Gin and Tonic at 6pm
After a relaxing evening at Giesealu, we left at 0815 to complete the last part of our journey towards Brunsbûttel and the lock to take us into the River Elbe Estuary and the next part of our journey in the North Sea.
A passage along the Kiel canal will often entail waiting at traffic lights, there are narrow sections and these are controlled by lights and there is often a build up of ships waiting to get through these narrow sections
Waiting behind a massive crane at the traffic lights
The weather continues to give us blue skies and high temperatures and the remaining journey to Brunsbüttel proved easy and and enjoyable with many interesting sights.
A Kiel barge being filled with Oil Seed Rape (one for the farmers)
We arrived at Brunsbüttel at 1245hrs a bit too early for a favourable tide up to Cuxhaven, a 15 mile journey at the entrance to the Elbe so a berth next to a restaurant was the order of the day.
Lunch stop at Brunsbüttel waiting for the lock
Having read all the passage planning books we elected to take 2 hours of foul tide up the Elbe, so that we arrived at the entrance to Cuxhaven Marina without the feared 5 knots of cross current. However looking at the many yachts coming in whilst the tide was running at it's peak I'm sure we would wait for a fair tide next time.