Marrekrite

Apologies for the lack of posts. When not a lot is happening, one struggles to write something!

We finished the province of Drenthe and got into Overijssel. The plan was to spend the night in Genemuiden, a place we had never been to. Unfortunately the inner harbour was out of bounds (a rope hanging across the entrance) and the outer harbour was full of old rust buckets so we turned around and continued to Vollenhove. We were there last year for the celebrations of the fifth anniversary of the Valk Yachts Club. It's a nice place and it was extra festive as they were preparing for the 'Corso', a big annual event with floats and marching bands. It apparently attracts tens of thousands of spectators! The streets were decked out in 'themes', the most interesting being the 'hippy age'.
We did not stay for the actual event though, to be one of tens of thousands of people in this small town is not really that exciting to us!
Instead we went to visit our Valk Yachts friends in Marknesse, just an hour or two from Vollenhove. We had a delightful time, mooring behind their house and talking about what we all did during the summer. Thanks again, Jur and Aafke for the wonderful hospitality in the 'Springer Guest Harbour'!
We left there after coffee this morning and entered the province of Friesland at Lemmer. This is a lively 'town' (not one of the Frisian 11 cities) and today being Saturday plus the weather being really nice it was very full. So we continued to a 'place in the wild'. An organisation called 'Marrekrite' has set up lots of mooring places in nice quiet spots in Friesland. You can tie up free of charge, there are no facilities apart from a refuse container and when sun sets its just quiet!
Just what we need after a few weeks of concentrating to get back 'home'. We'll probably stay here (it's on a little lake called 'Brandemar', just south of Sloten) tomorrow as well.

Location:Doraweg,Lemsterland,The Netherlands

Hoogeveense Vaart

We enjoyed our visit to the 'Veenpark', an open air museum showing life in the days that the economy of this area was dominated by the peat production. We also had pancakes with bacon and cheese for lunch, a Dutch treat.

After the Veenpark, we did a few hours with quite a few locks to the 'Oranjesluis' and today another 6 hours to get just west of Hoogeveen. The locks and bridges - of which there are many - operate very efficiently and the lock- and bridge keepers are very friendly. But all in all it's quite slow and somewhat tedious going. That's our 'fault', we aren't 'canal people'...

Tomorrow we'll go as far as Zwartsluis and the next day visit our friends Jur and Aafke in Marknesse.

Location:Leeuwenveenseweg,De Wolden,The Netherlands

Veenpark

We did the Haren - Rütenbrock kanal this morning, lots of bridges and four locks but all operated from the first lock in Haren and good service!
We re-entered the Netherlands around 11 and continued South along the 'veenvaart'. Did our shopping in a place called Emmer Compascum. All the Dutch treats we have missed after 3 months 'abroad'.....
Now we are at a place called Veenpark, it's an open air museum centred around the peat industry that flourished here in previous centuries. So far the trip has been really nice and we'll visit the museum in the morning. Currently there is a big thunderstorm and the rain is pelting down. No worries, we are snug and safe!

Location:Emmen,The Netherlands

Almost back in the Netherlands!

After Oldenburg we spent a day traversing the Küstenkanal. That's 70 km with two locks. Not very exciting, a generally straight canal with lots of trees on either side. But easy travelling and as the weather was very nice a good relaxing experience. At Dörpen you get on the river Ems, which is partly canalised and is then called the Ems-Dortmund kanal. As it meanders a bit and you pass the odd town or village it is a bit more scenic than the Küstenkanal. We soon stopped for the night (and for a beer, after some 8 hours travelling!) at a very nice harbour near a 'village' of holiday houses.
This morning, we did 20 Km (and two locks) to Haren, where the canal into the Netherlands, the Haren - Rütenbrock kanal, starts. As it is closed on Sunday we are spending the night in the harbour of the local yacht club. Fortunately there is a wifi network here, as we have no 3G signal. In Denmark and Sweden the mobile internet is so good, compared to Germany and the Netherlands. Also the cost: compared to Sweden and Denmark, Germany costs 3 times (per GB), the Netherlands a whopping 15 times! One wonders if the Dutch are aware how badly they are ripped of for a generally poor service,
But anyway, we are looking forward to being 'home' tomorrow, after almost exactly 3 months away. We plan to take the new route from Ter Apel via Erica and Hoogeveen to Meppel. Let's hope we will have Internet to report on it!

