Den Helder
Wismar
Transporter Bridge on the Canal
Baltic Lock on the Kiel Canal
Arriving at Brunsbuttle
To The Baltic With Spindrift
Keron Riley writes up his summer cruise of 2008
Part 1
Retirement is wonderful. I do what I want to, especially as more friends are retiring and we can sail together. Before I left work I was asked to choose a leaving present. £30, they said; such are the financial rewards of teaching. Wandering round the chandlers looking for ideas I came across the “Baltic Pilot”. I had wanted to sail there since I had crewed to the Limfjord 20 years ago. It was also well within range of my yacht, Rival 32 Spindrift. An internet search showed Ryanair provide transport to Lübeck and Gdansk. I was surprised how many friends showed interest and soon the plan for 4 stages was agreed. We were to go to Lübeck then Gdansk, back to Lübeck and finally home. It had to be planned well in advance to get cheap air tickets.
David Jardine had recently taken a half share in a yacht and was keen to gain experience. Recently retired colleague Paul Wiseman has been sailing with me for years. They both were available in the two middle weeks of May so we decided to depart on Wednesday 7th. I was somewhat apprehensive that it would be very cold so early in the summer.
My apprehensions seemed justified the weeks before we were due to leave as wind and rain hampered preparations but by the week of departure easterlies were blowing. Although the easterly was a warm wind we were to have a long motor to leave the Thames estuary. We cast off at 1430h on Wednesday, 7th May and motored out in bright sunshine. About 1600h all seemed lost as the engine started overheating and we had to tern back to Queenborough. As soon as we had moored up the quarterberth was emptied to get to the heat exchanger which was stripped down and reassembled. If this did not work the whole trip was in jeopardy. So it was before 3 in the morning on Thursday, 8th that we motored out of Queenborough and headed across Sea Reach for Black Deep. I am not sure what I did but it worked as I never did have any more trouble with the heat exchanger through the trip.
It was another day of hot sun and easterly wind. We were out at the Inner Gabbard by 1630 where the engine was turned off and we started to beat towards Den Helder.
The Windpilot windvane steering system worked well. It is ideal for long passages under sail as it does not use battery power. I was on my own in the cockpit through the graveyard watch letting the boat steer herself. With only the masthead trilight shining beneath the stars we crossed the North Sea. Even blacker than the waves I saw dolphins swimming alongside.
It was 2100 BST on Friday when we put into Den Helder for food, showers and fuel. You can rely on a filling meal in the Yacht Club and the showers are only a short walk away. Next morning David and Paul had to take the fuel cans on the trolley to a garage some distance away as there was no diesel at the Yacht Club. Late next afternoon, Saturday 10th, we left the marina to take the last of the ebb out of the Molengat and the first of the flood along the Frisian Islands. The strong easterlies of the afternoon died down and we had virtually no wind as we motored through the night towards the German border. In fact it was late Sunday morning as we approached the Jade estuary before the wind picked up and so after lunch we set sail and sailed across the bay awaiting the flood up The Elbe.
David made spagbog and we were all washed up and ready for darkness as we arrived at the first buoy in the channel to take us up towards Brunsbuttel. As we motored just outside the buoys on the starboard side of the channel, we were surprised by an unlit yacht sailing out of the estuary, but she was no danger to us as she was sailing on the wrong side of the channel inside the buoys. Eventually the tide started to sweep us up the river in the darkness as the constant stream of shipping kept us alert. We crossed over the main channel and passed Cuxhafen as the first glimmer of dawn crept over the north-eastern horizon, but it was very reluctant.
In the bright early morning sunlight we were the only vessel in the old lock. We seemed so small in there but they locked us through into the canal on our own. There was little space in the marina by the big lock so we tied up alongside another yacht.
We couldn’t keep going; we wanted sleep and later a shower. We were charged 7€ (including showers). There was an Aldi supermarket by the marina and we planned to provision later that day. With Easter early we were suprised it was Whit Monday on 12th May and all the shops were closed so we had to eat out.
At 0730 on Tuesday 13th May we were almost there. Just the Kiel Canal, or as the Germans call it, The Nord-Ostsee Kanal to go. The land and bridges, especially the transporter bridge, were really interesting. David works for Lloyds and told us all about the ships we were meeting at very close quarters.
And so at 1700 hours we were finally locked out at Holtenau into the Kiel Förd and motored round to the marina next to the canal. It was like being on a lake. There were no tides and we were surrounded by trees and housing that seems to come from a 19th century novel.
