Monday 11th July 2005 Rühen to Edesbüttel.

Rosy passing the VW plant at Wolfsburg

12.4º C Sunny and hot again. Bill untied at eight on the dot. It was twenty past by the time Mike had been to the postbox by the café, put the pins in to do some washing and we’d untied. Bill wanted to stop and go to the visitor centre at the VW plant at Wolfsburg, but the mooring we were intending to stop at now had no signs to say it was a 12 hour mooring for sport boats. The bollards were still there, going rusty, but we didn’t stop as we thought they must have moved the mooring place. We motored on and found mooring signs at the far

Unusual to see a German-flagged converted tug 

end of the commercial moorings, right by the railway station. Bill walked back to the other end to go in the visitor centre which was on the other side of the canal, reached by a modern footbridge. He was back in no time. The museum he wanted to see had been incorporated into a theme park, access to the latter cost 14€, which he didn’t think was justified when he only wanted to have a quick look round the museum. We set off again just before midday with a second load of washing in the machine. For the first time in Germany we saw a large German-flagged

Below Sulfeld lock

pleasure boat, a 15m converted tug from Hannover called Malo. We tied to the waiting area below Sülfeld lock and called the keeper on the tannoy. He said he’d call us to tell us when we could go in the lock. We had some lunch while we waited. When the lock gate lifted an 80m barge loaded with stinky scrap wood came out. A cruiser had joined us so we all three went off into the lock and stayed right at the back. Rosy alongside us, Bill helping me with the front ropes as there were no floaters, just rows of bollards one above the other up the 9m deep chamber. Three

225m long chamber of Sulfeld lock MLK

economiser pounds filled the lock and we said hello and goodbye to the gongoozlers on the lockside as we left the 225m long chamber. Above the lock there was a queue waiting. Five commercials and a gaggle of cruisers. We kept left, as the commercials were blue boarding (wanting us to pass on the “wrong” side), and the first two in the queue set off for the lock. Half a mile away at the far end of the waiting area for the commercials, the sport boats had their waiting area. Because there was enough room left over for all of them to get in the lock, the cruisers had untied

First of the 80m boats heading into Sulfeld to go down

and were setting off from the bank. Two 80m commercials went into the lock, which meant they occupied 160m out of 225m available, so there was around sixty metres left over – not enough for another one of the remaining three commercials in the queue, so the cruisers were lucky. Bill was in the lead and he went back over to the right between the cruisers, but we’d got another commercial coming, another 80m empty which wanted to get over to the quay to queue behind the others. Mike dug out our blue board, which I held up and we passed to our left, giving the big boat all the room to get over on to the quay. He totally ignored us, no replying

And the cruisers all making for Sulfeld lock

blue board or even a friendly wave. Miserable Dutchman, we’re invisible again! We followed Rosy along the last 3 kms up to the mooring on the junction with the Elbe-Seiten-Kanal near Edesbüttel and moored in the sport mooring behind a Polish tug and pan. Mike rolled the moped off the roof (another roof high quay) and went off to collect the car from Rühen. He was back at 5 p.m. having done 42 kms by road as he had been diverted all over the place. It was too hot to cook, so we just had sandwiches for dinner.