North to the Muritz See

Early on Monday, we cast off our lines and left the Tegeler See and headed North along the Havel River. A sinuous river, at times narrow, and at other times emerging into a wide lake with the exit hard to spot amidst all the reeds. Steady but not heavy small boat traffic and the occasional lock. Our first destination was Templin which took two days cruising to get to. Templin is an old walled town, though with the GDR (East Germany) influence and WWII bombing alot of the old buildings have been replaced by more modern featureless ones. Still it retains its charm. We stopped at a Hotel/Restaurant just outside the town walls and that evening we dined at the restaurant.

Average would be the best description of the food which was centred around roast pheasant.


Templin is 25km off the main Havel waterway so we had to back track to the Havel again and continue our slow Northwards journey. We anchored wild the next two nights before turning off again and heading for Neustrelitz and old Prussian town 30km off the main river again. By now the lovely weather had changed to showers and invariably just as we arrived at a lock a shower would arrive. We eventually arrived in pouring rain at the Stadhaven at Neustrelitz (by the way Neustrelitz or actually Strelitz is where the flower Strelitzia comes from). When the showers cleared we headed into town to buy some bread. It is a beautiful town, laid out in a grand tradition with a magnificent main square.



The rain has eased by Sunday morning so we left and headed back to the main river and onwards towrds the Muritz See (the second largest lake in Germany, which we will cross this week). On the way we say a sign for Smoked Trout by a lock so whilst waiting for the lock to be prepared for us we purchased a smoked rainbow trout for dinner tonight. We finished early anchored in an idyllic spot near Canow. This week is forecast for a heat wave so we hope our fan will keep us cool at night, but the weather is very variable and the forecast often changes twice a day, usually for the better.



We have left the Havel now and entered a wonderland of lakes. Huge lakes followed by small ones all linked by short canals. Lots of people out enjoying themselves on the water. There are many canoeists who are touring the area and staying overnight in campsites. There are speed boats, sailing boats, rowing boats and cruisng boats like us. Each lake seems to have a quaint village on one corner and always there are peaceful spots where we can anchor and appreciate the splendid area that Mecklenberg is.

Schlossed Out

On Monday we sailed through the Plauersee ('see' means lake in German) and onto the Havel River which we were to follow for many weeks to come. Along the Havel to Brandenburg where we turned into a small series of lakes called Beetzsee and found an idylllic anchorage about 9km up the lake. We were the only people there. Nature at our doorstep.

The next day we continued up the Havel and through a lovely loop of lakes covered with people sunning themselves and enjoying the water. At one lock the lock keeper commented that we were the first NZ boat he had seen in 15 years! We stopped at Potsdam. It was a nice mooring but the highlight was the visit next day to Sans Souci Palace where Frederick the Great built a Summer Palace. Whilst only one floor it was a masterpiece of Roccoco art and the gardens were incredible. There are actually 4 palaces in the huge park but we only went inside Sans Souci. We spent the day bicycling around the huge park, ate lunch by a fountain and took in the vistas.
Whilst looking for some steering oil we entered a boat shop and asked the owner if he could speak English - which he couldn't. He called over his assistant who turned out to be a Maori lad who had been 'encouraged' to stay by his girlfriend.

The next day we left Potsdam sailing under the Glenicker Bridge which was used for spy exchange in the Cold ar time (Potsdam was actually in East Germany) an entered the huge Wannsee. This is a lake about twice size of Lake Tarawera and right on the Berlin's backdoor. It was filled with yachts and boats. We had to continually alter course to avoid hitting the yachts. Eventually we made it to the confluence of the River Spree and the Havel where we turned up the Spree towards the heart of Berlin.

There are only a few (very small) places you can stay in Berlin Central and we wanted to stay outside Charlottenburg Schloss so we could visit it the next day. Luckily there was just one spot available. The afternoon and evening saw a constant procession of trip boats coming and going and near the end of the afternoon we heard to our amazement the passengers being told to 'look at the New Zealand boat!' Needless to say we were video'd, photographed, waved at, to the merriment of our fellow boaters.

Charlottenburg Palace was again a magnificent building - not so much the outside or the grounds but the beautiful interior. We spent 6 hours visiting the various parts of the huge palace until we were schlossed out. After the visit we cast off and headed further into Central Berlin to the next free mooring place which we hoped would have a place, which indeed it did. We had a resident tramp who offered to look after the boat whilst we took our bikes and cycled into the Tiergarter, the huge 167 hectare park in the centre of Berlin. Our trip through the park was barred by the police as the Bundespresident was having his annual summer party in the park. So we had to make a detour around and eventually came out at the Brandenburg gate, through which the old Berlin wall had gone. We continued along the Unter der Linden - the famous boulevard of Berlin and around to the Reichstag which is a very impressive building, though not that old and restored several times. We tried another currywurst to check whether the first attempt had been an anomaly (it wasn't) and then biked home through the Tiergarten, where our mate the tramp handed back the boat untouched.