Location:Nordring,Haren (Ems),Germany

Change of plan!

Just before we were due to leave today, we looked a bit further ahead, tide and weather wise. We knew it would be no problem to get to Wilhelmshaven and from there through the Ems - Jade canal to Emden. Getting to Emden on Sunday afternoon would not really work from a tide point of view: we would have to wait until Monday before doing the last 10 miles to Delfzijl in the Netherlands. But Monday is predicted to have strong westerly winds and a 'wind against tide' scenario on the Ems is not inviting.
So we completely changed the plan and set off in the opposite direction. With the incoming tide up the Weser to Elsfleth and containing up the Hunte to Oldenburg where we are now. A nice and easy river trip!
From here we'll take the Küstenkanal to Dörpen, then up the Ems to Haren and from there to Ter Apel in the Netherlands. This is the long way around, but no worries about tides and wind as it's all canal / river work. Quite relaxing for a change. From Ter Apel we'll probably take the new 'Veen route' to Meppel.
The only thing is that we have no idea how good or bad the Internet connection will be the next few days. And as Vodafone Netherlands have changed their systems (again 😡) I don't quite know yet how to load 'Dutch' data on the iPads once we get there.
So we (and you) may be lucky or not in being able to do blogposts the next few days!

Location:Westfalendamm,Oldenburg,Germany

Apologies for the break in communications! Things went a bit quicker than planned and we had no internet connection:

We originally planned to stay another day in Rendsburg, but when we woke up on Tuesday it was actually dry after almost continuous rain for 24 hours. We needed to get diesel and that can't happen in the rain: diesel and water are enemies! So we decided to use the dry spell to get out of our berth and to the diesel jetty. Whilst filling up, we decided that now that we were out of the berth, we might as well go to Brunsbüttel. So we did 6 hours to the lock. It had started to rain again. Now it was almost hight tide on the Elbe, so we thought we might as well go through the lock and do the last 9 miles to Otterndorf. The wait for the lock was 45 minutes and we locked in the 'old' lock, which is a bitt smaller, together with a big ship that did not stop her propeller. Bad show and lots of justified complaining by the 8 or 10 yachts in the lock. But no harm was done and we all got into the Elbe. The tide was still running a bit against us but nothing to serious. We got into Otterndorf and found a place for the night.
The lock at Otterndorf, which takes you into the Geeste, operates according to the tide. Its quite a tricky arrangement: too close to low tide the harbour falls almost dry and too close to hight tide you can't get through the tittle tunnel that takes you through the dike and under the road into the lock itself. I 'phoned the lockkeeper at 7:30 and he suggested we come right over.  Once in the lock, he told us that due to the incessant rain of the past few days (it was still raining at that time), the water level in the Geeste was over 20cm higher than normal. That would make the fixed railway bridge 7 KM up the river too low for us. But he was going to let water out and if we waited until 11, things would be fine. So we tied up just after the lock and waited. When we got to the offending bridge the water had indeed fallen and we got through without a problem.
By 3pm we were in Lintig and we stopped for the night: we would not make the lock in Bremerhaven in time and anyway we had planned to stop here. Soon afterwards the rain stopped and the sun came out, which was most welcome after four days of rain. The boat does not leak at all, but of course things get damp after a while!
This morning was still sunny and we did the last few hours to Bremerhaven where we are now.

The next two days are very good for the trip over the shallows to Wilhelmshaven. One could do this in a day (we have done it several times), but seeing that the tides are not very favourable and we have time enough, we are going to stop in Feddewardersiel, a small fishing village halfway where the harbour falls dry at low tide.

We are almost sure there won't be a workable internet signal there (but sometimes you are surprised), so don't expect news tomorrow. On Saturday, in Wilhelmshaven it should be OK.

