Thursday 15th July 2004 above Rothensee lift to
Tangermünde.
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Rosy & Temujin in the tank about to descend.
Rothensee ship lift |
13.4° C Cold and windy after overnight rain. Sunshine and
grey clouds in the morning, clouding over by evening, turning showery. Up early
to set off just after 8.00 a.m. Mike had called the lift keeper on VHF and the
ship lift was ready for us to descend to the level of the river Elbe. A pair of
red kites were hanging on the wind above a stand of trees by the lift, hunting
for their breakfast. I took photos as we went down the channel past the docks,
wharves and old warehouses to turn left heading downhill on the river. Rosy
followed us out
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| Below the ship lift heading on to the river Elbe |
on to the river. A Berliner tug breasted up with two pans came
upriver as we headed down to the new aqueduct and flew underneath it at close
on 10 kph thanks to the flow of the river. Took photos of the new aqueduct, which
Bill said that he thought looked very unimpressive, and the new mooring on the
river at Hohenwarthe. I took a picture of Rosy coming under the aqueduct with a
helicopter passing overhead, which was well timed. The sun came out briefly as
we passed the entrance to the Elbe-Havel Kanal. It was 10.10 a.m. A Police launch
passed us heading uphill at KP 345 near Niegripp,
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The old and the new, ship lift on the right,
new lock for bigger boats on the left |
its wash made us bounce up
and down for a few minutes. Mike was carefully tracking the course of the
channel from one side of the river to the other using the bank markers, yellow
crosses on top of posts, XX’s on the left bank and ++’s on the right, marking
their positions on our chart and taking note of the kilometre markers too, which
also weren’t marked on our chart. A part loaded 80m boat called “Geeste” passed
us heading upriver at KP 349, followed by another police launch. I made us a
warming cup of soup at 11 a.m. Another
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Rosy exiting the channel from the lock, pushing the flow
heading upstream on the Elbe to turn and
head downstream (to the right of the pic) |
Berliner tug went uphill, pushing two
pans in line, near KP 355. The skipper didn’t return our waves, which was
unusual - perhaps he was having a bad day. Near Kehnert, KP 358 - 9, the
channel crossed the river from side to side on a straight section, so we took
careful note of its course. Then into looping bends we followed the yellow
crosses which marked a logical course around the outsides of the bends. We ate
lunch on the move. A trip boat overtook us at KP 379, just as we were heading
45° across to the left hand bank - the trip boat went across too. At 2.50 p.m.
we moored on the piled quay wall at Tangermünde and Bill brought
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| New aqueduct in distance, new moorings on right. R Elbe |
Rosy alongside
us (last time we went into the basin and moored at the boat club, very
precariously on their short finger moorings designed for 6m long boats) between
yellow painted dolphins next to a moored cruiser from Hamburg. The sign boards
indicated that the moorings downriver of where we’d tied up were for hotel
ships. The police launch from Tangermünde went in and out of the basin and the
crews waved cheerily to us, so the mooring must be OK for us (where else could
boats of our length go?). Mike went off on the moped to collect the car. He was
back at 6.45 p.m.
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| The new aqueduct carrying the Mittellandkanal over the Elbe |
Friday 16th July 2004 Tangermünde. Heavy rain - day off.
Low grey clouds, heavy rain turning to drizzle until 5.30
p.m. then the sun came out. We were up at 7 a.m. to set off early downriver but
it was pouring with rain. Mike knocked the window and suggested to Bill that we
hang on a bit to see if it showed any signs of stopping. It didn’t - so we
changed our plans and decided to go shopping instead. Mike ‘phoned Glyn. He’d
had nothing from our surveyor but we’d got a pile of post, he said he’d ring
back when the last bank statement arrived. I totted up the number of dry days
we’d had since setting the start of June -11 dry days in June and only two so
far this month.
off to a drizzle we went out in the car. I
slipped and banged my left shin bone getting off on the high metal edged piled
quay - it went black straight away. Thought we’d try Stendal for
shopping as it
looked a large place on the map. (The metal top to the piling had a raised
front edge and was just above waist height – OK for the men with longer legs
than mine – and there was no ladder)
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| Rosy, the aqueduct and a helicopter |
|
The direct route from Tangermünde was
blocked off, so we went a different route into Stendal. Drove all around the
place and found loads of car showrooms, garages and a Hellweg (large DIY store),
even a McDonald’s, but no supermarket except small ones like Aldi and K+K!
Amazing. We went back to Tangermünde on the blocked off road, followed the
diversion and found a large new shopping complex with a large Edeka called
E-Centre. It was pouring with rain again so we said we’d have lunch and go out
again after. Dropped Bill off at the bakery so he could get some fresh bread
and went back on the boat and had lunch. Set off again at 2.30 p.m. after Mike
had had a short nap. It was a reasonable supermarket except for the choice in
fresh meat, which was OK if you like pork chops and sausage. I found some
frozen chicken in the freezer cabinets and took three packs to restock my
freezer. (They were unboned chicken breasts - each pack a chicken minus its
wings and legs, not bad value at 2,19€ each for 500g about £3/kg - but messy -
I boned them myself when they were defrosted). Vegetable selection was a bit
meagre too. Mike bought some more of his favourite wine. We’d had trouble
returning a beer crate which wasn’t full of empties,
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| The ferry at Rogatz. R Elbe |
the automatic machine
which gives out credit notes for the returns wouldn’t accept it, so we had to
find an assistant and she found the man in charge of the returned bottles, etc,
who came and put another crate through with six bottles missing - which worked
- and gave us the till ticket for our refund. The rain had stopped when we got
back to Tangermünde. Unloaded the groceries from the car down the sloping bank
across the roof and through the side doors. Mike went out again to get petrol
for the genie while I packed stuff away. He went for another nap and I rested
my aching bruised leg, soothing it and (hopefully) reducing the bruising with witch-hazel.
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