Marrekrite

Apologies for the lack of posts. When not a lot is happening, one struggles to write something!

We finished the province of Drenthe and got into Overijssel. The plan was to spend the night in Genemuiden, a place we had never been to. Unfortunately the inner harbour was out of bounds (a rope hanging across the entrance) and the outer harbour was full of old rust buckets so we turned around and continued to Vollenhove. We were there last year for the celebrations of the fifth anniversary of the Valk Yachts Club. It's a nice place and it was extra festive as they were preparing for the 'Corso', a big annual event with floats and marching bands. It apparently attracts tens of thousands of spectators! The streets were decked out in 'themes', the most interesting being the 'hippy age'.
We did not stay for the actual event though, to be one of tens of thousands of people in this small town is not really that exciting to us!
Instead we went to visit our Valk Yachts friends in Marknesse, just an hour or two from Vollenhove. We had a delightful time, mooring behind their house and talking about what we all did during the summer. Thanks again, Jur and Aafke for the wonderful hospitality in the 'Springer Guest Harbour'!
We left there after coffee this morning and entered the province of Friesland at Lemmer. This is a lively 'town' (not one of the Frisian 11 cities) and today being Saturday plus the weather being really nice it was very full. So we continued to a 'place in the wild'. An organisation called 'Marrekrite' has set up lots of mooring places in nice quiet spots in Friesland. You can tie up free of charge, there are no facilities apart from a refuse container and when sun sets its just quiet!
Just what we need after a few weeks of concentrating to get back 'home'. We'll probably stay here (it's on a little lake called 'Brandemar', just south of Sloten) tomorrow as well.

Location:Doraweg,Lemsterland,The Netherlands

Hoogeveense Vaart

We enjoyed our visit to the 'Veenpark', an open air museum showing life in the days that the economy of this area was dominated by the peat production. We also had pancakes with bacon and cheese for lunch, a Dutch treat.

After the Veenpark, we did a few hours with quite a few locks to the 'Oranjesluis' and today another 6 hours to get just west of Hoogeveen. The locks and bridges - of which there are many - operate very efficiently and the lock- and bridge keepers are very friendly. But all in all it's quite slow and somewhat tedious going. That's our 'fault', we aren't 'canal people'...

Tomorrow we'll go as far as Zwartsluis and the next day visit our friends Jur and Aafke in Marknesse.

Location:Leeuwenveenseweg,De Wolden,The Netherlands

Veenpark

We did the Haren - Rütenbrock kanal this morning, lots of bridges and four locks but all operated from the first lock in Haren and good service!
We re-entered the Netherlands around 11 and continued South along the 'veenvaart'. Did our shopping in a place called Emmer Compascum. All the Dutch treats we have missed after 3 months 'abroad'.....
Now we are at a place called Veenpark, it's an open air museum centred around the peat industry that flourished here in previous centuries. So far the trip has been really nice and we'll visit the museum in the morning. Currently there is a big thunderstorm and the rain is pelting down. No worries, we are snug and safe!

Location:Emmen,The Netherlands

Almost back in the Netherlands!

After Oldenburg we spent a day traversing the Küstenkanal. That's 70 km with two locks. Not very exciting, a generally straight canal with lots of trees on either side. But easy travelling and as the weather was very nice a good relaxing experience. At Dörpen you get on the river Ems, which is partly canalised and is then called the Ems-Dortmund kanal. As it meanders a bit and you pass the odd town or village it is a bit more scenic than the Küstenkanal. We soon stopped for the night (and for a beer, after some 8 hours travelling!) at a very nice harbour near a 'village' of holiday houses.
This morning, we did 20 Km (and two locks) to Haren, where the canal into the Netherlands, the Haren - Rütenbrock kanal, starts. As it is closed on Sunday we are spending the night in the harbour of the local yacht club. Fortunately there is a wifi network here, as we have no 3G signal. In Denmark and Sweden the mobile internet is so good, compared to Germany and the Netherlands. Also the cost: compared to Sweden and Denmark, Germany costs 3 times (per GB), the Netherlands a whopping 15 times! One wonders if the Dutch are aware how badly they are ripped of for a generally poor service,
But anyway, we are looking forward to being 'home' tomorrow, after almost exactly 3 months away. We plan to take the new route from Ter Apel via Erica and Hoogeveen to Meppel. Let's hope we will have Internet to report on it!

Location:Nordring,Haren (Ems),Germany

Change of plan!

