We left Delfzijl early (7:15) on Sunday morning. The wind was 4 to 5 Bft, increasing. The first hour or so was a bit 'bumpy', but as soon as we were in the lee of the German coast it became quite comfortable. The shortest way in distance would have been to go through the big lock in Emden but we have had an experience of a 4 hour wait before there as they will not operate the lock for pleasure craft alone, you have to share with a commercial vessel. Also, there is a railway bridge in Emden which only operates once every hour and a half. So we continued to the much smaller lock at Oldersum, for which we only waited about 15 minutes. After that it was two more locks and a few more bridges to Aurich. In total it was a trip of just under 8.5 hours!
As we were now in Germany, the German courtesy flag was hoisted:
As it was my birthday, we had a perfect excuse not to cook but to eat on shore in a restaurant at the Aurich harbour. After that, an early night!
This morning an 8am start for the trip through the Ems - Jade canal to Wilhelmshaven. There are 4 locks and 13 bridges on this stretch (apart from 20 bridges which do not need to (and cannot) be opened. But there is a wonderful system, where one lock/ bridge keeper moves with you from one bridge (or lock) to the next one. You on your boat and he in his car. The effect is that the next bridge is usually open when you arrive and you don't even have to slow down! As the roads are small and quiet, the inconvenience to traffic is minimal. The bridges are often hand operated and there are no signals - lights or otherwise - to tell you when you can go. Very informal, especially for Germany!
Here is one of the hand operated bridges with the keeper:
Finally, after 7 hours (there is an 8Km/h speed limit on the canal), we got to Wilhelmshaven. This little bird awaited us on the jetty and was clearly displeased with our arrival:
It appears that she has her nest with eggs on the pole right next to Onbekommerd:
Every time we get off the boat, she walks along the jetty, away from her nest, trying to lead you away. I went ashore to see the harbour master and the poor thing ran ahead of me, all the way along the jetty to the shore. And the next time again.
Tomorrow, the forecast is excellent for a trip to Bremerhaven over the 'Wad'. The tide conditions are that we can only leave around noon or a bit later. As it is probably a 5 hour trip, we'll only be in Bremerhaven late afternoon. But with the sun setting close to 10pm, that's no problem at all!
Location:Wilhelmshaven
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