We exited the old lock at Brunsbuttel at 17:20 catching the ebb tide. It was a bit of a roller coaster with the wash from very large container ships plus we had a 4kn tide and wind over tide. At times we were reaching 10.6kn. We arrived at Cuxhaven Marina which was chocker as there has been bad weather in the German Bight and everyone is just sitting it out. Coming in through the entrance with a 4.5kn cross tide was interesting and involved ferry gliding at 8kn boat speed, then racing driver reverse thrust when we were through! We took the hammer head which was for vessels with emergency problems, as it was the only berth available, until the morning. Have just moved to a more comfortable berth, very close to where we were back in June on our our way to the Baltic - it all seems a long time ago now. We will wait here for good weather to cross the Freisian Islands and start making our way back down the North Sea.
Lesson number 4 (although I'm sure there must have been more) - Dont hang your fenders over the Eberspacher outlet, because you end up filling your saloon with acrid smelling smoke and burning a hole in your fender!
