Monday 27th June 2005 North Spandau to central Spandau.

13.5º C Sunny and hot but with a cool breeze. We set off at 8.10 a.m. heading for

View from mooring at North Spandau

Spandau lock. Rosy in the lead. Bill had to swerve to avoid a small yacht which went across his bows as if he wasn’t there – with all that space to play in too! (The lake is about 500m wide) He stopped and so did Rosy. We went round the corner to the lock waiting area. The lock was full, gates open and red lights on. As usual, we’d just thrown a rope around a bollard when the lights changed to green, then we all piled into the lock. Rosy alongside us and the little yacht right behind us. It’s a huge lock, there was no one

Same bridge in Spandau in daylight.

else to share it with and all three boats were occupying about 35m of one side of one wall in a lock that is 120m long by 12m wide! I’d got the centre rope around a vertical bar recessed into the wall. The water went out very fast and the surge caused the boat to yo-yo back and forth (I’d got nothing to put an extra turn on to as I was using the bar in the wall) so Mike started the engine to counteract the rushing backwards and forwards. I’ll remember next time we’re in Spandau’s lovely new lock, (which took an eternity to rebuild), to either use the centre rope on bollards or use ropes fore and aft around the bars when going downhill. The moorings below the lock opposite the old town were almost full.

Tug and pans of coal for the power station. Central Spandau

Bill went to investigate a gap at the end nearest the Charlottenbrücke road bridge, where there was one cruiser in a bay between two of the dolphins. We went to look at the space behind another cruiser at the other end of the moorings, where we really needed to be when our delivery of fuel oil arrived. There wasn’t enough space, so we went to tie alongside Rosy. The cruiser in front of Rosy had just decided to leave, so we had the whole bay, which left just enough space for a little one between our bows and the next dolphin (if there had been one brave enough!). Mike and Bill went off on foot into the town to organise a delivery of heating oil. They found a computer shop where a guy spoke good English and they asked him to ring the fuel place, Spingies, for us,

Tug and pans of coal for the power station. Central Spandau

which he did. The fuel would arrive at midday. That was quick! Mike was sure that the delivery men who have been to us on the quay before have had keys to the chain across the cobbled road along the quayside. The fuel delivery tanker came at midday and the driver hadn’t got a key to undo the chain, so we had to move the boats. The cruiser at the other end of the moorings must have felt intimidated by the two breasted up narrowboats encroaching on him from behind and left, so we’d got the whole bay for ourselves. (Good thing too because the space we’d just vacated filled up within minutes) Mike asked the driver for a smaller sized delivery nozzle to fit our filler and we filled our tank first, taking on 350 litres. Bill had 318 litres to top up his tank. It was 63c per litre (47p litre or £1.90 per gallon) ouch! The last load we had was in August the previous year and that was 54.4c per litre - a whopping 15% increase in ten months. We paid him 425€ (it should have been 417,69€, but told him to keep the change for a drink). Lunch and then Bill went off on his bike to get groceries from the new Real by the station on the opposite bank of the river. I was delaying going shopping until we got the car back, I’d had enough of carrying stuff in rucksacks or borrowing Bill’s bike and looking like a Chinese coolie! After lunch we all went to the Internet café by the railway station, which was crowded and noisy as usual. On the way back through the railway station into the town centre, Mike got his railway ticket to go back to EHS the following day. It cost 10,50€ (£7) which we both thought was good value. It was six o’clock by the time we got back to the boats. Our drinking water filter took that moment to decide to stop working, so we spent the next hour and a half searching for the replacement cartridge. I was sure it was in the one of the boxes in the engine room. Mike thought he’d seen it in the roll-out cupboard. Nope!  Found it in a corner of a large storage box under the sink. Glad to have the water back on to make a cuppa. Chicken risotto for a late dinner.