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Saturday 17 August 2013

Thursday 1st August 2013 Parey KP341 EHK to Neuendorf Breitlingsee. 37.7kms 1 lock


Widening work on the EHK
Cloudy and humid when we set off at 8.30 later it was hot and sunny. The Snails had decided to stick to the original plan and go down the Elbe and we would meet up again in the Mecklenburg lakes somewhere south of the Muritzsee in a couple of weeks time. So it was strange to be travelling on our own again.  Had the gennie running to do some washing. It was quiet for the first 2kms, then an empty 85m tanker from Magdeburg called Viorica went past heading uphill by the junction with the arm leading to the Elbe, Pareyer Verbindung-kanal. 
Widening work on the EHK
Loads of work was going on along the canal from KP356 to KP361, straightening out the bends, widening the channel and making new sloping banks edged with tonnes and tonnes of rocks. When the washing finished there was nowhere to stop to disengage the Markon so we had to wait until Genthin, then we paused on the Fahrgästschiff stopping place. As we were setting off a WSP launch went past, going in the same direction as us - the crew waved. The only mooring in Genthin now was in a small square offline basin with piled edges (at least it was shady under trees and Mike said we might get TV) the small brown DB Vrouwe Cornelia was moored there. 
Old disused loading quay in Genthin EHK
At the end of the town was a disused long industrial quay for loading/unloading, which had a big chimney and tall lattice-work metal towers with spotlights (maybe for 24 hour working) and a small launch moored there with Vermessung (surveying) painted on the side of it. A new sign advertised “Regenerative Energy” – coming soon, maybe? A large sign as we left town said make no waves for the next 4 kms (through the town and the new industrial havens). Next boats past were four fast speedboats at KP365.5 followed 2kms later by the commercial with which they had shared Wüsterwitz lock, Annegret, 
Just us in Wusterwitz lock EHK
loaded again now with cut scrap metal (we followed the same boat on Monday round the diversion above Rothensee on the MLK). It was followed by another small German cruiser, this one was doing a more sedate speed. I made a cuppa and gave the freezer a quick defrost. Two loaded commercials, Rheingold from Horstel and Stadt Fürth from Duisburg-Ruhort (with a hold full of coils of wire) were coming towards us and the first one was being overtaken by a fast cruiser from Wolfsburg on the wrong side on the outside of the bend. 
How about hiring a Bungalow Boat? Plauersee
Three more cruisers were following behind the second barge. At Wusterwitz they were building a new lock alongside the old one to its right. Mike called on VHF and had the usual troubles with the lock keeper not understanding us and us not understanding him. Eventually we got through to him that we wanted to go down his lock. A tug and a cruiser cleared the lock and we got a green light. Just us to go down, but traffic was waiting below to come up. Like Zerben, the previous lock, there was a lock operative waiting to close the gate by the top end gate controls  – he pressed the button and the gate lifted from the depths. Mike held the string and passed it down the recessed bollards in the wall while we descended about 4m and I made some lunch. A short section of canal lead to the Wendsee, a small lake, where there were many boats anchored having lunch in the left hand corner. 
Concrete quay, long disused, in corner of Breitlingsee 
One came after us and ran parallel with us for quite a while but said nothing, just taking a good look. He stopped and turned towards the bank. We turned to the right into the Plauersee, the Havel was off to our left, running north to join the Elbe at Havelberg. The cruiser that had followed us before came past us again and turned towards the bank again where he stayed this time and didn’t pursue us any further. Strange craft were navigation along the lake slowly, they could only be described as floating sheds propelled by outboard motors – Bungalow Boats for hire! Several went past, must be popular. Plauersee was a much bigger lake and filled with sailboats, speedboats, more sheds; the banks were covered with camping sites each with their own beach. The course through the lake did a left then a right and narrowed as we entered the Breitlingsee. More speedboats. Had a text from the Snails to say they had rocketed down river to Tangermünde where they’d been welcomed by some very nice people. 
Girders which once held wooden fendering.
Submerged wood kept us off the wall
We could see the concrete quay where we had moored before and made our way carefully between the channel markers and the rows of fishing nets marked by posts. Several boats were anchored in the corner by the entrance to the Brandenburger Niederhavel, we went to the left of them and tied to two huge rings in the wall and found wooden fendering below water kept us away from the ends of several old girders which once supported substantial timber fendering as this used to be a coal unloading quay for the Junkers Aviation factory at Neuendorf. The factory was stripped of machinery by the Russians at the end of WWII and anything useful shipped to Russia, what they couldn’t move or didn’t want they destroyed with explosives. Apart from the other aircraft that were produced here huge seaplanes were manufactured and launched down a concrete ramp into the Brietlingsee. It was 2.30 pm and starting to get very hot. Next to a concrete wall is not the best place to moor when the sun is directly on the side of the boat. I put heat shields in the windows behind the lowered blinds to reduce the heat as much as possible. Outside it reached 41°C and we sweltered indoors with the fan on.

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