The last time we were in Otterndorf, it was the 15th of June, at the start of our Baltic adventure.
We left Hamburg at 6:45 after a restless night in this harbour with lots of waves.
In spite of the early hour, there was quite a bit of traffic in the harbour, especially from the extensive ferry network. Once the main port area was behind us, the ebb current picked up and we were swept down the river at speeds of up to 9.5 knots (our normal 'through the water' speed is just above 6 knots, so quite a bit of tide behind us. The problem is that as you go towards the sea, the source of the tide, you get less 'time with the tide'. To explain this: low tide at Hamburg (our point of departure) today was 14:24. But at Otterndorf (our destination), it was at 10:50, three and a half hours earlier! Now generally speaking, once you pass the moment of low tide, the water starts flowing up the river again. So you 'miss' over three hours of this lovely ebb current. Anyway, soon after passing Brünsbüttel, the tide changed as expected and for the last two hours we only did around 3.5 knots over the ground!
That still got us into Otterndorf at 2pm. Over seven hours, but we covered a record 50.3 (nautical) miles. Not that we try to break long distance records, but the Elbe does not have a lot of convenient harbours to stop.
The stretch between 10 and 12am was also a bit influenced by a 12 knot Westerly wind appearing. The wind against the tidal current produces a nasty short and steep chop, which caused Onbekommerd to pitch quite a bit. Good that we had 'prepared the cabin' as we always do on open water!
We tied up in front of a Dutch motorboat and went over for a chat. It turned out that the crew consists of a really nice couple in their 80's! They have been going to the Baltic for over 30 years, so don't expect us to stop soon!
Tomorrow we'll go through the tidal lock here around 8am. About 4 or 5 hours to Bad Berdekesa though a nice canal. We are already looking forward to the smoked eel from the best fish smoking outfit in Northern Germany!
Sorry, no pictures today. The Internet connection is quite slow.
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