Buchholz and asked if we were stopping there. No, we’ll see what the mooring is like at the very end, up by the weir. There was a sign board that said charges for overnight were 5€ per person, so we wouldn’t have stayed there anyway. As they paddled past the man (who spoke good English) told us there was a place for cooking with toilets and showers. We told him that it

The weir and the inaccessible (for us - no lock) umflutkanal beyond it

was very good for canoeists and campers but we were OK we’d got all mod cons on board. We winded and moored across the trailer boat slip (which didn’t look used) and tied the stern half to a little landing stage for launched boats and bows to a stump. If anyone wanted to use it we’d have to move, but no one did. Mike went to take photos of the bootschleppe, a trolley for hauling small boats past the weir and on to the navigation above. The canoeists had just used it and were setting off on the Umflutkanal.  When they built the new weir they added a hydro-electric plant but omitted the lock, so now the link from the Dahme to the Spree via the Neuendorfersee and Alt Schadow and Kossenblatt locks is no longer viable. A great shame as it would have made a beautiful round trip for people with small boats, now it’s only usable by canoes. It was 5 pm by the time we’d tied up. When Mike took his walk up to the weir to take photos of the boat from the bridge he had a bonus of spotting of a small flock of greenfinches. By the time I’d done half the log I was nodding off. Mike had tried the Internet and found that although we’d got EDGE on full strength it was too slow to be useable.

Saturday 19th April 2014 Füstenwalde – Schmöckwitz 31.5kms 2 locks

Under the footbridge over the weirstream at Fustenwalde

2.6°C Cold night, glad we kept the coal fire going. Grey, chilly start, sun coming out and clouds gone by 10.15 am. Up early as Mike wanted to get some bread (and eggs) from the shops at the far end of the shopping street in the town. He went to a little supermarket which was the only place open. He used the new VHF radio to call the keeper at Füstenwalde lock on channel 22, got a reply from him and he was getting the gates open on the (usual) left hand chamber as we arrived. Mike took photos of a hooded crow that had snatched a dead fish from the surface of the water in the lock then ate

And into Fustenwalde lock

  it on the lockside. I put the centre rope round a bollard set in the brick-walled chamber and we dropped down about a metre, then carried on down the last of the canalised river Spree. This lock is the last one with an electric mule system for hauling pans in and out of the chamber (we saw it in use last year). Just before we got to Groβe Tranke we noted how much damage had been done to the trees by beaver – and a lot of the trees had red rusty coloured trunks. The river was pouring over the weir at Groβe Tranke and an empty pan had been left on the one 

Hooded crow enjoying a dead fish

remaining wall of the old paired flood locks that used to be here. Mike took photos of a buzzard. A sign we’re back in an area where there is commercial traffic – wagtails started landing on the boat roof looking for bugs and spiders! I made a cuppa. Four buzzards and a white-tailed eagle were soaring on thermals to our left just past Braunsdorf. The sun came out and the clouds went mid-morning. A pair of crows were chasing a big bird of prey through the edge of the forest, the big bird (another eagle) landed in the top of a tree and still the crows dived at it. A cruiser went past at KP59 keeping so close to the bank Mike had to take a photo of it.

Rear end of a Bizon tug on the Oder-Spree-Kanal

Another overtook us just before the A10 autobahn bridge. A commercial was coming towards us round the next bend, two loaded pans being pushed by a Bizon tug from Wrocław (pronounced vrots/waf) in Poland. Had a short wait for Werndorf lock. The cruiser was tied to the waiting area for sport boots. The lock gates opened (the right hand side one of the two locks had been modernised) and the lights changed to green but the cruiser had its own traffic light and had to wait a while for that to change to green. We followed it into the lock

The weir at Grosse Tranke on to the Muggelspree

chamber. I dropped our centre rope round a big bollard on the lockside. The cruiser was having problems, they’d attached a line from their stern but there was nothing for the lady of the vessel to put her rope on, so she stayed on the lockside after chatting with the keeper who came out from his posh new cabin to help. (We think he also works Kersdorf lock from this cabin, Werndorf also has cameras so that might not be the case when we next come through this lock). I transferred our rope down on to the bollard recessed in the concrete wall as the drop was close on 5m. I didn’t transfer down any further as the walls and bollards were very muddy. Another short wait while sir picked madam up below the lock, then they turned left into the Krossinsee. Another cruiser

The Langersee side of the Weidewall

and two canoes were waiting to come up. Water was thundering over the weir between the two lock chambers and racing out from the section of Krossinsee to our right. There were fishermen everywhere and shooting was going on (maybe some sort of range) somewhere in the forest to our right. We carried on down the last of the Oder-Spree-Kanal. A small open speedboat came out of the lake and overtook us slowly (slowly for one of that type of boat) as an un-marked police boat went past heading towards the lock. The crew smiled and waved. In the distance we could see lots of sailing boats zipping around on the Seddingsee. When we reached the lake we turned left with sailing boats going every which way and headed for the islands at the end

Moored on the quay at Schmockwitz

of the lake called the Weiden Wall. Turned left on to the north end of the Zeuthenersee, a lake on the river Dahme which is a tributary of the Spree. Under the road bridge and turned right – a choice of where to moor on the quay at Schmöckwitz, so we tucked the stern into the left hand end of the quay by the trees and lashed fore and aft to the wooden  stumps driven into the lake bed which were provided for this purpose and Mike hung tyres on them. It was 1.45 pm. More lies on depth signboards, this one said max 0.7m when the depth was actually twice that at 1.4m. The wash of passing boats caused a constant rocking, but a fairly gentle one. Had lunch then Mike decided to collect the car from Müllrose. I helped unload the bike off the roof – we had an audience as a speedboat and a cruiser had tied up in front of us. He left around 3pm and sent me a text from Müllrose to say that the green card had arrived today! Hooray for that. Thank you Ralf and Matthias, hope your canoe hire business does really well.