Denmark to Germany pictures

We are still in Rendsburg, it has been raining on and off all day and likely to be similar tomorrow.
Thats not a problem as we have plenty to do and some 'rest' was not unwelcome. Also, after we get to Brunsbüttel, some 7 hours motoring on the canal away, we need to think about tides again. As the tide on the river Elbe can run quite fast (up to 4 knots), it is important that even the short ( 9 miles) stretch to Otterndorf is done using the outgoing tide. And with high tide in Brunsbüttel being at 5am and 5pm tomorrow (and about 45 minutes later each day thereafter), it will be better to leave there only in a day or two. So although we may change our minds, we may well do the second canal stretch on Wednesday and the Elbe bit on Thursday (when the wind also is in the right direction).
In Brunsbüttel the reception for our "O2" data is very bad as it is for Lintig where we might be on Thursday evening. So probably no posts for a few days, unless we have something worthwhile to report tomorrow.

Below are a few photos which were still due:

 When leaving Rudkøbing, we met this racing fleet

 Sunrise, just after leaving Bagenkop at 6am!

 The Kiel lighthouse emerges from the mist, exactly where the GPS said it would be!

 The big lock at Kiel-Holtenau. 40 'sportboote' in the lock and still place for hundreds more!

 The 'Armada' after leaving the lock

A deer, grazing on the banks of the canal. The canal trip, although quite long (100KM in all) is never boring. Everything from wildlife to big ships keeps you busy and interested.

Back in Germany

We left Bagenkop at 6 this morning. Calm enough weather, but fog for the last two hours to Kiel. With the AIS and the radar, it was not really much of a problem. Then an hour and a half wait for the lock, by then there were 40 yachts waiting! Quite an Armada when we left the lock.
Half an hour into the canal there were 3 red lights. This means that all traffic must wait. It's quite rare, we have only experienced it once before. After half an hour, a large barge being towed by two tugs, one in front and one behind, appeared. Then we were allowed to carry on.
Almost exactly 10 hours after leaving Bagenkop, we tied up in Rendsburg, which we know quite well by now!
It looks like we'll be here for a few days as the forecast for the next two days is quite bad.

Tomorrow, we'll buy some internet data and I'll post some pictures. This is written using the club WiFi.

Location:Vorwerksallee,Büdelsdorf,Germany

Last Danish port

Just a quick update: we are in Bagenkop, which will be our last Danish and our last Scandinavian port of this year. 😒
The plan is to leave early (say 6am) tomorrow, get to the lock in Kiel-Holtenau by 10:30 or so. Then hope the wait is not too long and continue to Rendsburg, which is 35KM down the Kiel canal.
We may or may not have an Internet connection there, after the amazingly good mobile data services in Sweden and Denmark, we know Germany and the Netherlands will be quite a bit of a challenge.
But I'll update the blog as soon as I can!

Location:Færgevej,Bagenkop,Denmark

A few pictures (although not of Rudkøbing)

As promised, here are a few pictures we took the last few days.

As predicted it was quite windy today, so we stayed in port, did some reading, some work, some shopping. And we cooked a nice Danish chicken on the Cobb.
Tomorrow seems a good day to continue to Bagenkop and then to Kiel on Sunday but the weather is a bit unpredictable so we'll let you know what transpires.

The pictured that follow do not show Rudkøbing, we posted those when we were here in June.

This sunset picture is still from Nyord, a few days ago. Buit we think it's quite nice!

The lively guest harbour of Omø 

Omø lighthouse

Rudkøbing

Lyn pointed out to me (and correctly!) that I was a bit too harsh in my criticism of Omø harbour two days ago. Let me tell you that they have constructed very nice 'grillpladsen' (barbecue places) plus a great children's play area. And the other very important thing is that it is a real 'gasthamn', there are no boats that have their home port there, everyone is a visitor. This makes for a very nice and lively atmosphere as on every boat there are people. And there is a coming and going of boats, which - especially in a bit of a breeze - can be let's say 'interesting' as it is a small harbour with not a lot of space to make mistakes in manoeuvring.
So we had a good time there, and left this morning in nice smooth conditions, first to cross the shipping routes in the Great Belt and then in a southerly direction to the west of Langeland. For the first time in a few weeks we had a nice following current most of the way and just after 12 noon we tied up in Rudkøbing. This unfortunately is a 'club harbour', so it's very quiet with lots of boats but few people.

