Adventuress Sailing: Heading West via Germany

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Heading West via Germany

Sailing to the Baltic, many Brits start through Holland, and keep going East through the 52 mile “Kiel Canal” that goes from Brunsbuttel on the river Elbe through Germany to the Baltic at Kiel. We did it differently, sailing more or less due North from the Dutch Friesian Islands directly across the North Sea to Norway. Now, coming down to the Southern Baltic, we made the usual choice of taking the canal, rather than sailing 500nm back north around Jutland and back down in the North Sea.

The Kiel Canal, properly called the Nord-Ostsee Kanal, is for major ships, with locks only at each end. The locks of course are huge, about 1200 feet long and 180 feet wide. Fog delayed our entrance at Kiel by four hours, so when we were given the all clear to enter the Holtenau lock, a stampede of 36 yachts jostled for position to enter – reminding us of the ski lines in Europe! The sound of racing engines and roaring bow thrusters filled the air!

Yachts waiting to enter the canal

As we entered the canal we noticed this catamaran

flying the Stars and Stripes...the first American flag since we left Bermuda!

Yachts in the lock along with large freighters

36 yachts in the lock!

John climbs down the ladder after paying the toll

Then when we left the lock we were lined up along the canal doing 6.5 knots under motor with just a dozen yards between us.

Adventuress survived without a scratch but we were relieved when the traffic thinned out several miles later.

We considered stopping at Rendsburg, the German city about a third of the way along, but reckoned we could go further in spite of the fog delay, and found a mooring a mile up a side canal (The Gieselau, which leads to the Eider River and eventually the North Sea at Eiderdamm.)

Next day we left the Kiel Canal through the yacht lock at Brunsbuttel, threading our way through four ships waiting to go through the ships’ lock. Swiftly on a SSE 15 knot wind we sailed out on the ebbing River Elbe, recording 11.3 knots over the ground.

Raymarine Chart plotter at the helm

We arrived the convenient Cruxhaven Marina, spent the night and then next day motored in calm winds over to Helgoland, where we stopped for 140 gallons of tax free diesel! Then we came to Holland via a stop in the German Friesian island of Norderney.

Strong winds are forecast for the North Sea making a direct westerly passage from Germany to Holland unwise So we will make our way through the “Upmast Route” inland via Dokkum and Leeuwarden to Harlingen. This is not hard duty……Holland is beautiful and the people are wonderful. Here are a few pictures of Germany’s Kiel Canal: