16.7° C Sunny, clouding over mid-afternoon.
Mike put the pins in and we did some washing
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| Cruiser sets on fire at Altehof |
as we went along the OHK. Rosy was
away first, having far fewer ropes to undo than us. A large hotel boat had
arrived before we set off, heading for the lift. It was 7.15 a.m. when we set
off, twenty minutes later we met the first convoy of commercials coming from
the opposite direction. Among the big boats, which were mostly Polish tugs and
pans, there was another hotel ship (one we’d not seen before) a very smart one
called Swiss Coral from Basel. I did the chores and put a second load in the
washer. The washing and ironing finished just as we caught up with the convoy
of commercials which had set off at 8 a.m. from the stopping place at KP 66.
Mike took the pins out and we slowly followed the tail end boat for the next
couple of kilometres. Then we turned right into the Werbellinkanal just as a
tripper came from the opposite direction along the OHK. After only a few
minutes the water became crystal clear and we could see the sandy bottom and
all the fish and weeds. Through two tiny jewels of lakes, Pechteich and
Grabowsee, to the first lock, Rosenbeck. A small powered inflatable boat had
set off from the last lake and had overtaken us just before we arrived at the
lock. The landing to wait for the lock was completely occupied by one small
cruiser and the zodiac. The lock had been
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| The fire took hold in next to no time |
made automatic and now worked on
demand, instead of every two hours as it did when we were there last, and was
emptying. The crew of the cruiser called us past to go in the lock first. We
attached ropes fore and aft to vertical poles and Rosy came alongside. The two
little boats attached their boat poles to whatever they could hang on to and
then the woman on the cruiser turned the wrong pole - she turned the one
nearest to her which was the red one. The lock was overlooked by CCTV, so the
keeper must have seen what had happened and set the gates closing. We had an
SMS from Jim, asking if Bill knew the ‘phone number of the Yacht club in Gent.
He’d got the right number, but Bill said try the other club as they were
cheaper. The zodiac had overtaken us and was waiting at the mooring below the
next lock. We tagged on behind and the cruiser came in behind Rosy. A lady
keeper operated the lock at Eichorst from a tiny glass cabin, high up above the
lock. We went up in the chamber as before and Mike put the pins in again to do
more washing as we trundled out into the most beautiful lake in Germany. The
green-blue waters of the Werbellinsee reminded us very much of the Mediterranean.
Cruisers, yachts and canoes were everywhere. Bill stopped to find us a
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| A very large crowd of onlookers turned up to anchor and watch. |
mooring
at Altenhof and we steamed on to the top end of the lake. There were lots of
new moorings and camping places. Masses of boats were anchored around the edges
of the lake, their crews swimming or sunbathing. We had two texts from Peter.
The first was about bow thrusters and the second was news of his friend Nut
(real name Philip but nobody ever calls him that) having had an accident last
Monday when he drove his motorbike into the back of a bus. He said he was in a
bad way, having broken his leg, pelvis and ribs and would be in body traction
in Russell’s Hall hospital for the next six weeks. Poor lad, that will hurt. We
dodged the trip boats and went back down the lake to moor alongside Rosy. Bill
had
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| A beautiful sunset over the Werbellinsee |
found the quay at Altenhof was a free mooring when chatting to the crews of
the two small cruisers which had tied there for lunch. He had to move away from
the pier by his bows, as passing traffic was causing the front end to bump on
submerged rocks. Mike ran the engine
 |
Next morning Mike took pictures of the sad remains
of someone's former pride and joy |
at tickover, to do an experiment to see
how long it would run on a litre of fuel. He was surprised (and disappointed)
to find it would have only lasted an hour - fifteen minutes was enough time to
run the engine to ascertain that. He thought it would be more, that was the
first time he’d done checks on the Perkins. I cooked Bombay potatoes and
chicken tandoori for dinner. While I was cooking we heard a distant bang and
both looked out to see a small plume of smoke rising from the club moorings
further up the lake shore, followed by flames. A boat had exploded (confirmed
later as a gas explosion) and set on fire. Someone shoved it out from the
moorings and we could see it burning. I got the camera and took photos. The
fire alarm in the village went off and soon we could hear sirens
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| A charred shell. What a tragedy. |
as the fire
brigade arrived. By the time they’d got a small boat out to it and attached a
line to pull it back in range of their hoses it had almost completely burned
out the whole interior. The stern cabin had just started to go up in flames. It
was a steel boat so, after the paint had burned off, the shell remained afloat.
A very large crowd of cruisers and speedboats had arrived and anchored in the
lake to watch. It seemed very ghoulish to me so I took a wide angle photo and
didn’t get them all in. Dinner was late and a bit more charred than it should
have been (tandoori is supposed to be blackened). Later Mike went a walk to
have a look at the moorings where we’d been when we were here before. It was
very muggy and sticky again overnight.
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