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| Shunting engine opposite moorings in Stichkanal |
Grey clouds sunny spells, breezy.
Set off at 10.05 as the Dutch boat behind us also set off and overtook before
we reached the end of the stichkanal. The boat that arrived the night before
singled out into the space between the two cruisers in front of the Snail.
Behind us was one of the boats that loaded up the day before, called Silke.
Nothing moving on the Mitteland as we came out of the arm. It’s the weekend
won’t be much about. Famous last words. An empty called Castor overtook us
within ten minutes.
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| Castor pumping his ballast tank or bilges |
He was pumping his bilges and/or ballast tanks and the wind
was whipping the column of water into spray, which fell like rain on our boat
as it passed us. A cruiser (the first of quite a few) went past in the opposite
direction by bridge 9 followed by a loaded tankership called Inka. At Steinbeck
the locals were setting up for a fete day and waved to us, inviting us to stop.
Another loaded boat went past, Joel, leaving hardly a ripple. Sempachersee a
loaded Swiss tankership from Basel went by at KP13. At KP13.7 Jolanda, another
loaded boat, a Dutchman from Maasbracht went by with hardly any wash. It was
quiet for a couple of kilometres then at KP17 an empty tankership called Dettma
Tank 50 from Bremer went past. At KP18 a Czech boat, Athena from Decin, went by
with a lovely sounding slow running old engine as our neighbours from the night
before overtook us again.
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| A hungry hitch-hiker. |
Mike had spotted their boat in the yachthafen at
Recke where they must have called in for water. The skipper asked if he could
take photos as he went by. OK. A pan (63m x 9m) went past, filled with a
thousand tonnes of sand with the interesting name of ZF 902 that was being
pushed by tug Fabrico 4 from Wroclaw (Polish). Today the wagtails that landed
on the boat must have been hungry as they searched the planks, ladders and
chimneys for insects. Tankership Hannah-Luisa from Hamburg (last seen Wednesday
am at the start of the canal) went past again at KP23. Quiet again for a while,
then at KP27 Hartenfels from Hamburg went past. At hafen Achmer (KP28.5) a
Polish boat called Bondar from Wroclaw was waiting to load at the silo quay
while loaded Dutch boat Pi-Ja (638 tonnes) was moored before the scrap berth.
We passed another thousand tonnes of sand being carried by Wilka from Magdeburg
under the railway bridge (23), then went under the floodgate Sperrtor 2,
painted blue plus graffiti. Beyond the floodgate protecting the little river
Hase from the canal, which went under the canal a little further on, there were
loads of moored workboats loaded with stone. The canal water for the last few
kilometres had been murky and muddy looking and the edges had new erosion
protection edges of piles of stone. Beyond the workboats was a floating dry dock
before the very wide junction with the 7 kms long dead end canal to Osnabrück.
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| Moored near Bramsche. MLK |
On the left bank there were more workboats moored, then a WSP base and one of
their inspection launches. Loaded boat Spree from D-Berlin started overtaking
us as loaded boats Einigheit and Elbia went past in the opposite direction. All
the rear and side wheelhouse Venetian blinds on Spree were down so the skipper
couldn’t see us as he moved further towards the bank – and us! And we were
stuck on his stern wave which made life interesting as Mike had to go hard in
reverse and that caused cavitation as we crossed the wave, hence no “bite” for
the prop and no steering as the bows headed towards the rear of Spree – not
much room to manoeuvre. Very hairy for a few minutes. And the perpetrator
didn’t even see us and just chugged off regardless!! Rat! A short distance
further on we moved across to the left bank and moored at KP31 in front of the
Dutch cruiser that was behind us this morning, with the town of Pente on the
right bank and Bramsche off on the left. It was 2.15 pm.
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