Tuesday 10th August 2004 Eberswalde above Niederfinow boatlift (OHK).

14.2° C overnight. Sunny with a light breeze. Mike fetched bread before we untied and 

Top end gates of Eberswalde lock. Finow kanal

followed Rosy and the yacht into Eberswalde lock at 9 a.m. The yacht had the left hand wall, Rosy the right, so we went alongside Rosy. They had even rebuilt the bridge over the tail end of the lock chamber. It was a bit disappointing to see what they’d done to the mooring below the lock, which was now all concrete - it used to be shady under the trees next to a rough bank. It was just a short run down to Ragön lock. A smiling old man worked the lock for us, again the little yacht had the straight wall all to itself and we manoeuvered on to the recessed right hand wall, this time Rosy came alongside us, as we were in the lock before Bill.

Paddle gear Ragon lock. Finow kanal

Mike took a photo of the preserved lever paddles. The clegs (horseflies) were out as we went through a wooded section, but disappeared when the number of trees became less as the countryside opened out to rolling fields. We descended Stecher lock alongside Rosy. A crowd of little kids started shouting “Ship ahoy”, in English, as we went through the lift bridge at Niederfinow. At the end of the village I spotted Himalayan balsam along the banks - the first I’d seen over here on the Continent. I remembered seeing it for the first time along the banks of the Stour when we first started boating in the late sixties and now it’s everywhere in Britain, having escaped from gardens. There was a

Trip boat Munchausen below Neiderfinow lift, Oder-Havel-Kanal 

line of green cans in the middle of the canal on the long straight down to the last lock at Liepe. We gained three paddle boats to descend with us and the yacht. A cruiser called Maray was waiting below, plus a WSA tug and pan. All around the lock a new fence of narrow netting had sprouted - to keep the gongoozlers out?  Turned left on to the Oder-Havel-Kanal (OHK) which runs parallel to the Finow and replaced it as boats got bigger. We had a short wait below the Neiderfinow lift (built in 1934 to replace a flight of four locks) there was no one else about, the yacht had gone off towards the Oder - while the trip boat

Rosy leaving Neiderfinow Ship lift. OHK

Odertal came down the lift. Trip boat Munchausen had just loaded up with passengers below the lift and had gone towards the Oder do a twirl around the lake, the top end of the Oderbergersee, and, when the Odertal had winded, we followed the two trippers and a single canoe into the lift caisson. Took some video and Mike did a few stills as we went uphill by 36m in a matter of minutes. The tripper Munchausen winded and went back into the caisson and two yachts followed it, while the other trip boat Odertal went into the arm leading to the old flight of locks, where it unloaded its passengers. We passed a Polish tug,

Munchausen above the ship lift OHK

named Koziordrzec from Bromberg, moored to the steigers waiting for the next starting time for the one way working sections (these apply only to the working boats) along the canal. It was 12.37 p.m. when we turned into the old arm. The old tripboat, which had been moored at the end of the arm and proved to be a useful mooring for us on the previous occasions we had moored there, was now gone - all that remained was a floating metal box that it had been tied to. We utilised the box, securing it with our ropes and putting our bows against it, then sank our two tyres under our port side as the bank was made of shelving stones. Mike suggested to Bill that he should wind and put his stern end next to the box, so that Fanny could have speedy access to the bank and tied Rosy’s bows alongside us. It was 1.10 p.m by the time we’d finished lashing ropes. It was hot. We went inside and had some lunch, followed by a short siesta. Bill shouted to see if we were going for a walk down the old lock flight. Mike went with him, I’d got work to do. I cooked some minced beef, turning it into cottage pie, using my new potato ricer to produce lovely mashed potato. It was very hot and sticky. Three yachts moored in the arm overnight. Two of them tied next to the trippers and the third tied on the far bank, ignoring the notice that said no mooring except for WSA boats.