Maasholmen, Wormshofter Noor, Germany 54:41.29N 009:59.21E
Pelagia
Frans & Sarah Toonen
Sat 18 May 2019 17:00
Saturday 18 May 2019, Maasholmen, Wormshofter Noor, Germany 54:41.29N 009:59.21E Distance: 44nm Sailing: Close hauled and then bearing away on broad reach with cruising chute towards Schlei Passage: 11 Hours Engine Hours: 5.6 Weather: North Easterly force 2/3. Sunny, Dense Fog, Sunny Track: http://gpx.io/a/j125 With an easterly force 4/5 expected we made an early start from Rendsburg to get out of the canal and north to the Danish island of Langeland - this being the only place we could sail to on the forecast wind. Despite reaching the Kiel-Holtenau locks at around 11am we had to wait about 2 hours before ‘sport’ boats could lock through. This was because only one of the four locks was operational. 3 commercial boats went into the lock , all on port, and then the 22 sport boats now waiting made a charge for the lock. The lock keeper gave no directions for mooring so it was haphazard and a smaller yacht next to us was spun around by the current in the lock and we moored it to Pelagia facing the wrong way around. The lock is so big he could turn 360 degrees even though the large barge was on the port side. The sunny Saturday afternoon in the Kieler Bucht brought the leisure boats out in force with all the sailing boats tacking across the shipping as it headed into and out of the canal. Visibility ahead looked poor and we quickly met a dense fog bank with visibility down as low as 50-100m. By this point we were tucked in shallow water near the shore so well away from large vessels but there were plenty of yachts still tacking into the head wind and many do not have AIS to show up on our system. Our new automatic fog horn was on and rather than timing and sounding the manual horn as in previous seasons we could focus on looking and listening out at a wall of white. This scary stuff was over in 3 hours and we saw the sun again. The wind remained NE and so we could not make Langeland without tacking and it was getting late. We gave up and headed for the mouth of the Schlei river on the east coat of Schleswig Holstein. We knew it was pretty as we hid from a westerly here last season. It was also very busy so we anchored in weeds in 2.3m and Frans checked what the water level drop might be. A max of 10cm so we settled in. (Baltic doesn’t have tides but water levels do change depending on wind directions and can be up to a meter). Foggy again with East wind on Sunday and Monday so we expect to depart on Tuesday. The spot is lovely with a westerly view to sunset. The galley slave had T bone steaks to deal with having found them for 5 euro each in the discount section of Edeka which is Germany’s Waitrose. The photo makes our meal look massive but the huge heap is mashed carrots and cauliflower as they will keep warm under towels for 20 mins whilst the rings are used for other things like the slave’s new invention of fried potatoes from a tin. if you dry them they will fry eventually and with some garlic, onion and rosemary the 30p spent at Asda is well worth it. 3 Commercial vessels and 22 pleasure craft in the lock at Kiel.  The world’s biggest tall ship, the Russian Sedov. 114 Cadets from the maritime institute in Murmansk on board, some on the spar sorting out a sail.  Sunset dinner, at anchor on the Schlei. 2 T bones picked up in Rendsburg for €5 bargain each, only 3 days out of date… we’ll be fine, if not blame it on the waves.  |