Midsummer?

Today, 21 June, is the summer solstice. In these regions, it is referred to as 'Midsummer'. During the night, the wind and rain were lashing the boat and - for the first time in weeks - I have put on a pullover this morning! So it's all relative, I guess.





Rumour has it that during Kieler Woche, which starts today, this is 'traditional weather'. We, in the meantime, are still in Rendsburg. There are several reasons for this: although the first few hours from here, through the canal, are protected, once out of the Holtenau locks you are first in the Kieler Förde and after that in the Kieler Bucht which is unprotected. And with berths around Kiel in very short supply this week, chances are that we would have to carry on beyond Kiel. Also, we are awaiting the arrival of an envelope containing a few rubber o-rings with which to fix a small oil leak in our steering cylinder. The leak is not as bad as to stop us carrying on (just a drop or two when turning the rudder from full starboard to full port, we have just topped up the hydraulic oil for the first time), but it will certainly not get better and probably get worse so it would be good to have the spares available. The envelope is on its way and will hopefully arrive on Monday.

But we are comfortable here, so it's no problem.

Yesterday, we walked to the famous 'hanging ferry' ( see previous blogposts). We have passed it several times on the canal now, so we thought it might be interesting to see it from the other side. We actually took the trip to the other side (and back). It's an interesting contraption, which - in addition to pedestrians, motorbikes and bicycles - takes 4 passenger cars, a total of 7.5 tonnes.
Next to the ferry bridge is the "Ships Welcome Point". A voice on a PA system announces every ship (not yachts, just big ships), explains how big it is, where it comes from and where it is going and how much canal dues it has to pay (for a biggish ship about €5000, it seems. We pay €12). Then the national anthem of the country where the ship is registered is played and the German flag is 'dipped' to half mast as a salute. Usually a ship's officer emerges to wave, but the return greeting (dipping the ship's flag) does not seem to happen a lot.
I think remembering that some 40000 ships pass the canal annually (it is claimed to be the world's busiest artificial waterway) of which the yachts are only a small proportion, so there must be a lot of 'welcoming' taking place here (although I doubt it happens at night too).

Location:Schwarzer Stieg,Rendsburg,Germany