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| Lingen-Ems YC and 1st lock of disused Ems-Vechte kanal. |
Mostly sunny, breezy and showers
after we’d tied up. Set off at 8.00 am, winded and followed the Snail out on to
the main canal, where nothing was moving. The Dutch cruiser, Taras, that had
been moored in front of us since Friday also untied and set off, it soon
overtook us and left us behind, albeit fairly slowly. Through the massive
Hanekenfahr flood lock and then turned right through the open first lock of the
old disused Ems-Vechte kanal (another lost Dutch-German canal link) and moored
on the end of a wooden staging belonging to the Lingen-Ems yacht club. No one
about, then a man drove along the far side in a van. Mike had gone to see if he
could find anyone further down the moorings. The man said OK we could have
water. It was a very, very slow tap. We donated 2€ each, put the money in an
envelope and Mike went to the middle of the moorings again and put the envelope
on a table in an open fronted shed. It was 10.20 am when we set off again. Less
then a kilometre and we arrived at Gleesen lock.
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| Louisa in Gleesen lock DEK |
An empty tanker called Lousia
from Hamburg was moored on the dolphins. The lock emptied but the lights
remained on red, the commercial untied and went into the lock extremely slowly
– even with a spotter leaning out from the starboard side gunwales. Admittedly
it was a fairly tight fit, they had about half a metre each side.
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| Side pounds in Gleesen lock DEK |
Once his prop
stopped turning we followed into the chamber (again, remotely operated by a
person in an office somewhere, cameras everywhere) and did fore and aft ropes
up the five bollards in the lock wall. We emerged 6.4m higher up in the world
at 11.40 am. The empty tanker was quickly pulling away from us but at the speed
he goes into locks we knew we’d have plenty of time to catch up on the 3.5 kms
pound to the next lock. Three rough-legged buzzards were spiralling upwards on
a thermal. A loaded boat went past, BM5237 – a Bromberger, originally Polish
but now German with Berlin-D on the stern.
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| Altenrheine lock DEK |
It was closely followed by loaded
66m called SeRo and a cruiser. Washing finished as we arrived at Hesselte lock. Mike took
the plate out as we rose 3.4m - only three bollards this time. Followed the
tanker out of the lock at 12.30 pm. An empty tanker called Elan was waiting to
go down and Louisa had decided to stop again and reversed into the mooring that
Elan had just left. A pair of tufted ducks were totally impervious to the melée
as another loaded boat, 70m Matthias from Schwinde, went past to join the
tanker in the lock. I made some sandwiches for lunch as we went along the 8 kms
pound to Venhaus lock. Brimstone butterflies were skimming over the towpath
herbage and several hawker dragonflies landed on the boat, green and black
Aeshnas.
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| Extension under construction of Spelle-Vehaus hafen |
The lock was ready with green lights. We went straight in, just us. I
had no bollards just the rungs of a ladder for the fore end rope, Mike passed
his rope up three bollards as we rose another 3.5m. At 1.55 pm we left the top
– a cruiser was waiting to descend. A loaded tanker called Eiltank 14 from
Duisburg went past as we started passing the Spelle-Venhaus hafen, a large
loading/unloading dock at KP123. Navigare-1 and Antaro were moored and
tankership Crooswijk seemed to be being unloaded by road tankers. Walter Lauk
from Hamburg was about to be loaded, the skipper was busy drawing back his hold
covers, at a section of dock surrounded by asphalt. A little further along the
dock was being extended and a long section of piled wall was being finished and
roads etc were being built beyond it.
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| Moored abv Altenrheine lock DEK |
Support vessel Uwe Grotkopp from Hamburg
was assisting with the construction. As we arrived at Altenrheine lock we could
see there was a commercial coming up the long pound behind us. The lock’s
lights we red so we went on to the new mooring area for sportboats to wait for
the lock and Snail came alongside. An empty commercial called Mirador was moored
on the dolphins below the lock. Mike went to look at the moorings above the
lock (the old lock had been filled in) and Anne went with him to take Woody for
a walk. Better above, new moorings had been made. It was slow boat Louisa
again, we followed it into the lock and rose another 3.6m up three very muddy
bollards in the wall. Turned sharp right and reversed down the old lock
entrance to moor on the lock island where they’d added new bollards and a post
for electricity – get a key from various places going the way we were heading.
It was 3.15 pm. It started to rain, a short heavy shower.
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