Friday 6 April

Another early start this morning, although we had allowed ourselves a lie in until 5.15. Again we had enough time to eat breakfast before we slipped lines, waiting for daylight, but then we had to hang around waiting outside the lock until after a ship had gone through. This meant that we exited about 8.30, which was rather later than we had hoped. However we are now back in the land (or should I say sea) of tides. The tide in the Elbe was in full flow so we raced along, at times making over 10 knots.

There was almost constant communication on the VHF radio between Cuxhaven traffic control and the various ships travelling up and down the river. We had read that there is very stringent monitoring of all vessel movement and we heard one fishing boat being told off twice for either crossing the fairway too close in front of an outbound ship or being too close the fairway. The interchange was all in English so it was not a local vessel. Once we got to the mouth of the river, the land was flat and featureless.

We continued to make good progress towards Helgoland and arrived about 16.00, first of all filling up with fuel and then mooring. The harbour mistress told us the supermarket and all the other shops we needed closed at 17.00 so we shot off, one going to source the duty free booze, another to the chandlers to buy charts and the remaining two to get the food we needed. We managed to get everything required and then walked to the top of the hill to take in the view of the side of the island, which the British blew up in 1947, getting rid of left over ordinance and trying to not let Germany have the island.

It has been another good day and great to be making progress in bringing the boat back to the UK.

Distance covered today - 54 nautical miles

Total distance covered - 172 nautical miles

Tricia (and Steve)