We set off from Aurich at 8:20 this morning, with the plan to be in Wilhelmshaven late afternoon. It's not that far (about 23 nmiles), but there is a 4 knot speed limit, 3 locks, numerous bridges and a lunch break from 12:30 to 13:30 during which nothing is operated. So it's usually a full day. But today everything clicked, the 'system' was efficient and there was no lunch break! So by 3pm we passed the last bridge into the Wilhelmshaven port. Now the plan was to spend the night there and then have a very very early start because of the tide. Think 5am! But as we were so early and the wind was very light, we looked at our options and found that if we could get a locking through the big sea lock in the next hour, we could do the crossing over the shallows to Bremerhaven today! Called the lock on the VHF and surprise!, they could lock us in half an hour. So we went to the lock, which was waiting for us and two even smaller motor boats (I'll post a picture later). By 16:20 we were out on the Jade. That was even a bit early, we got stuck for about half an hour on the first shallow, the 'Kaiserbalje'. But with upcoming tide that was no problem. After the shallows of the 'Hohe Weg', we got onto the Weser and the still incoming tide helped us to Bremerhaven. We called the lock when we were 10 minutes away and this too was waiting for us.
Twelve hours and 35 minutes after we left Aurich, we tied up in Bremerhaven, tired but pleased that we are here.
Some sleep now, tomorrow afternoon we'll do a short stretch up the river Geeste to a place called Lintig where it's unlikely that there will be any internet connection.
Location:Am Leuchtturm,Bremerhaven,Germany
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