Wednesday, 14th May and we woke up to another delightful morning and the sense that we were actually in the Baltic. Into a strong breeze we motored to Laboe to top up with diesel in the marina. We cast off but David had left his jersey in the office. There were several empty box moorings so what better opportunity to investigate this new way of mooring? And very valuable this turned out to be. For those who have not used them, a “box” in a marina is the space where you moor bows onto the pontoon. There are two posts off the two quarters of the boat and you have to have lines ready to put round them to hold the stern as you go in. Soon we were sailing out past the Kiel lighthouse but not for long as the wind died away. We had to use some of the recently bought expensive diesel to take us to Heiligenhafen. It was almost dark as we arrived but at least we moored up in a box confidently.
Heilegenhafen has an excellent marina and has a large charter fleet but it is not a shopping centre. We were able to buy bread, ham and salami for a good lunch before motoring out to go under the bridge to the island of Fehmarn and into the Lubeck Bucht. Afternoon became a beautiful evening and after all the motoring we had done we sailed towards Travemünde under the cruising chute in the light airs. It was dusk as we entered the river Trave and we were amazed by the size and immaculate preservation of the Flying P four master Passat to port as we sailed in. Just as amazing were the ferries that were constantly on the move, but unlike Calais, yachts were left to get on with it by harbour control. Once we had moored up in Böbs Werft we opened a tin of beans to stave off hunger until morning. The harbourmaster was an old coaster captain who knew the Thames well so made sure we were all right.
David had to go back to go to work so had taken a taxi to the airport and as Paul and I still had a few days in hand we decided to sail round to Wismar. The chart shows a well buoyed channel through a wide estuary leading to the town. The weather was wet and windy but after so much motoring it was a pleasure to be sailing again. I also had my first big lesson navigating in Baltic waters.
There may be no green on the chart but look very closely at the blue. In the Thames estuary you can sail over the blue bits on a rising tide but in the Baltic WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get. The 0.5 in the middle of the blue bit means there is never enough water there. We were enjoying a thrash through the water with the wind just forward of the beam. As the Baltic is enclosed there is hardly any swell under the waves so in the brisk breeze Spindrift was going at hull speed overtaking the other yachts which were heading closer to the wind. It was almost too late before I saw that they were heading for a ‘gate’ we had to sail through instead of sailing directly to the approach channel.
So having arrived in Wismar in the wind and the rain and trying two marinas marked on the chart, we at last found the new marina. With new pontoons and toilet block there were five other boats in the 70 berths. The harbour master came over to see we were all right first and then took our money. It was 10€ a night (about £8). He wanted to know where we came from. “I have been to Queeney-borough,” he said with delight. He was a long-retired skipper of a coaster sailing into Rid ham Dock with timber.
When it stopped raining we walked into town. We crossed the port road and went through an old town gate. Another big lesson and, indeed, this was why I had wanted to go to the Baltic. The town gate was a time machine because once through it the town was largely unchanged since the 19th century. It had been recently smartened up, but the town and its buildings had not had the benefit of English town planning; war and Communism had stopped any change in the 20th century. I am used to historic building being in stone but here the building material was brick. The gates, churches, houses were all built of red brick.
Although it was Saturday evening there were very few people about. In the Marktplatz we found a good restaurant next to “The Old Swede”, which was built in 1380. We had an excellent meal and it came to only 25€ altogether. On the Sunday morning we went sightseeing. We went into the St Nicholas church as the morning service was ending. We were made most welcome by the parishioners and the pastor. As this is a Lutheran area I had expected it to be Church of England but in German but it was so different. The brick Gothic building was resplendent with mediaeval decoration and the pastor explained to us how they did things.
Then there was a replica of a 13th century cog. This was the kind of ship that traded from Wismar, a very wealthy trading centre and a Hanseatic city. And so we found out about the Hanseatic League which had controlled trade over northern Europe during the Middle Ages. It was from here they exported beer to Ireland, as you could well understand when tasting the local dark beer.
On Monday 19th May we sailed back to Travemünde and continued up the river Trave to Lubeck. Having followed a roro ferry up the river we turned a corner round woodland to see Lubeck before us in the golden evening sunlight. Here was the Queen of the Hansa in rich red brick with green copper spires. It was an amazing sight and one which has greeted arriving seamen for over half a millennium. And we were there after six hundred miles from Benfleet. Well almost there. Since out chart had been published the previous year a bridge had been built across the river just before Lubeck and it took a phone call to the marina to find the time the bridge opened.
In the next few days Paul and I had hot sunny weather as we visited the architectural gems of this city. It is a modern, active university city with its mediaeval remains juxtaposed with buildings from each period since. As we always look to the Mediterranean for our past we forget that Lübeck, as the leader of the Hanseatic League, was one of the richest cities in Europe. The sense of wonder at my first view of Lübeck was still fresh as each crew joined Spindrift, but there were other cities to visit in the months to come.
