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| Commercial below Schusselburg lock |
Hot and sunny all day. Left the
pontoon at 9.35 am heading upriver. Mike had attached the generator so we were
restricted to 1300 revs 6.5kph through still water, but slowed down by the flow
to about 5 kph. I made tea and buttered toasted currant buns and sat out with
Mike to eat them at ten am, just as a loaded Belgian 85m boat called Diamond
from Antwerp went past. Finished with the gennie conveniently for us to pause
on the quay at Stolzenau while Mike took the plate out. When we arrived at
Schüsselburg two cruisers that had overtaken us a couple of kilometres before
were on the pontoon, leaving nowhere for us to moor and wait for the lock. We
hovered. A loaded boat from Bremen called Andreas came down the lock just as an
empty called Peeneland 1 went past us and into the lock.
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| Waiting for cruisers to untie below Schusselburg |
The cruisers were very
slow to untie and get in the chamber behind the commercial, no wonder the
skippers don’t like them much. We were beginning to think that they were
staying there when they finally untied and went very slowly into the lock. They
were both lining up for the left hand wall so Mike said to Oll to come
alongside us (the Snail normally has the left hand wall at the back) and we
went in on the right and had a rope round a bollard before they’d decided which
ones to go for (the commercial was 67m long and had gone right to the front of
the 223m long chamber, so they had plenty of room to play in) and Snail came
alongside us before they’d got their ropes on bollards. As it happens the first
cruiser went half way down the chamber and the smaller one stayed right at the
back – so there would have been ample room for Snail on the left hand wall
between them! We rose steadily up 4.5m, then we untied and went out first as
the cruisers were both very slow at untying too.
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| WSA workboat overtaking at KP228 |
Two more commercials were
bearing down on the lock as we left, an empty called Otrate was first, the
large cruiser overtook us as it went past, the smaller cruiser, sensibly stayed
back behind Snail until the second commercial, a loaded Bremen boat called
Anton went past. Another cruiser was following the two commercials downriver to
the lock. 11 kms to the next lock. At KP229 we were overtaken by a WSA workboat
with a digger on board and a cruiser went downstream at KP228 followed by a yet
another commercial. I made some sandwiches for lunch which we ate before we got
to the lock cut. We slowed down when we got into the lock cut, as there was no
sign of Snail behind us. Tied on the pontoon below Petershagen lock. A
commercial plus the WSA workboat and the two cruisers were going up in the
lock. As Snail came into view Mike called Minden on the pontoon intercom. It
was 2.40 pm. No idea what the answer was but Mike said “Danke”. Snail tied
alongside us. Lüssen 14 and Bondar, Polish boats loaded with sand, came down
the lock then the lights went to green and we went into the chamber, just us,
and the lock filled very quickly – must be more traffic coming. Went in at 3.18
pm and came out of the top 6m higher at 3.30 pm – 12 minutes! There was one
above to come down and one had just arrived below. We moored on the pontoon at
3.35 pm. Again, commercial traffic through the lock continued, busy until late
evening.
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