Last night's fireworks were really great, we estimate the cost at about the GDP of Zimbabwe, no 'bezuinigingen' - cutbacks - at Wagenborg, the sponsor of the fireworks.
We had planned to leave at 8, but a very dark could threatened to dump lots of rain, accompanied by strong winds upon us, so we waited a bit and left at 8:40. In itself not a problem, but the first occurrence in a string of delays. The tide nicely carried us up the river Ems to Emden. About 20 minutes out I called the lock on the VHF and asked when we could expect a lockage. Good news, in 30 minutes the current lockage 'out' would be finished and we could come 'in'. Just tie up on the waiting jetty....
A few minutes later, I could hear a ship further out to sea "this is BOA SUB C, we want to lock 'in' and enter the lock reversing". BOA SUB C is a big cable layer. It needs to turn around (very slowly), reverse into the lock (very slowly), once it has tied up, we - the pleasure craft, by now 8 in total - can enter and tie up behind the BOA SUB C. Then the BOA SUB C reverses out of the lock (very slowly) and we can get out as well. So we are going to miss the 11:40 opening of the railway bridge.
Here are some pictures:
Tied on to the waiting jetty.
BOA SUB C arrives.
Behind BOA SUB C in the lock.
Eventually, we get to the railway bridge around 12. The next opening - according to all information on the Internet and the books - is at 13:30. So we find a place to tie up (no waiting jetties here...) and have lunch. 13:30 comes and goes, so I 'phone the Emden bridge department and ask when the bridge will open. In 10 minutes, they say. And yes, 10 minutes later the lights indicate that something will happen. We untie the boat and the road bridges on either side of the railway bridge open. But no movement in the railway bridge itself. Then my phone rings: the bridge department tells me that the railway bridge is broken. Only option is to take a detour through two locks. So now we are still in Emden, tied up near the Kesselschleuse (a very interesting lock with a round chamber and 4 doors). The O2 shop has run out of prepaid SIM cards for iPads, so I am going to have to save this post for later.
Late news: the rumour from the boat tied up in front of us is that something in the Ems - Jade canal past Aurich is out of order and the canal is closed. That would mean an entire change of plans!
Even later: fortunately the problem (a motor at one of the bridges for which no spare was available) has been resolved and the canal is open all the way!
Location:Kesselschleuse, Emden
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