There is nothing ugly; for let the form of an object be what it may,
- light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.
- John Constable -



Map: ©Microsoft Encarta World Atlas





Driving through Germany. More inland tracks are about to follow, as we dive into the Dutch canals and travel 100-plus miles through the cow paddocs.




A cheap folding tent chair, the uninstalled Simrad AP24 control unit with a long cable and a cold beer made the one decently warm day in the Kiel Canal a rather relaxing experience


KIEL CANAL

Kiel canal is known as the busiest artificial waterway in the world. Yet, there is plenty of room for one more. For us, Kiel was a reward from suffering the Baltic Sea. Even the temperature was ok, for a few days. We had a 2-day break from wearing beanies, jumpers and rain jackets. Our Simrad autopilot did the steering. I have still not installed the control unit, as having it loose at the end of the simnet cable allows me to find a comfy spot anywhere and push the buttons. Aliisa's first autopilot mounted directly to the rudder post has been a new experience. There is no wandering around, there is no overturning, just razor-sharp, super accurate silent steering.

NORWEIGIAN FRIENDS I didn't really like Germany. Maybe I have an attitude problem. (I know I do, but I would never admit it) The Germans always felt too specific, excact, proper, straight down the rule book and dead-serious. The amount of people driving in Kiel Canal wearing life jackets was astonishing. 40-foot ocean going yachts driving in a ditch, 3m from the edge of the 60-mile-long canal, wearing life jackets! Jeesus, man. If they had somehow managed to fall over the side, the number one danger would have been hitting your head on the rocks!

Another thing that annoyed me greatly was the frequency of pirate flags on German yachts. (Some others too...) The frequency of them did not abate in the North Sea side of Europe. Perhaps it was Johnny Depp and the wonderful Pirates of the Caribbean that "lifted the profile" of the skull and bones. I always got a funny feeling about it. Am I becoming a stiff old cynical bastard? Phil and I got cleaned up in PNG. I know a guy who had a gun pointed at his head. An old german couple is sitting somewhere in Somalia after being abducted from their yacht as they were approaching the Red Sea near the Gulf of Aden. Women have been raped in front of their husbands. People have been killed. I totally applaud the flag in children's parties and a role play games, but in a cruising yacht, plowing the seas with adults onboard? Never mind. I think I've made my feelings clear. It's not their fault that I have a different opinion on the flag.





Want butt? Get it here. The world is full of fun. Maybe I should learn how to view the skull and bones in a fun way too. Sorry, I thought I was finished with the subject...



Oh yeah, the Norweigian friends. I was going to tell you about Sigrid and Tor. We loved their company. Yacht "Bonus" was small and slow, and I felt like the owner of the world when we motored past them in Kiel Canal. (I haven't motored past anyone for years...) We got a friendly smile and a wave and at the next port - the end of the canal, Brunsbüttel - we started to spend the odd evening together. The company of a "young" couple (in terms of cruising yacht couples) was refreshing and fun. Tor and Sigrid simply had the Spirit of Adventure.


Brunsbüttel was a lovely little town but unfortunately the toilets / showers in the harbour, or marina, were dismal. The smell of urine was thick and the lack of toilet paper and privacy was not helping the overall rating. The picture is not from there, though. This is a public toilet in town. The size of the toilet allows one to drive a moderate sized truck in. Only the toilet rim and the toilet paper is missing, otherwise clean and fresh! Weird. Yep.


The weather continued to be straight from the Devil's ass, only cold. Hmm... please don't stop thinking about the details of that analogy for too long. With the marina toilets being dismally dirty and smelly, we had to move on. We had one more threee-hour leg that we could do in any weather; from the locks of Kiel canal to the mouth of Elbe river, Cuxhaven. We left together with Tor and Sigrid. Aliisa was back in tidal waters and the 4-5kn flow of the ebbing Elbe made it noticable. Cuxhaven marina was the first real international gig and they knew how to charge. Putting coins in the showers had become the norm, but having a charge-card and paying 40c per minute (Almost $1AUD) for a shower was a bit much.




