Still in the Kiel Canal
Ishicilelwe: 16.06.2019
Imibiko yokuvakasha eyengeziwe
In the Kiel Canal
15th June 2019 - In the Kiel Canal
Kiel one week before the Kiel Week is similar to the Marienplatz one week before the Christkindlmarkt. One doesn't know what is better. However, we didn't really have much time to think about it, not only because we were only in the Kiel Yachting Harbor for less than 24 hours, but also because we were busy: with shopping and grilling, of course, but - at least as far as the author of these lines is concerned - also with mundane breadwinning, which was quite a risky undertaking given the torrential rains, because you should know that the Taishan is not completely watertight! It surprises us daily with new semipermeables.
Yesterday it was the skylight in the salon's turn - right at the spot where, with deadlines looming, I set up my laptop, it dripped - with annoying, waterboarding-like and, above all, laptop-damaging persistence.
What do lonely poets do in such a case? Quite simply - they do the classic Spitzweg. Only the umbrella, which I opened in the salon for my protection and secured to the salon ceiling with gaffa tape, was not black but green.
The attentive reader, of course, has not missed the fact that the Taishan is not completely watertight. We've had that before. The hatch in the forepeak also did not live up to what the silicone seals promised and greatly disturbed the sleep of the ladies. Not so this morning: as soon as the first drops fell, actually, just like the weather app predicted at seven o'clock in the morning, the early riser of the female crew was already on the move: hatch open, umbrella out. What sounds clever doesn't pass the practical test - the ice-cold rain shower on bright red, sunburn-damaged shoulders is not really pleasant.
Thanks to our crewmate Almuth and her - well, let's call it weather app "affinity" - we started the morning in appropriate clothing. Expensive enough it was.
But the skipper's oilskin has seen better days and had to be reimpregnated - in the salon, of course.
After our dramatic start with a lifeboat cruiser operation and total engine failure, the past two days were relatively uneventful. So it was time to spice up our "journey along the European coasts" once again with a highlight. Our skipper had organized 6 (if you asked me, it was 7) Beaufort for this purpose and provided us with spectacular maneuvers to dock and undock in and outside the locks of the Kiel Canal, made more difficult by swell, heavy rain, indecision, and discussions about the interpretation of the entrance rules.
Just when boredom could have set in due to the straight and lined up 98 kilometers of waterway ahead of us, Almut had arranged a meeting with the much-praised sailing guru Jako and his crewmate Chris somewhere at kilometer whatever, where they went alongside and briefly exchanged information about the weather, past and upcoming canal miles, wished each other mast, breakage, and the obligatory handbreadth of rum in the cup, and went their own nautical miles.
Our destination for today was the gas station in the Upper Eider Harbor in Rendsburg, where we fueled up with 70 liters - hopefully free of rapeseed oil - diesel and found a nice little berth. Tomorrow, we will cover the remaining 68 canal kilometers and go through the second and final lock of the Kiel Canal in Brunsbüttel.
Now let's get started!
Cuxhaven - Norderney - Harlingen
