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| The quay at Kremmen - home for two wet weeks |
Grey clouds and later just brief
spits of rain. Set off at 6.40 am and went upstream of the road bridge to wind.
Ten minutes later we passed the boat that had arrived at dusk the night before and moored in front of us on our way downstream, no signs of life aboard. Spotted a tall wooden hide for
hunters that had been blown over and was lying hidden among the trees. A heron
kept flying off in front and then a pair of cranes struck up from the field to
our left and flew over the boat, calling loudly as they went - no time for the camera.
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| A long straight section of the Kermmer Rhin |
The tree that had
been brought down in the gale last month and had just missed a house in the
forest had now been chopped into a neat stack of logs. A crow was busy
attacking a white-tailed eagle as we arrived at Hohenbruch lock. It was just 8
am and the keeper came out to work the lock for us. Mike saw a pair of
white-tailed eagles flying over the lock as we dropped down in it. Not far
below the lock we passed a most unusual little sailing boat with moveable
outriggers. It was sitting in among the lily pads and its skipper waved and
said "Morgen" as we passed by.
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| Hohnebruch lock |
Not sure if it was anchored or not, maybe had
wind-down legs like the sheds have. Into Tiergarten lock for 9 am. Same chatty
keeper, he wanted to know if we liked Kremmen, so either someone told him we were
there or he must have driven past and seen the boat moored there. He laughed
when Mike took photos of a vole sitting on his lock gate. Then as we were
leaving two pairs of ducks flew low over the boat and, fearing a bombing run, we
both ducked, laughing, as was the keeper.
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| Vole taking a break on the lock gate. Tiergarten |
At the junction
with the Oranienburger kanal there was a notice that said “Munition Beratung” –
ammunition?? And there were three men in a small metal pontoon doing something
in the water. Hope it wasn’t live WWII stuff! The canal was deserted, no boats,
but we saw a child minder walking with a strange box on two wheels containing
four toddlers who couldn’t be persuaded to wave back to the funny man on the funny boat. Little
beaches along the canal that were full of swimmers and sunbathing youth in the
summer were now empty. A lady walking her Alsation dog stopped to wave and say
hello.
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| Below Pinnow lock. Oranienburger kanal |
The quiet lock keeper worked Pinnow again for us and at 11.10 am we
turned right on the Oder-Havel-Kanal and started looking for a drinking water
tap. The first place was an offline basin and the first boat we’d seen moving
was coming so we slowed down so we could have a look and maybe turn into the
arm. No good. There was just a small channel between houses with stumps to moor
boats to, but none there, and no tap. We carried on down the Havel. Fifteen
minutes later our second boat of the day went past, a smart charter boat.
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| A private, palatial, floating shed. |
We
found a landing to tie to at the Marina Havelbaude. No coin operated taps and so
Mike went to find someone in charge and paid 2€ for our 300 litres. While he
was away I filled the kettle, made a cuppa and did the washing up. We set off again at 12.15 pm with the big gennie running to do some washing. Finished just before we had done the length of the Havel lake leading to
Spandau. The quay was empty so we had our choice of mooring. It was 2.25 pm.
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