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| A new mooring for canoes |
Bill standing there with our hoses
connected up waiting for someone to turn the water on. He charged us 2,50€ for
the 500 litres we had between us. I did some chores and made a cuppa while we
filled up. Set off again at 10.15 a.m. Lots of traffic about, mostly medium
sized cruisers. One fast red speedboat slowed down to pass us and some other
boats. A young topless lady made quite a to-do about bashfully hanging into the
cabin hatchway until we’d all gone past. Then the speedboat opened up and went
off at far more than the speed
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| Warehouses now converted into apartments. Brandenburg |
limit of 12 kph. A long line of cruisers, headed
by a couple of Dutch boats who were doing the speed limit, went past just as an
open fishing boat overtook us. Into Brandeburg on the Stadkanal, under two low
bridges, which Mike had to take the mast down for. The sunshade just missed the
arch of the lowest one just before the lock. The lock was full and we both went
in. A small cruiser, which had set off from a bit further up the canal to
follow us, had to wait as there was not enough room in the lock chamber which
was 22m long
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| Stadtschleuse (town lock) in Brandenburg |
by 5.3m wide. Our guide book says it is only open from May to
September and passes 10,000 boats each year. At the end of the lock cut we
joined the Neiderhavel, which runs through Brandenburg town. We turned left and
headed away from the town towards the lake. We ate lunch on the move before we
got to the Breitlingsee. I took photos of the old coal unloading quay and the
slipway where they used to launch the seaplanes that they built at the now
flattened Junkers aviation factory. It was very breezy out on the lake as
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| Below Stadtschleuse Brandenburg |
we
crossed to the Plauersee. A couple of little yachts went past with shortened
sails and several windsurfers went past at high rate of knots. The sunshade was
just about on its limit, any windier and we would have had to take it down
before it folded in half. The bridge at Kirchmöser was due to be rebuilt and
work was going on at either end of it, where crane boats were at work piling
the lake bed to make a new bridge. It was 2.20 p.m. as we passed under the road
bridge into the Wendsee. A very large speedboat, called Enough, went past on
tickover - until he
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| Junkers coal wharf on the Breitingsee |
cleared the bridge – then he opened the throttles and the
bows lifted and it shot off across the Plauersee. A very small speedboat
overtook us and dropped anchor just round the bend in the Wendsee, the two
nudists on board scrambled over the back of their boat into the water. Each had
a flexible stick of what looked like fluorescent foam rubber, which they
twisted round themselves and sat on! Bendy foam sticks, whatever next? We turned right, leaving the last of the
Havel lakes behind us, entering the Elbe-Havel-Kanal and joining a queue for
the lock at
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| Bridge works at Kirchmoeser. Plauersee |
Wusterwitz. A tug and two pans came down the lock. An empty 80m
boat came and went into the empty lock, closely followed by a loaded 65m boat
and another empty 80m, filling the 225m long chamber. No room for us and the
little boats moored at the pontoon below the lock. Mike tied the stern end of
the boat to a dolphin and the wind blew the boat round so it was parallel to
the bank. The lock emptied again and we went up with just one of the little
boats which had been moored at the pontoon – the other two boats stayed put. I
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| Speedboat called Enough |
used the centre rope and Bill brought Rosy alongside. Mistake! We should have
used fore and aft ropes going uphill in these long chambers as the surge of
incoming water made the boats yo-yo back and forth. Mike had to start the
engine to stop them charging up and down the chamber. As we left the lock, Mike
had asked the guy in the cabin by the top gates if we could moor overnight on
the pontoon and got a strange answer, he said go on the right. We ignored him
and nobody said anything, we tied up on the pontoon on the
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| Tug towing a pan with a huge hole in its bows |
left at 5 p.m.. Mike
unloaded the moped and went off to collect the car from Schmergow. I prepared
veg for a stirfry. I’d sprouted some mung beans, which were ready to eat, and
had done more than we could eat at one sitting, so I gave a jugful to Bill who
said they were OK. Mike was back at 7 p.m. No one else had moored in the basin
at Schmergow and the campers were still there – the kids were on holiday now so
they would probably be there until school starts again in September. Stowed the
moped
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| Moored on the pontoon above Wusterwitz lock |
back on the roof, then I cooked the chicken stirfry. Michael B moored in
front of us, so Mike had to go and take photos of his namesake. Someone on the
big boat played with a radio
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| Mike setting off on moped down towpath to get the car |
controlled model motor boat, racing it up and down
the canal.
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| A large empty boat called Michael B moored in front of us overnight |
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