Den Helder to the Kiel Canal

25th to 27th June 2009

This was the hardest passage so far. We left Den Helder 8am Thursday morning and arrived at the entrance to the canal at 7am Saturday morning - essentially 2 days later.

We had to motor all the way, the wind being against us. The first day and night were quite pleasant, despite the constant (but reasurring) sound of the motor. The sea was relatively calm; the sunset was classic as the sun "globbed" into the sea. Many photographs of that with Ben having one of the best. The sea became heavier as we approached first the Eider then the Elbe. We passed a hugh container ship waiting to go into port. Visibility became poor during the afternoon. The mainsail came down early evening.
During the 2am watch, early on Saturday morning, as we entered the Elbe estuary, the sea became quite rough. We followed the bouys towards Brunsbuttel, avoiding the large ships that were heading either for the canel or up into Hamburg. For those of us on deck, it was quite a priviledge seeing how sea traffic operates. We watched as a modern pilot boat come out and put a pilot on board a large ship over on our port side. As well as following the line of buoys, we were watching behind us as the big ships took their course, going much faster than we were. Diggory steered us skillfully close to the buoys and the big ships passed safely on our port side. The Elbe estuary seemed to go on forever until finally the canal entrance came into sight.
We entered the lock for yachts, quite large and could take around a dozen boats of our size if full. We shared it with only one other. The gates closed behind us, the lock slowly filled, then the gates opened in front of us and we passed into the canal proper - 48 hours since leaving Den Helder. The water was now smooth -- we had made it!