RR2: AMSTERDAM TO KIEL CANAL (16-23 April 2012)

After a delayed start from Ipswich, due to the problems with the Autohelm, we have made very good progress in the last ten days, initially helped by a fast sail across the North Sea (as reported in RR1).  We are therefore back on schedule, since we are now in Rendsburg on the Kiel Canal, just short of entering the south-western Baltic.

It would seem that Neptune had appreciated our generous libation on Friday 13th in Ipswich and continued to favour us, since on our arrival in Amsterdam the wind immediately turned south.  As a consequence we had three outstanding passages for the rest of our trip to the Kiel Canal in Germany: two day-runs, poled out, north up the Markermeer to Enkhuizen, and the Ijsselmeer to Makkum, followed by a 36-hour run/beam reach north through and then east outside the Dutch and German Frisian islands to the Elbe.  We stopped overnight at Cuxhaven before pushing on the next day with a flood tide to Brunsbüttel at the southern end of the Kiel Canal, more properly named the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal.

Progress to date

Before leaving Amsterdam, however, we took a day off in the city where we travelled by tram and foot to visit some of the cultural attractions: principally the Van Gogh, Dutch Resistance and Maritime museums. They were all top-quality presentations, locations and content by any standards.  It took all day and we were shattered by the end.

Just some of Holland's 14million bikes (Pop. 16million)

Throughout our tour of the city we were struck by the lack of cars and, conversely, the number of trams, canal boats and bicycles – Boris Johnson, eat your heart out!   

Said to have more listed buildings than any other city in Europe, a surrounding spider’s web of early-17th-century canals embracing a medieval town, a proliferation of multi-national restaurants and an array of “very interesting” nightlife, Amsterdam warranted a longer time to do it justice than we had.

Enkhuizen, our next port of call, on the western shore, spans the Markermeer and Ijsselmeer and is connected to the eastern shore at Lelystad by a 20-mile dam, the Houtribdijk, which is wide enough for a two-lane road. The dam was completed in 1976 and has recently been modified to include a “Naviduct”, a modern lock complex with a road tunnel dipping under the lock. This avoids the need to keep opening and closing the swing bridge for traffic. The Houtribdijk was originally constructed to cut the Markermeer off from the Ijsselmeer in preparation, at some unspecified date, for the draining of the Polder.  

Yet another excellent Dutch cheese shop

Enkhuizen, a very attractive town, used to be a large fishing village and major port for the Dutch East India Company. Many of the town’s older buildings still stand.  Indeed, the indoor section of the hugely impressive Zuiderzee museum is housed in the old headquarters of the Company.

We stayed on the town quay.  In the summer the town and harbour are jam-packed.  Currently, however, they are pleasantly quiet. We moored in splendid isolation together with just two other boats in transit.  Clearly this is the time to travel.

Town quay, Enkhuizen - April

(in the summer boats can be rafted 8-deep)

Even by the time that we reached Makkum (some 70 miles north of Amsterdam), on the northeast corner of the Ijsselmeer, we never felt quite comfortable sailing flat-out with just one metre of water under the keel.

Running poled-out in F6 up the Ijsselmeer

(Note the flat sea!)

Makkum is an old Frisian pottery- and earthenware-producing town, with a museum devoted to the subject in the old weigh-house. The Royal Makkum Pottery and Tile factory has been in operation for 300 years.  We moored on a deserted pier just outside the town lock since the town quay is somewhat silted up. That is not to detract from the town itself which is very attractive. 

 

While in Makkum we were joined in the evening by Frans van Buuren. Unfortunately, his partner Janny was on a night shift at the care home where she nurses and couldn’t join us.  We met them last year in Fair Isle and again in the Shetlands when they were on their way back home from Iceland.  They are currently preparing to leave in July for a one-year trip to the Antarctic in their aluminium yacht Schisco. We’ll follow their progress with interest! Frans’ local knowledge was particularly helpful when discussing our passage plan to Cuxhaven, which looked difficult in the pilot book – as they often do.

