Thursday 23rd June 2005 Drahthammer lk to Liebenwalde.

Disused twin lock 7 Drachthammer

11.8º C Sunny and hot. Woken at 6 a.m. by a noisy load of WSA men who started up their workboat and generally make a racket bashing things. We set off earlier than the official opening time of 9 a.m. as the lock keeper was on duty and the workboat had just left the chamber, so he called us in. We were through the lock, N^o 7 Drahthammer, and away ten minutes later, following Rosy up the canal to wait for the 10 a.m. opening time of the DIY (turn a green lever on a pole) vertical lifting bridge at Eberswalde-Finow. I settled

Canalside Finow museum exhibit 

down to some chores while we waited the three quarters of an hour. A large cruiser appeared at the other side of the bridge at five to ten and sat in the middle waiting for the lift to operate. When it opened the big cruiser got the green lights first! No justice – or perhaps he knew that that side always got the green lights first! On up to Wolfswinkel, lock No 6, which we were through in no time, leaving the top at 10.30 a.m. following Rosy up to lock 5, Heegemühle. We’d just been talking about the first time we came through the liftbridge,

Eberswalde paper works & water tower

when it was operated by a very young lad, who turned out in full safety gear, including lifejacket. He had a huge bunch of keys to unlock each bit of mechanism to be operated and it took ages and ages, traffic must have been queuing for kilometres. He was now the keeper in charge of lock 5, which he worked very efficiently – still wearing the self-inflating lifevest though (perhaps it’s a rule for non-swimmers). We overtook Rosy just before the two bridges just above the lock, then stopped to let Bill go first into the

One of the Black houses (copper clad) at Messinghafen

Messinghafen (brass works basin) where there were mooring posts and landings all around the basin. We pulled alongside and tied on to Rosy. Bill asked the group of orange jacketed council workmen where the “Black” houses were, they pointed up the road. Mike looked after the boats and I went with Bill (and Fanny) both of us taking cameras to take pictures of the küpferhausen – houses clad in copper sheet, which had turned black over the years and earned them the nickname of the “Black”

Brass works water tower Messinghafen

houses. There was also a monumental brick built water tower, which had supplied a head of water for the brass works. Most of the remaining factory buildings appeared to have been converted into very smart houses and flats. Back to the boats for lunch. We set off at 12.20 p.m. eating our salad on the stern under the big blue sunshade. When we arrived at lock N^o 4, Shöpffurt, the canoeist (same one from the day before) was waiting to come in with us. The young man who worked the lock for us remembered us from the year before. I told him it was the fifth time we’d been through his lock and asked when they would be repairing the badly damaged left lock wall. He said the lock was to be rebuilt starting in September and would be closed for a full year. The trees were damaging the walls. It seemed obvious to us non-experts that the wall had lost a layer of bricks due to frost damage, there was no bowing of the wall that you get with invasive roots. Sadly, the beautiful old poplars were doomed, the new lock will be an

Unusual garden gnome!

immaculate brick construction, bare of all shade trees and will look just like Eberswalde lock. Shame. I told him so, but he was only a lad and an employee of the WSA. I took more photos than I would normally have done, as it would be the last time we saw the lock in its present beautiful state. A little way further on we turned into the mooring harbour in the weirstream. The hafenmeister was very amenable – he also remembered us from last year. We topped up with water, as did the canoeist who had ten litres, while we took on three hundred and Bill one hundred and fifty. He seemed a bit miffed

Rosy. Entrance to Messinghafen

that we didn’t want to stay overnight in Finow, but I told him Bill had a date with Nefertiti in Berlin, so we had to push on, he looked suitably puzzled. We gave him 3€ for the water and told him how sad we thought it was about the lock losing all its old trees. The way to combat tree root invasion is to insert a layer of piling between the lock wall and the trees – we’ve seen it done in Holland. He said that none of the residents of the large new housing estate by his mooring were interested. Shame on them. A small cruiser

