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Friday 8 July 2016
We had a potentially long day ahead so a prompt departure just after 0900 was called for and we motored out of the beautiful Schlei in a light westerly breeze and brilliant dazzling sunshine. The area is best likened to a large Poole harbour without islands, the fields come to the water's edge often with clumps of trees, a village sits on a promentary to the north and offers two safe havens with wide open stretches of shallow water - but there is no tide. A slight outbound flow keeps it clean. There are no bouy moorings, just small marinas with box moorings but no lines of bouys cluttering the open expanses of sheltered shallow water.
Surrounding land is low and undulating softly, the odd house is a welcome contrast; there is a little bird life but surprisingly only a little. The entrance is narrow and guarded by a splendid lighthouse, just inside is a small harbour for perhaps a dozen boats with a clutch of Folkboats available to charter.
Our route today would close the circle of our Baltic adventure, we entered the Baltic on 27th May and spent six and a half weeks there covering 769 nautical miles.
Once clear of the SWM with our sails unfurled we managed 5kn and sailed most of the way across the Eckenfjord towards the Kieler Fjord and the entrance to the North Sea Canal. Having hovered around outside for an hour or so we were told to enter the large lock on the South side so we and a Folkboat entered the lock, easily able to accomodate the QE2, and dropped a distance of perhaps nine inches. As the small locks were under repair our passage would be free we were told and please exit as soon as the gate started to slide open.
Our motor along the canal for twenty odd miles was uneventful apart from overtaking two ships waiting at red lights (which do not apply to us) and the increasingly heavy rain which by the time we were mooring up in Rendsburg was of tropical proportions.
Now in Rendsburg we will move on to Brunsbuttle for a night and then take the lock out into the Elbe for the 15nm journey to Cuxhaven where we will wait for fair winds to take on the German Bight, the forecasts suggest that could be a long wait.
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