Frans advising on our Passage Plan

Next morning we left for the 10-mile passage through the Kornwerderzand lock and then northeast along the coast of the Waddenzee to Harlingen.  Our intention was to catch the northeast-going tide to Harlingen and to ensure that we had enough water under the keel to avoid going aground on this shallow route.  As it turned out, following Frans’ advice, it was not a problem.   

About to leave Makkum at dawn

The Kornwerderzand lock goes through the famous Afsluitdijk, which was completed in 1932 and stretches 32 miles across to Wieringen on the west shore of the Ijsselmeer, thereby cutting off the Ijsselmeer from the sea.  Over the years, controlling sluices have gradually changed the water of the  Ijsselmeer from salt to fresh by progressive outward draining.  The gigantic scale of this project can be appreciated by looking from Makkum across the horizon along the Afsluitdijk, which carries a two-lane motorway and even has a restaurant in the middle.

It is awe-inspiring to realise that every house, garden and field, as far as the eye can see from Makkum, is 4 metres below sea level and has come into existence only since the Polder was drained in 1967.

Motorway on 32-mile dam across North Ijsselmeer

From Harlingen entrance we continued for 36 hours without stopping; initially north on the now-outgoing tide, between the Frisian islands of Vlieland and Terschilling, before catching the east-going tide (at least for the first six hours) along the north coasts of the Dutch and German Frisians, past the mouth of the River Weser and into the River Elbe to Cuxhaven, which we just made before the river’s very strong ebb tide turned against us.  Once in the Elbe estuary we were staggered to see the number of large container ships making their way up the river for the 56-mile passage to Hamburg or to the entrance to the Kiel Canal, 15 miles past Cuxhaven.   

Being overtaken by Port and Starboard in River Elbe!

The town’s Yacht Haven was spacious and relatively empty.  It allegedly has a very active yacht club; certainly, the marina facilities were excellent.   Cruisers use it as a springboard to the Kiel Canal or Hamburg, which can be reached on one tide. It was only a short walk over the sea wall into the old town and beyond to an open pedestrianised shopping centre. The price of a drinkable wine in the Rewe supermarket, in this centre, was less than £2 a bottle, compared with £4+ we would pay in the UK for a similar quality.   We could just about stagger back to the boat with our packs full to the brim!  To be fair, however, whisky is expensive and we are glad that we made an appropriate investment in the UK. 

Next morning we had to wait until 9 a.m. for the flood tide, before sailing for three hours to reach Brunsbüttel at the southern entrance to the Kiel Canal.   There we entered the lock with one other yacht, a very large tug and an even larger barge.  Interestingly, the floating “pontoon” on the side of the lock was comprised of what looked like sleepers and was only an inch or so above the water level.   Our fenders proved of limited use.

Rush hour in the Kiel Canal

The 54-mile Canal was opened by the Kaiser in 1895. Almost as a postscript to its original military objectives, it has developed into one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, linking the North Sea to the Baltic. Over most of its length it is edged by high banks (formed of the spoil from digging the canal), mature woodlands, towpaths and pretty little hamlets.  It is wide and deep and, indeed, it is almost difficult to accept that it could possibly have been man-made.  Yachts keep reasonably close to the bank, in the mutual understanding with commercial traffic that plastic gives way to steel.   An additional hazard to watch out for are the frequent small cross-Canal ferries which dart out from sidings assuming total right of way.  The Canal is also crossed by high 40-metre bridges, some of which, including that at Rendsburg, are original early 20th-century structures of ornate ironwork.

Ornate early 20th-century ironwork bridge over the Kiel Canal at Rendsburg

We are now in Rendsburg, three quarters of the way along the Canal, having concluded en route that we could not reach the exit lock at Holtenau before sunset – as required by “the Regulations”!   We’re in the lovely little town marina, which we reached through a narrow, shallow side canal, using back transits.  The facilities are outstanding – possibly the best showers ever!  The daily total price is half the cost of a UK marina.  The sixteenth-century medieval town, with its old market place, town hall and buildings, is written up in the guide as “not to be missed”.  This afternoon we’ll put this to the test.

Tomorrow we intend to continue along the Canal and out into the waters of the south-western Baltic, before pulling into the British Kiel Yacht Club for a night and then proceeding north up the east coast of Denmark.