Brunsbuttel marina with "Bonus" and "Aliisa". Constant ship traffic and their massive propellers accelerating through the locks created interesting sounds inside Aliisa.




Kiel canal was easy and relaxing, but still required a basic lookout for traffic. Small vessels could easily drive within a few meters of the edge, leaving plenty of room for the ships to pass.

NORTH SEA, HERE WE COME!

Wedding day, Bastille day 14 July, 2008. We had to go. The forecast was 20 knots SW for the next week, except for our wedding day. Head winds nevertheless, but only 10kn. That's what I believed, anyway. We had to go, though. We had my best friends waiting in Amsterdam. So we did, at 6am. Sun was shining and all looked well. We shared a 200ml "piccolo" bottle of champagne while Aliisa was pushing through a 0.5m sea against the tidal flow. Simrad was steering and the sun was shining. But the North Sea was waiting, waiting for us to get far enough off shore and for the tide to turn. That way it would be impossible - or at least pointless - to turn back and then, only then would the North Sea have its way with us...

The wind steadily grew and backed as we turned from W to WSW along the Frisian islands. By the time the tide changed and offered us a 1kn positive current, the wind against us was raising the waves. And I'm sure you all know what happens to waves when they meet current. Annina wen't down below and I continued to search for the angle where the mainsail would fill and the course would not be compromised too much. Our planned 6pm arrival did not quite happen. The wind was 20 knots and seas, though not too rough, were steep enough to slow us to 2.5 knots and make life onboard a living hell. We arrived at the sandbanks at 10pm, on the last light.


Trust the plotter? Did the reds and greens move in the last storm? Or did the sand banks move? We found 2.3m in a 1.5m swell before the rescue arrived in the form of a german yacht who drove in next to us. I took them as a pilot and we followed them in, arriving in the dark and sheltered Norderney harbour.

The strengthening wind, rolling swell and the shifting sand banks (somewere beneath the surface) made my mouth dry and I had an arrival beer or two ahead of time. We were in tidal country again but there was no berths left in the floating marina, so we tied up against the main wharf and left the lines as slack as we could. We both fell asleep and around 4am I woke up on a squeeky noice. It was the lines, Aliisa was hanging off the jetty. With my palms red, I pulled the lines until they came off the bollards, Aliisa fell back properly in the water and I went back to sleep knowing the next direction is up.


User pays. Most marinas in Europe still offer water for free, but about all the showers operate with coins. For 50 cents (euro) you may get 4 minutes of water, ladies get a bit more. The power is often included, but these kind of coin-machines are not rare. Charge is by KWh, fair enough. This one in Norderney, Germany.


Only on high tide...

The North Sea was roaring. Well, not quite a storm, but a relentless 20-25 knots from the SW, together with rain. With or without a tidal flow, it would not have been possible to motor against it. We didn't want to have anything to do with the North Sea again. Our only other option was to head across the tidal Wadden Sea, inside the Frisian islands, and reach the Dutch port of Delfzijl, our first possibility to enter the network of canals leading us to Amsterdam.

We took a 7am start, as advised by Petra, our Michael Schumacher's sister look-alike harbour master. High tide was at 11am and at that time we should be at the shallowest part of the channel - 25cm at low tide. The tidal range was about 2.5meters so for a yacht like Aliisa there should be no problems whatsoever.

It's funny how one gets used to things quickly. If you suddenly find yourself in 3 meters of water in the ocean - even in calm weather - you'd be shitting yourelf. When we took a turn left and watched the sounder go from 12m in the main channel to a mere 2.5m, my mouth was feeling dry. There was still a little swell from the ocean but it soon dissapeared. The reds and greens changed to a row of wooden sticks and tree branches, stickin out from the firm sand. The sounder settled in 1.8m and after a little detour in 1.6m, it felt like plenty of water! We reached Defzijl at 2pm, according to the plan, with no problems whatsoever.

Baltic Sea 1 Baltic Sea 2 Next: Dutch canals and Amsterdam