Canoeist alongside Rosy in lock 4 Shopfurt

which had come uphill behind us went into the harbour to moor for the night as we left. Bill stopped and the canoeist climbed on board Rosy tying his canoe (which we later learned was forty years old and would fold up to go in a carrying bag) alongside. A pair of goldeneye ducks flew off in front of the boat – well, one of them did, the male did a strange sort of paddlewheeling of his legs to propel himself along, while the female flew a few hundred yards ahead and waited for him. After about a half kilometre of this Mike increased speed to force past

Soon to be rebuilt lock 4 Shopfurt

the poor bird who was killing himself trying to flee. As we passed him he headed for the bank and dived under the water and the female flew round over us to rejoin him. Stupid bird brains! Lock N^o 3, Grafenbrück, was ready for us. Two swans came into the chamber with us, but took fright and paddled back out again as the gates closed. A few minutes later, as the lock filled, we saw them walking sedately along the grass on the bare and treeless left bank of the lock, heading for the pound above. Swans here aren’t quite so daft but almost as nervous as the ducks. When the lock was full, the keeper stepped on to our stern deck to have a look at the engine.

Soon to be rebuilt lock 4 Shopfurt

The door was closed so he couldn’t see it, so Mike opened the door for him to have a look at our Perkins 42. He said he was in the Merchant Navy and had been into Tilbury docks in London and into Liverpool. It was 2.55 p.m. when we left the top and meandered slowly up the canal under the trees to the next lock, N^o 2 Leesenbrück. Another quiet young man worked the lock for us. Bill and the canoeist were having a good old natter (he spoke good English and told Bill he would carry on and paddle the rest of the Finow on the other side of the OHK, where it is called the Langer Trodel and inaccessible for us). Bill let him steer Rosy and took a photo of him

Bill's hitch-hiker steering Rosy

steering, using the canoeists own digital camera. I took a photo of them. It was 3.40 p.m. as we threaded our way along the last pound, through the trees, to lock N^o 1 Ruhlsdorf. It was full. We tied to the landing below the lock and Rosy hovered in mid-channel away from the flow of water from the emptying lock. A cruiser came down and we went up. The very pleasant friendly lady keeper remembered us too and chattered away in German as we went into the lock and tied up. It was 4.25 p.m. when we set off on the last of the Finowkanal. The canoeist set off first, we overtook him a few minutes later. We wished him a good journey. Auch! came

Lady keeper working top lock 1 Ruhlsdorf

the reply. A cruiser went past, hoping to get into the lock before it closed at 5 p.m. I made a

cuppa and we turned left at the junction on to the OHK, heading for Berlin. In the far distance we could see the back of a hotel ship, possibly Swiss Coral or one of her sister ships. The canal was busy with little boats, cruisers and yachts in both directions. The crew of one small boat upset Bill, he came on VHF complaining to us of vulgarity by the young couple on a small boat. The man took a photo of Rosy, then the woman put her thumbs into

the sides of her bikini bottoms and acted as if she were going to pull them down! They obviously thought it was hilariously funny, but Bill was not much amused. Just before the junction with the Malzerkanal, which leads on to the upper Havel navigation, a farmer was hard at work in the fields on the right bank baling hay – with farming modern gear – not a scythe or horse in sight! At the waiting area by the road and rail bridges (the OHK has one way working for commercials) were two Polish boats, a Bizon with a pan and a former German barge called Lavenburg 736T 67m x 7.25m, now under Polish ownership, waiting for the evening setting off time of nine pm. Mike made comment that the canal at 3m deep was over twice the depth of some parts of the river Wisła. We turned right on to the Malzer and round the bend to the lock waiting area in the wide weirstream. A large cruiser was moored nearest the canal and several smaller boats were spread out down the rest of the metal topped quay. Mike headed for the biggest gap (which would have been just long enough) but the little boat untied and moved back up the quay to give us plenty of room. (Ten minutes later most of them went off up the lock.) Bill brought Rosy alongside, leaving space for any late comers as it is a very popular mooring spot. It was H-O-T hot!  It was 6.30 p.m. much later than we normally tie up.