9.4º
C. Warm and sunny with a light breeze. Mike was up at seven to be ready to be off
at eight. Whilst making tea, he also put the oven on and baked the part-baked
buns we’d bought in Eberswalde. (Best to do it early before the heat builds up
during the day). Put the pins in to set off with the washing machine running,
but the generator wouldn’t work. Bill had already set off as he’d been tied
alongside us. Mike replaced the large capacitor and we were ready to set off
when the lady with the
dogs came past. I had to have a last fuss from six big
black dogs (well, five and a chocolate one) four Labradors, one long haired
German shepherd and a barmy retriever. Mike took a photo of them after the lady
had fetched them out of the canal and made them all sit in a circle. Bill came
back to see how we were getting on. He winded and we followed with the washing
machine going this time. It was 8.30 a.m. I got on with the chores, made a
cuppa and had a ten minute sit down on the stern with Mike before we arrived at
Lehnitz lock. Lots of stuff moving today. We passed a
string of cruisers and
yachts by the ferry near Friedrichstal. The washing finished, timing it nicely
for the lock. Just before the lock Mike paused to take pictures of the skeletal
statues at the site of the Nazi-run brickworks where some of the occupants of
Sachsenhausen concentration camp worked. He moved the boat to the lock waiting
area, then went and tied alongside Rosy. A large navy hulled cruiser was first
in the queue. A tug and pan came up the lock, then we got a green light and
followed the cruiser into the lock with our two boats
still tied together. The
little plain clothes police boat was moored above the lock, but there was no
one on board it. A crowd of other cruisers and yachts came in the chamber
behind us, making nine boats plus us in the lock. There were no floaters to tie
to, so we had the choice of fixed bollards or bars, I chose the bollards and
had to keep moving the rope down to the next bollard down the wall as the water
level dropped six metres. The cruiser alongside us on the opposite wall kept
his rap music playing all the time we were in the lock. I’d put more washing in
the machine so we set off again with the Markon running. Busy with Sunday
boaters on the Lehnitzsee, a long flattened M-shaped lake. Pedaloes and rowing
boats for hire by the hour were doing a good trade at the southern end of the
lake. We passed the second Dutchman of the year (the first was in Poland
heading for the Elblag lifts with three German cruisers) a large cruiser
heading for Lehnitz. Police boat WS2 was moored by KP 25 at the start of the
Havel navigation, where the un-
navigable Orianenberger Havel came in from our
right. Its crew was keeping a sharp lookout for law breakers. It was 11.30 a.m.
A crowd of little kids and dogs were swimming in the river and a coypu (South
American rat) swam nonchalantly past along the river bank. I hadn’t enough time
to switch the camera on before it had leisurely turned and climbed the bank,
stopping for a scratch before disappearing into the undergrowth. I made salad
for lunch. The washing finished so Mike took the pins out, then
we ate lunch.
The hotel ship Rügen went past heading for Lehnitz. The first 1000 tonner of
this year, 980T to be exact, the loaded 80m long Paula-Ilse of Hamburg poodled
past very gently, hardly causing a ripple, with a couple of speedboats weaving
about behind it. A cleg bit Mike on the finger while he was taking photos and
steering at the same time, that soon came up in a lump. The moorings for
commercials at the steel works in Henningsdorf were packed with Polish tugs and
pans. One coming towards us was blue
flagging, wanting us to pass him on the
wrong side as he was heading for the moorings on our right. As he moved over
into the mooring place a whole armada of sailing yachts and cruisers was
released from crawling behind him. There was a grand prix start as they took
advantage of the space to overtake one another. Amongst them was the first FKK
(Frei Korper Kulture - nudists) of the year, a naked lady in a small black and
white cruiser. Loads more passing traffic as we went between rows of moored
tugs and pans waiting for loading or
unloading on Monday morning. We came to
the junction with the Havel kanal, where we turned left into the long
Niederneuendorfersee heading south towards Berlin. Not many yachts (there was
not a lot of breeze) about, but loads of day boats, canoes and cruisers. What a
change from Poland’s empty waterways to this! Police boat WSP10 had caught a
little yellow boat, we wondered what crime he had committed. On the left bank
of the lake we spied a house with twenty solar panels down the
side wall and
two big ones across the roof. A large dark cruiser called Bossi went past with
a banner around its bows announcing its yacht charter phone number, a party of
six was seated on its stern deck enjoying a Sunday afternoon cruise on the lake
- the skipper waved as it overtook us just before the ferry crossing at
Tegelost. Planes were taking off one after the other on our left from Berlin’s
main airport, Tegel. A large tripper, an imitation Mississippi paddle wheeler,
went past heading up the lake. It passed us again later on its way back into
the Tegelersee. We moored at 3 p.m. on the quay in North Spandau by some new
flats. Some
disgusting person had left a dead fish on the wooden landing and it
was stinking as it rotted in the hot sunshine. Mike kicked it in the water
before Fanny had chance to roll in it! A group of lads were sitting at the far
end of the staging, enjoying the sunshine. A security guard with a large
Alsation dog came past as I was returning Bill’s laundry. Fanny dashed out and
had a good snarl at the big dog, who just stood back in amazement and didn’t
even woof at her. Bill shouted at her and Fanny went back on board Rosy. Mike
said he couldn’t understand why no one else was moored there, but we were under
the flight path from Tegel, which made it noisy, plus there was the wash of a
constant stream of passing boats. Mike went for a nap and despite the noise, the heat
and the boat rocking he slept.
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