Just before we were due to leave today, we looked a bit further ahead, tide and weather wise. We knew it would be no problem to get to Wilhelmshaven and from there through the Ems - Jade canal to Emden. Getting to Emden on Sunday afternoon would not really work from a tide point of view: we would have to wait until Monday before doing the last 10 miles to Delfzijl in the Netherlands. But Monday is predicted to have strong westerly winds and a 'wind against tide' scenario on the Ems is not inviting.
So we completely changed the plan and set off in the opposite direction. With the incoming tide up the Weser to Elsfleth and containing up the Hunte to Oldenburg where we are now. A nice and easy river trip!
From here we'll take the Küstenkanal to Dörpen, then up the Ems to Haren and from there to Ter Apel in the Netherlands. This is the long way around, but no worries about tides and wind as it's all canal / river work. Quite relaxing for a change. From Ter Apel we'll probably take the new 'Veen route' to Meppel.
The only thing is that we have no idea how good or bad the Internet connection will be the next few days. And as Vodafone Netherlands have changed their systems (again 😡) I don't quite know yet how to load 'Dutch' data on the iPads once we get there.
So we (and you) may be lucky or not in being able to do blogposts the next few days!

Location:Westfalendamm,Oldenburg,Germany

Apologies for the break in communications! Things went a bit quicker than planned and we had no internet connection:

We originally planned to stay another day in Rendsburg, but when we woke up on Tuesday it was actually dry after almost continuous rain for 24 hours. We needed to get diesel and that can't happen in the rain: diesel and water are enemies! So we decided to use the dry spell to get out of our berth and to the diesel jetty. Whilst filling up, we decided that now that we were out of the berth, we might as well go to Brunsbüttel. So we did 6 hours to the lock. It had started to rain again. Now it was almost hight tide on the Elbe, so we thought we might as well go through the lock and do the last 9 miles to Otterndorf. The wait for the lock was 45 minutes and we locked in the 'old' lock, which is a bitt smaller, together with a big ship that did not stop her propeller. Bad show and lots of justified complaining by the 8 or 10 yachts in the lock. But no harm was done and we all got into the Elbe. The tide was still running a bit against us but nothing to serious. We got into Otterndorf and found a place for the night.
The lock at Otterndorf, which takes you into the Geeste, operates according to the tide. Its quite a tricky arrangement: too close to low tide the harbour falls almost dry and too close to hight tide you can't get through the tittle tunnel that takes you through the dike and under the road into the lock itself. I 'phoned the lockkeeper at 7:30 and he suggested we come right over.  Once in the lock, he told us that due to the incessant rain of the past few days (it was still raining at that time), the water level in the Geeste was over 20cm higher than normal. That would make the fixed railway bridge 7 KM up the river too low for us. But he was going to let water out and if we waited until 11, things would be fine. So we tied up just after the lock and waited. When we got to the offending bridge the water had indeed fallen and we got through without a problem.
By 3pm we were in Lintig and we stopped for the night: we would not make the lock in Bremerhaven in time and anyway we had planned to stop here. Soon afterwards the rain stopped and the sun came out, which was most welcome after four days of rain. The boat does not leak at all, but of course things get damp after a while!
This morning was still sunny and we did the last few hours to Bremerhaven where we are now.

The next two days are very good for the trip over the shallows to Wilhelmshaven. One could do this in a day (we have done it several times), but seeing that the tides are not very favourable and we have time enough, we are going to stop in Feddewardersiel, a small fishing village halfway where the harbour falls dry at low tide.

We are almost sure there won't be a workable internet signal there (but sometimes you are surprised), so don't expect news tomorrow. On Saturday, in Wilhelmshaven it should be OK.

Denmark to Germany pictures

We are still in Rendsburg, it has been raining on and off all day and likely to be similar tomorrow.
Thats not a problem as we have plenty to do and some 'rest' was not unwelcome. Also, after we get to Brunsbüttel, some 7 hours motoring on the canal away, we need to think about tides again. As the tide on the river Elbe can run quite fast (up to 4 knots), it is important that even the short ( 9 miles) stretch to Otterndorf is done using the outgoing tide. And with high tide in Brunsbüttel being at 5am and 5pm tomorrow (and about 45 minutes later each day thereafter), it will be better to leave there only in a day or two. So although we may change our minds, we may well do the second canal stretch on Wednesday and the Elbe bit on Thursday (when the wind also is in the right direction).
In Brunsbüttel the reception for our "O2" data is very bad as it is for Lintig where we might be on Thursday evening. So probably no posts for a few days, unless we have something worthwhile to report tomorrow.

Below are a few photos which were still due:

 When leaving Rudkøbing, we met this racing fleet

 Sunrise, just after leaving Bagenkop at 6am!

 The Kiel lighthouse emerges from the mist, exactly where the GPS said it would be!

 The big lock at Kiel-Holtenau. 40 'sportboote' in the lock and still place for hundreds more!

 The 'Armada' after leaving the lock

A deer, grazing on the banks of the canal. The canal trip, although quite long (100KM in all) is never boring. Everything from wildlife to big ships keeps you busy and interested.