And so on Saturday we turned around and headed down the Spree and up to the Tegeler See and by chance found a lovely yacht club at the far end. They were very welcoming, with many people coming over to say hello. One couple we had drinks with in the bar had recently sailed all the way around the world to Australia and NZ. We had a simple but cheap meal there in the evening and returned to the boat with our million dollar views of the lake for a glass of wine whikst we watched the sun set on what was the longest day of the year.
We have stayed at the yacht club today, Sunday and spent most of the day doing washing, maintenance, greasing etc. It is very very hot (32c) This afternoon we went for a long walk and visited the grounds and grave of von Humboldt (of the Humboldt Current fame and explorer of South America). The yacht club used to be part of his estate.

This week we start our climb up to Mecklenberg. Stay tuned ....

Wurst, worse and Better

We were on the Mittelland Canal and stopped in a nice marina on Sunday night, so we decided to try a meal at the marina restaurant/cafe. We had heard of Curryworst as being the sausage spciality of the East of Germany and had heard that there was a new museum in Berlin dedicated to this gastronomic morsel. And by luck the cafe was serving these. We had some steins of delightful beers and orderd one curryworst and one jaegersnitzel. The snitzel turned out to be the most tender pork snitzel we have ever had using the best of meats and not the toughest and pounded to death as in NZ. And the curryworst? What a disappointment. It was just a frankfurter with tomato sauce and a dusting of curry powder. Some culinary masterpiece indeed!

We continued down the MLK and stopped at a marina with wifi before arriving on Tuesday lunchtime at Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg is the home of VW in Germany and I guess the world, and had a huge factory here making Golfs.They also have a great Autostadt (or Car City) with all sorts of exhibits, restaurants, museums etc. So after we had tied up we biked down there and went to get a couple of tickets. They were 11 euros each but luckily the girl serving us said if we wait 20 mins we can get the special -Two hours in the Autostadt for 7 euros AND the 7 euros can be used as a credit in the restaurants. That was an 18 euro each saving as we had intended eating there any way. SO in we went...

We visited the Audi, VW, Lamborghini buildings and saw all of the latest models and tried them out for size. We sat down (As the weather was still very hot) and had a lovely icecream sundae between us, and we went into the museum with cars from the earliest Benzs and Model Ts to the early model VW beetles like Adolp Hitler was given. A fascinating few hours. We finished off in the restaurants with a cold beer and a shared plate of "all you get on a plate" salad and gratins. It's amazing how much a plate can hold :)

The next day we continued on our way down the MLK but alas as we backed out of the berth into the canal I noticed that the steering was not working. Luckily it was calm and and it had failed with the rudder straight. So using the bow thruster to steer I manouevred back into our berth and looked to see what the problem was. There seemed nothing wrong so I fiddled about with this and that and amazingly it started working. So off we went, a bit cautiously to Heidelslanger where we spent the night. That night I looked at the steering again and all seemed fine but when we left the marina on Thursday morning, the same problem occurred and nothing I could do would make it work . We tied up and asked our neighbour who was an ex Sabena pilot for help. He confirmed that the steering oil was way too low but we didn't have any spare nor did he. He said an old trick was to use salad oil so in went half a litre of salad oil and heh presto all was working well again.

That was fine to get us to the Elbe where we hoped we could get someone to drain and refill the steering as somehow salad oil as a substitute for quality hydraulic oil didn't seem a long term prospect. And so around lunchtime on Thursday we droped down 18m in a lock into the Elbe and battled upstream against 8km currents to get to the yacht harbour in Magdeburg. There was mail for collection there (thanks Nick!) and we found a mechanic who sorted out the steering, and then went sightseeing in the old city. We spent two days there in drizzly rain and I realised then what had happened with the steering was the oil level though low was managing because of the very hot temperatures we had had recently. On the day it first failed the temps had dropped 10c (and remained that way until now) and the oil level had contracted and it just wasn't enough to do the job.

We had to make a a key decision now. Go up the Elbe to Prague, down the Elbe to Domitz or straight across to Berlin. It all depended on the Elbe water levels. Unfortunately with all the hot weather we had been having they were too low to go either up or down, so reluctantly we decided to head for Berlin and a day's sailing later we were in Brandenburg at the start of the beautiful Berlin and Mecklenburg lake area. Over a 100 lakes interwined together over 500 km with beautiful scenery and great sightseeing. We stayed for Saturday and Sunday on the Plauersee and on Monday we head to Berlin...

We reach Hannover

When I last wrote we had a problem with the shower pump and were confident we could get a part quickly and be on our way. But alas it was not to be.

First thing on Monday I phoned the Netherlands distributor who confirmed it was all in stock but he wouldn't sell me one as they only sold to account customers and even if they broke that rule they wouldn't send it to a boat, only a proper address. Nothing I said could make them change their mind. SO in the end I asked for their dealers in the area. The closest, a 20 minute bicycle ride away wasn't interested and the closest other ones were 70km in Groningen. Well to cut a lot story short, one of the dealers ordered it for us to arrive the next day (Tuesday) and we decided to bus into Groningen and collect it. Just at that moment, the guy from the trip barge next door came over and asked me to put electricity coins in the meter as he was going to be away for a few days and he didn't want his drinks for his guests to get warm. I asked him the best way to get to Groningen by bus and he told me "Hadn't I heard there was a total indefinite bus strike in the area that had started just yesterday".

