After all the nice things I said about the organisation of the Ems - Jade canal yesterday (which still stand), today was a lot less pleasant. We started off ok, but soon we came to a bridge which would not open. The young itinerant bridge keeper told us there was a broken component, the electricians were going to get a new part and install it. Thus happened. In the meantime, a tourist excursion boat had joined us and once the bridge opened (about an hour and a half later), they went through and chased down the canal at 6 knots (the speed limit for all craft is 8 KM per hour, about 4.5 knots.....). So the three 'sportboote' (that's what they call us here) decided to hang on so that we could go through the bridges with them (a single opening is better than two, we thought). This worked fine for the first bridge, but at the second one, they closed it right in front of us! So we tied up, started to make lunch and - totally unexpected - after 15 minutes the bridge opened..... This happened twice more, so we are now totally unimpressed with the organisational skills: as long as all goes to plan, OK, but as soon as there is a disturbance and the rules can't be applied anymore: chaos!
Anyway, we tied up just before Emden, hoping the weather tomorrow will be better for the short stretch to Delfzijl in the Netherlands. See yesterday's blogpost for the pitfalls there.
As I don't have a fresh picture to show, here is one of the only South African flagged yacht we have seen this year. Anchored in Thurø Bund, diving to look for / inspect something.
Location:Achterdiek,Emden,Germany
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