A chilly 7.3° C overnight due to an open sky. Several
boats had gone past during the night.
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| Below Hindenberg locks at Anderten Note boats going wrong way as this was a photo from 2005 return journey |
We set off at 8 a.m. It was sunny but
breezy with a keen east wind blowing. Canal traffic was busy, although we had
lulls of about half an hour when nothing passed or overtook us! Mike spotted a
coal mine at Kohlfeld - aptly named (coalfield), but as the area was very green
with no sign of any coal we realised it must be a museum. Mike looked at our
copy of Sportschiffahrtskarten Binnen no 4 to see where it started covering the
MLK and found we were just at the beginning of its coverage as we approached
Hannover. Bill had just asked if he should continue straight on, (he was in
front) - the canal straight on went into
Hannover’s docks with the MLK swinging off to the left. Mike told him that from
this junction our route was covered by the chart he’d bought at the chandlers,
(he hadn’t managed to get a map for the MLK). Mike used the Callback service to
phone Jenny at the bearing company to tell her we’d received the package. Then
he tried ringing Glyn and got his answering machine. As we ran round the
suburbs of Hannover the towpath was crowded with cyclists, joggers and walkers
and the canal traffic suddenly got a lot busier as we were approaching the
Hindenburg locks at Anderten. Four kilometres before the lock the canal became
narrow, the WSA were busily back-piling and widening it. Three Danish flagged
boats, (two cruisers and a yacht), went
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| Wouldn't like to even try to climb that! 14m lock ladder in Hindenberg lock (2005) |
past heading for Minden (and France?).
We had lunch before we got to the lock. Just after we’d speeded up to keep out
of her way to get through a narrow section, a Dutch woman steering an empty
called Spes-Mea never smiled or returned our waves, she just glared as she
overtook us (unusual for a Dutch lady!). Then we were overtaken by a loaded
tanker called Marlene whose young skipper speeded up, causing his chimney stack
to belch out clouds of black smoke, then he slowed down again to follow the
Dutch woman through a narrow section under two old railway bridges towards the
lock. Bill told us later that the tanker driver had tried to overtake him in a
no overtaking section. Mike called the keeper at Anderten to ask if we should
follow Marlene into the right hand chamber. The question was asked in English,
and he was surprised when the answer came back also in English. Ja! OK. When
Genius and a loaded 80m cleared the chamber, we went in following Spes-Mea and
Marlene. The two big boats sat crosswise in the chamber with their bows against
the right hand wall and the crews just put bow ropes on the bollards. Mike and
I did fore and aft lines, Bill came alongside. The lock, (we’d found last
time), tried
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| They keep a very close eye - some of Hindenberg lock's cameras (2005) |
to throw the boat off the wall at first, then settled down to just
a back and forth pull. As we rose in the chamber I put the line over each of
the bollards up the wall above my head using the hook on a short boat shaft (a
tried and tested method!). When we left the lock we trundled on to the end of
the moorings - 30m for us at the end of 100m for commercials (plus the whole of
the far bank). I spoke to the lock via the intercom installed by the mooring, a
lady answered. I asked if she spoke English and she said yes, a little.
Permission has to be asked from the lock to moor where we’d tied up. She said
yes, OK, we could stay there and wished us a good holiday. Helped Mike unload
the moped and he went off to thread his way through Hannover back to Haste to
collect the car and find a garage which sold fan belts to get a longer one so
he could install the new pulley for the Jabsco cooling water pump. When he
returned he told me that the moped’s exhaust had come loose again in the
cylinder where the threads in the aluminium casting had worn away. He said he
must fix it. He’d spent ages trying to find somewhere to buy a new, longer, fan
belt. Each place had suggested somewhere else until finally he’d been directed
to a large stockist one kilometre away from the boat in the opposite direction
to which he’d set
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| Lock buildings between the two chambers at Hindenberg (photo from Jul 2013) |
out. Too late this afternoon now, he said he would go in the
morning. I’d made a turkey casserole for dinner. Mike went to tell Bill about
the problems with the moped. We stood outside on the bank helping Bill to empty
a bottle of Amaretto (delicious Italian almond liqueur). Mike had finally
calmed down, stopped blaming himself for not getting the bits (when he could
have bought them easily in France and he knew they would soon be needed) and
set about thinking of ways to fix the moped without resorting to a trip back to
France or finding an German MBK dealer, where they would have to order the parts
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| Moored abv Anderten with Wandering Snail (Photo from 2013) |
(because German MBK’s are scooters, they don’t have MBK mopeds) and we would
have to wait for them (plus pay extra for the handling).
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