Oh dear. Well we didn't know what to do. So close yet so far. The trusty internet swung into action and I booked a hire car in Emmen about 25km away and very luckily the barge man offered to give me a lift there. SO the next day I went off to get the carin the drizzly rain and returned 90 minutes later with a Fiat Panda.I was expecting the chandler to ring when the part came in but by 2pm no-one had rung, so I rang them to discover our contact there had the day off. But the part had arrived, so we jumped in the car and drove up to Groningen and fiound our way in the rain around the city and got the part. When we returned I re-assembled the pump and had everything working nicely again.

Next morning I returned the car to Emmen and in the pouring rain biked back the 24km to Ter Apel where the boat was. The weather eased slightly in the afternoon so we cast off and one hour later we were in Germany.

We spent the night on the River Ems in a placed called Haren. The next morning was fine and we biked around the town and then after lunch set sail up the river. There were many barges and we could only pass through a lock in the company of a barge. So we chummed up with 'Michael' and went through a number of locks in company before stopping for the night. The weather by now was getting very hot (30c) and was very sunny. Next day we continued along the Dortmund Ems Canal to the junction of the Mittelland Canal where we stopped for the night. The Mittelland Canal runs wide and straight for 325rkm across Germany with only 2 locks. It is very very busy with commercial traffic. But they don't actually create that much wash. It's the small sports boats that create most of the nuisance.

SO here we are now 30km west of Hannover sitting outside on a lovely fine evening drinking a cold beer and watching the boats go by. There is a small cafe in the marina where we will have tea and then in a few days time we shall reach the Elbe and we will have to decide which way to go - South or North of straight across. That decision of course will be all in our next blog.

Germany at last but not for long

What a rollercoaster week of emotions. Bad news, better news, good news and then bad news.
Back in Ossenzijl the engineers couldn't find a problem with the cooling leak so suggested we go for a long cruise for 3 hours or so and we could test things then. This we did and the coolant level duly had dropped when we got back. Their solution was to give us 20 litres of coolant and send us on our way. I agreed at first and then hesitated. Gert Bos made a few phone calls to people more experienced with DAF engines and was told that if you could touch the fluid in the coolant tank the level was too high and all that would happen would be that under load it would be expelled out of the overflow pipe. I was a bit dubious but agreed to go away for a few days and see what happened. So on Tuesday afternoon we set sail for Steenwijk in drizzly rain and two hours later arrived there. I checked the coolant level and it was down a lot. What to do? Start to head North or go back.

We decided to head North along the Drentse Hoofdvaart that runs from Meppel to Assen. A straight canal with a few locks - a rarity for Holland. That night the coolant had gone down to a finger below the top.The next day we pushed on up the Noord Willems Kanaal and stopped just short of Groningen, the major city in the very North of the Netherlands. The coolant level was no further down. Perhaps the experts were right after all! By now the weather was glorious again and we cruised along the Winschoterdiep taking us East towards Germany before turning off South to Veendam and the start of a long series of canals that would eventually take us over the border to Germany. Talk about bridges in this area. We had a a team of 3 men whose jobs were to cycle ahead and open the bridges for us. In one stretch of 6km they had to open 30 bridges for us. Along day motoring at slow speed with many more bridges and a few locks brought us to the border town of Ter Apel where we had to spend Sunday tied up as all the bridges and locks are closed in this part of the Netherlands on Sunday. That was fine with us as we had worked long hours to get here to try and make up some time. Everything seemed fine and we were going to do a few maintenance tasks and go for a bike ride before departing for Germany on Monday.

But alas! I was emptying the raw water strainer when I noticed some water in the engine room. Not a lot but fresh! The only thing that had been in opersation was the shower pump which emptys the shower and bthroom basin of water. I opened the taps in the basin and soon the pump came on and it started to spray water everywhere. Oh dear. SO I set to work and stripped it down and discovered that the diaphragm in it that is used to do the pumping work had cracked and broken. SO we need a new diaphragm before we can leave. At least we have cheap internet now as we can pick up my German mobile provider over the border so I hav managed to get the Dutch distributor's phone number and just hope that I can get them to courier a spare to me overnight.

Sunday afternoon was warm and sunny so we went for a bike ride in the woods around Ter Apel. Very pretty indeed. Lovely houses and beautiful gardens. wild flowers and well formed bicycle paths. After about an hour of wandering I noticed that cars in the drives had German number plates so we knew we had crossed into Germany. See picture of David riding right on the border. Back to the boat for a cup of tea. But alas again, when I rolled the bike along the pontoon to get outside the boat I fell into the canal. What a shock. Luckily two strong men from a couple of neighbouring boats heard the commotion and helped me out - soaking wet, cut and bruised but mainly shaken.

A rollercoaster week but lets hope everything is sorted in the next few days....