Tomorrow is predicted to be very windy (that forecast has persisted for quite a few days now) and we are well sheltered and Rudkøbing, although not exactly the 'centre of the world' is ok to spend an extra day. We hope it will just be a day, as the forecast for the next week does not show a lot of opportunities to carry on, to Bagenkop and the across the Kieler Bucht back to Germany. But we have plenty of time, so no worries!

I'll post some pictures of the last few days tomorrow!

Location:Skudehavnen,Rudkøbing,Denmark

Omø

After a night with a lot of rain and thunder, the forecast was that it would not rain anymore and the wind was light. So this morning we did the 32 miles from Vordingborg to Omø. The sea south of the island of Zealand, the Smålandsfarwandtet (or something like that), is full of reefs and shallows, which makes it quite 'lumpy' even with relatively little wind. But today was great, smooth sailing all along and by 2:30 we were tied up in the harbour of Omø. We have been here a few times before, and each time it's a bit more dilapidated than before. No maintenance being done, that seems clear.
Neither of our two 3G SIM cards have any usable reception (have I mentioned that the Swedish card we use gives us unexpected free roaming?) and the harbour WiFi is pretty pathetic (as many 'harbour WiFi's are) but I have managed to find a place where I can connect and do this update.
The plan tomorrow is move on to either Lohals or Rudkøbing, both of these are on the west coast of Langeland. Hopefully there will be better internet there!

Nyord. Swallows?

From Rødvig, we moved through the Bøgestrom, a narrow and shallow channel with a bit of tricky navigation.
Our destination was Nyord, a small island with an even smaller harbour. As the weather is nice and we have been pushing quite hard lately, we decided to spend the Sunday here as well.
We walked around the island in about an hour and a half. Here are some impressions:

 There is a round church in the little village 'Nyord By'

 The harbour is really small, and the harbour entrance is equally narrow!

At the bird watching tower, you could see what the swallows do in each month of the year. 

For August it reads: "The long trip to Africa begins". Looking at our own travel plans, we thought it was quite an appropriate observation!

Back in Denmark

We left Gislövs Läge at 7 this morning. A bit of an easterly wind and swell, which rolled the boat a bit, but it soon became more comfortable.
The AIS once again made it much easier to navigate the TSS (Traffic Separation System) at Falsterborev, it really helps to see the big ships on the plotter before you can even distinguish them visually and also be sure whether they will pass behind or ahead of you! Of course this is just a 'navigational aid', you need to keep proper lookout as well. Plus we plot our position on the paper chart every half hour. Electronic navigation is great, but it is not the only and ultimate solution!
Anyway, we tied up in Rødvig just before noon. Removed the Swedish courtesy flag which has been flying for 57 days and replaced it with the Danish one.
We'll move on tomorrow, probably to an island called Nyord where we have not been before.

Location:Havnepladsen,Rødvig,Denmark

Traditional ships - past the Southernmost tip of Sweden

When we arrived at Ystad yesterday, there were two nice navy training sailing vessels lying at anchor outside, which we quite liked:

This morning, we left at 7. There was a light easterly wind blowing which was perfect for the relatively short trip to Gislövs Läge. 

When we emerged from the harbour, which is hidden behind rather high breakwaters, we saw this beautiful three master at anchor. A bit later, against the rising sun it looked even better!

Halfway the trip to Gislövs, we passed Smygehuk, the southernmost tip of Sweden. The starboard harbour head you can see in this picture is the actual point.

We would have liked to go there, but the harbour - although quite scenic - is so full of rotting seaweed that the stench,  according to many sources, is reported to be unbearable.

So we continued and were tied up in Gislövs Läge before 11am! This is a sleepy and not very exciting spot, but ideal as a starting point for tomorrow's trip to Rødvis in Denmark as it is only just over 30 miles. It could be less, but you need to go south of the Falsterbö Rev traffic separation scheme (TSS) and that is a detour of a few miles.
We plan to leave early (6am) for a few reasons: the sea always looks at its nicest early in the morning, Rødvig is a busy harbour and arriving early will help in securing a decent berth and the wind will still be in the east and thus behind us in the morning.

So tomorrow's post should come from Denmark, after almost 60 days in Sweden.

