Thursday 5 April

If we were going to have a chance of getting through the Kiel canal in a day, we knew that we had to start early. Non commercial vessels are not permitted to move in the canal outside of the hours of daylight. Helpfully, the canal website defines what are the daylight hours for each 2 week period of the year. As a result, we set the alarm for 5:00 a.m. and leaped enthusiastically(?) out of our cosy berths. It was disappointingly dark outside, and I was a little reluctant to move out of a cramped and unfamiliar marina in the dark. So we filled our time for a few minutes having breakfast.

As soon as it was light enough we slipped out of the marina and made our way the 3.5 miles to the lock at the end of the canal. We were followed by some impressively large ships, but when we arrived, we all had to hang around and wait to be allowed into the locks. There are normally 4 locks in operation at each end of the canal, 2 large and 2 smaller. However, at the moment, the 2 smaller locks at the Kiel end are being rebuilt, so all traffic has to use the large ones. We must have waited for about an hour before a lock was available. We had just decided to make coffee, when the lights changed to allow entry to the lock. Two of the ships went in first, and then a small police boat and ourselves squeezed in at the back to the side of one of the ships. There are pontoons in the lock, for you to berth against, but they are very low, and very slippery. We had been warned of this, and made sure all of the crew knew not to jump down onto them.  In the end we were not in the lock for very long, it did not have to move up too much, but we were aware of the level rising. When the gates opened, the first ship exited and the the two small boats, before the second ship.

Our next challenge was to find where we had to pay.  There is supposed to be a kiosk just inside the canal, so we nosed about, looking for a suitable place to berth. Eventually we were told by a police boat that the machine to pay was out of action, so we did not need to bother. We headed off into the canal, feeling that we had lost a fair amount of time, and wondering whether we would make the whole passage. This was soon further impacted by various traffic lights that stopped our progress. A pilot from one of the ships radioed us to tell us that the traffic lights were not for small vessels like us, just for the big ships. There is a traffic management system to prevent large ships from having to pass each other in the narrow stretches of the canal. Small fry like us still have plenty of space to pass. We redid our calculations, and concluded that at the speed were progressing we would still make it comfortably with the daylight hours.

We kept pace with a couple of ships for quite a while, but eventually they were held at another set of lights and we were able to carry on.

It rained on and off all day, and was cold and a bit miserable. The wind was gusting along the canal, and at times would slow our progress, but not too badly. There is an overall speed limit of 15 kph, and we would struggle to get into trouble with the authorities regarding our speed.

We had to get a shot of this ship passing

We saw a few other yachts, but the vast majority of the traffic was commercial shipping. It is quite daunting to find yourself so close to large ships, and with so little space to play with.

There are km markers every half kilometre, and we checked them off with increasing satisfaction, until we arrived in Brunsbüttel. We had decided to stay there inside the canal overnight, and found a safe spot to moor alongside a rather rustic looking jetty. The wind was considerable as we tried to get alongside, blowing us away from the jetty so we had to use a heavy weather mooring technique to get alongside. We were helped by a chap on the shore from another boat, but as happens so often, he thought he would be able to hold the weight of the boat, just hanging on to our line. We convinced him to take a couple of turns round a pile, and all was then a bit more secure. We went through the process of adjusting all the lines and fenders to our satisfaction, before retiring below for a hot meal and a celebratory drink.

Kiel Canal - done.

Distance covered today - 57 nautical miles

Total distance covered - 118 nautical miles

Steve (and Tricia)