Wednesday 22nd June 2005 Hohensaaten - Drahthammer lk Finowkanal.

Sign board with cartoons showing all things forbidden
below lock 12 Liepe 

16.3º C. Hazy clouds at first, clearing later to give blue skies and sunshine. Breezy. Set off at 8.10 a.m. with the sunshade up and took it down again half an hour later as the wind was picking up and anything more than a moderate breeze would cause it to turn inside out. A large Berlin cruiser arrived at the lock waiting area for the west lock as we set off. We were doing 6.2 kph as we motored on along the Oder-Havel-Kanal (OHK), the first part of which follows the course of the old river Oder. A Bizon tug pushing two 480T pans of steel coil went past - heading for a ship in Szczecin docks we wondered? The next boat, a loaded Bromberger barge (No 5127, they never have names), 56m x 7.5m carrying 450T, went past us as we were passing the moored boats at Oderberg. As we were crossing the Odebergersee following the buoyed channel, I went in the cabin to make tea just as a very large lady steering a yacht whilst standing up overtook us. At the end of the lake we met a Bizon tug from Wrocław pushing an empty pan. The cruiser (called Möwe) which had been moored at the same place as us in Hohensaaten overnight, 

Paddles open. Lock 12 Liepe

overtook us at 10 a.m. by Liepe bridge, he was heading for the Neiderfinow lift, taking the direct route. A Transbode tug and loaded pan went past heading for Hohensaaten. Fifteen miniutes later we turned into the Finowkanal, noting that there was no notice board saying it was the Finow – it looked like another dead end arm off the old river Oder. The first lock, No 12 Liepe, was full. As we 

Ground paddle gear lock 11 Stecher

tied on the landing below the lock the keeper appeared and emptied the lock. Bill brought Rosy alongside and a canoe followed us into the chamber. The lock, 41.5m long by 5.3m wide (that’s the width of the gates, the actual chamber is double that) filled using ground paddles and later gate paddles too. The canoeist left the keeper a tip. He’d been telling Bill that the keepers are very much underpaid – underpaid compared to whom, I asked – the canoeist? We were away again at 10.50 

Trip boat Annelise with tug strapped to rudder for propulsion

a.m. 3.5 kms to the next lock, N^o 11 Stecher. The lock keeper from the bottom lock was at the new liftbridge in Niederfinow to lift it for us. A WSA tug pushing a pan was coming towards the bridge, we thought he would have priority, but he stopped and let us go through first. We passed a small cruiser coming downhill as we went through Neiderfinow. It took us almost an hour to 

Moored in Eberswalde for shopping. 

Stecher, lock 11, the keeper emptied the lock and we went up with the canoeist again. He’d been telling Mike and Bill that he had set off from Kastel in West Germany and had paddled almost a thousand kilometres. I made a salad for lunch as we went through the next lock, N^o 10 Ragön, where the keeper gave us each four copies of a tourist booklet (think he was trying to get rid of them!!) about the local

Unusual odd-legged crane WSA yard Eberswalde

area, Barnim, in English. We ate lunch on our way into Eberswalde then tied up with Rosy on the inside below the lock at 1.40 p.m. Bill went shopping first, by bike to Aldi, and when he came back Mike and I went across the road to the Einkauf centrum where we found the Edeka supermarket (upstairs in the centre) to get a few groceries and a 15€ top up card for the D2 phone - which was down to just 

Overnight mooring below lock 8 Drahthammer

under 7 € in credit. Bill wanted to push on, to moor somewhere more pleasant he said, so we told the keeper on our way back across the bridge that we’d be ready in fifteen minutes. I used the lock rope hanging down the wall to hang on to, which was almost too thick to turn around the bollard under the gunwale! We left the top at 4.10 p.m. I stuffed the groceries away as we headed up to lock N^o 9, Kupferhammer. The vertical bars were in the wrong places in the deep (3.5m) lock, so Mike swapped over to the left hand wall and we both used the hanging ropes (thinner 

Sign board at Drahthammer showing lock dimensions on Finow

ones!). One small boat was waiting above the lock to come down and we passed two more as we went along the winding short (1.5 kms) pound to lock N^o 8, Drahthammer, where we tied on the quay below the lock for the night at 4.55 p.m. The keeper had already packed up and gone home as the lock closes at 5 p.m. Mike and I swapped the moped over from the front deck to the roof, then sorted out the BBQ gear from under the front deck seat. Mike had a few beers while cooking pork steaks and spuds. Bill had already eaten but he joined us for a beer and a natter and we all took turns at throwing a ball for Fanny.