Ystad

We did a - just under 30 mile - stretch from Simrishamn to Ystad today.
In the beginning light winds, quite a bit of 'leftover swell' and a bit of current behind. As we got to 'the corner', Sandhammaren - the Cape Horn of the North because of the many shipwrecks over the centuries - the current turned against us, not a lot though. Then the wind started to pick up, right on the nose. Nothing too serious, but the boat is now as salty as a herring again as quite a bit of water came over the bows. All of the pounding into the waves of course also slowed us down a bit, instead of around 6.75 knots in smooth water without current we did between 5.9 and 6.3. Not good for the diesel consumption!
When we got to Ystad, there was still a choice of moorings, but later it filled up quickly. That's quite normal, so we try to get to the next harbour by 2pm if we can. Ystad is a nice town and a good harbour too! Tomorrow there will be an international military tattoo, but we won't stay for that.
On the way out, almost 2 months ago, this was our first stop in Sweden but tomorrow we'll go to Gislövs Läge, about 25 miles to the west. That makes the trip back to Denmark (Rødvig, most likely) a lot shorter at just over 30 miles which is close to what we have been doing the last week or so.

Location:Segelgatan,Ystad,Sweden

Photo-post

Today I am going to deliver on yesterday's promise to post the pictures of the last week.

We did a very quiet almost 5 hour stretch from Hanö to Simrishamn today. As you will see in the pictures, no wind at all, perfect for us! Tomorrow might be a bit windy, in which cas ewe'll stay here in Simrishamn. The next stop will be Ystad, just 28 miles 'around the corner' on the South coast of Skåne (we are still on the east coast now).

Here are the promised pictures:

Big ship traffic is rare in the Kalmar Sund. In the background is the bridge between Kalmar and Öland. 

 The TV show in Kristianopel

We were the background for the TV show.

 And we had a first row view of the proceedings too!

 The small harbour in Kristianopel would not offer much protection from a strong Easterly wind!

 The last rocks in the last Skärgård between Karlskrona and Hanö

 The 'English cemetery on Hanö, seen from the water.

 From the highest point on Hanö

 The Hanö lighthouse

 The English cemetery, now seen from the island towards the sea.

 The only tombstone in the cemetery.

 The northern point of Hanö is made up of a spit of small stones. 

 Hanö harbour.

Very calm and sunny conditions this morning. Perfect for us!

Hanö

Hanö is our last Swedish island and it is proving to be very nice indeed!
It is only 6KM in circumference and there are 60 permanent inhabitants and no cars at all. Hanö boasts the most powerful lighthouse in the Baltic (which I suppose is true) and the legend has it that there used to be a dragon which covered the 20KM distance between Tärnö and Hanö every night with only two strokes of its wings. But when the light on Hanö was lit for the first time, the dragon was blinded by the light and crashed into the island. The mark of the impact is still visible.....
We walked to the lighthouse on the highest point, 60m above sea level and also to the 'English cemetery'. During the Napoleontic wars, the British fleet had a base here and a few sailors were buried on the island between 1810 and 1812. Much later, in 1974, a cross was erected by a British naval vessel. British naval vessels still call here from time to time and when that happens, a service is held at the cemetery (which, apart from the cross, only has one single gravestone).
The harbour is very small: according to the pilot 'the harbourmaster claims that 70 to 100 boats can be accommodated'. We have no idea how he could squeeze those boats in, there are currently about 40 of us and we are two or three deep. Anyway, we'll happily come back another time to see how much fuller it can be!
The forecast for tomorrow is good, so we'll move on to Simrishamn.

I promise to get the laptop out there and post all the missing pictures (assuming the Internet connection is good enough.....).

Location:Bönsäcksvägen,,Sweden

Skärgårdsfest in Karlskrona

When we entered Karlskrona just before lunch today, there appeared to be a lot of activity on the quayside. And the Gästhamn was full, we got the last 'proper' spot before people start to have to double up.

We discovered it is the annual Skärgårdsfest, a festival throughout the town, with all sorts activities like beach handball, a kiddies circus, a fun fair and live music. Quite a nice vibe and the weather is nice and sunny which of course helps a lot!

The plan is to use the upcoming days with little wind predicted to move further southwest, tomorrow to the small island of Hanö, where we have not been before and on Monday on to Simrishamn which is in the southern province of Skåne and two stops away from our last Swedish port which will most likely be Gislövs Läge, near Trelleborg.