Thursday 9th September 2004 Harvelberg to Rathenow.

Cold overnight 6.9° C. Sunny with mist hanging low over the river. Mike made tea twice as

Pegel notice on the Havel

the milk out of the ‘fridge had gone off! Set off at 7.10 a.m. The temperature was still dropping. 5.7° C! Bill tried to take the narrow channel at the back of the island and stopped in the entrance when Rosy grounded on some rocks. We turned and went back past the fountain, out on to the Havel the way we’d come in the day before and turned left going upstream on the last bit of the Havel we hadn’t been on before. Met Bill coming out from the mooring under the fancy footbridge. He paused to take photos and we were

Havelberg from the Havel -
Wikimedia photo by BKlugschnacker

leading the way again, back up the Havel. I made another cuppa. A cruiser was moored, bows up the banks with two slack stern lines, at KP 120. Then we met a downhill cruiser called Mollymauk at KP 135 just before we turned into the lock cut to Garz lock. A mink was running along the rocks at the water’s edge. He took no notice of us whatsoever and continued scouring the banks for breakfast. It was 10 a.m. when we reached the lock. Mike called the keeper on VHF and, after a few minutes wait while the chamber emptied, we went in. The keeper said “You’re back?” (in German) and the lad told us we couldn’t stop in the gates, we had to go in and lash to the wall. This didn’t please Mike much, but we have to comply with the keeper’s instructions (as long as it doesn’t jeopardise the boat’s safety). The top end of the chamber had a looped rope along the wall, so we threaded our centre rope through that and Mike and I fended each end of the boat off the sloping wall using short boat shafts. Bill did the same with Rosy only he couldn’t be in two places at once so he didn’t fend off the wall. Mike spoke to the kid as we left - a total waste of energy as the kid didn’t speak English - but he said it made him feel better letting him know he

Havelberg - Wikimedia photo by Botaurus

wasn’t happy about tying up to a rope half way along a sloping sided lock wall. We were overtaken by a large cruiser as we just 2 kms short of the next lock, Grütz, so Mike gave the keeper a call on VHF to tell him there were three boats coming who would be with him in the next ten minutes. He replied, having understood, and said he would see us in ten minutes! The cruiser was in the lock, waiting, when we got there. Hung on the wall again as before. The workboat was still attached to the lock wall but the crew weren’t bricklaying today. After we left the lock I made some lunch. Mike’s buns were very crusty. A white tailed eagle sat in a dead tree and didn’t take off. I had a really good view through binoculars, what a beak! Ducks must have

Aerial view of moorings at Rathenow
Wikimedia photo by Ingo-Carsten Alms

nightmares about beaks like that! It’s no wonder they sleep very little! A pair of red kites circled on the thermals. We turned left following Rosy into the Hohenauerkanal, as Bill had said we must go and have a quick look at the lake. The lake was a long narrow winding one at over 10 kms long. We passed a WSA tug coming down the canal and a powerboat followed us into the lake. We circled and went back down the canal and rejoined the river. The trip boat which moors below the weir at Rathenow, called Sonnenscheine, came down the river with a top deck half full of day trippers. We waved. It was 3.40 p.m. when we arrived below the lock at Rathenow. The lock emptied and we went up the deeper, narrower lock, which had more steeply sloping sides than the other two locks. Hung on the wall like before

Yeah, what a beak!
Seeadler or White-tailed eagle
Wikimedia photo by Jorg Hempel

and Bill put a rope through one of the sloping ladders. Above the lock a boat with very smoky engine was waiting, it had a gloriously incongruous occupation of Landsamtumweld (environmental department). We wound our way through the sunny backwaters of Rathenow and tied up on the town quay again, in exactly the same place as we’d been earlier in the week. Nautilus was still on the pontoon (on its stern was a charter boat company logo - a hire boat - someone must be moving it at weekends to a new location, or it’s been sold off). Mike got the moped off. I put the Mac on and Bill went to e-mail at the library. He tried to get us a copy of our phone bill, but hadn’t got all the necessary codes. Later Mona from WWT ‘phoned to say that it had been their fault that they’d deducted the $100, she apologised and said they would be refunding it to our credit card company the next day. Mike was back at 7 p.m. He’d called in an Aldi and bought some bread on his way back. While I cooked dinner he refilled the water tank.