Big ships

We just devoured a bowl of goulash soup after a 12 and a half hour journey from the island of Nordeney to Cuxhaven at the mouth of the Elbe.

Along the way we passed many huge ships including the German warship Baden Wurttenberg (see pic) and a tanker which had just gone aground!

It displayed the three black balls which are the humiliating signal for 'aground' which when you do your collision rules theory,  you remember as 'a balls-up'.

We skimmed beneath the channel markers for the big ships all day.  We had the main sail up but yet again the wind was on the nose and we had to motor. It was fairly uneventful if not tedious and though the sun shone it was as cold as charity.

We had a scare this morning when Nic did engine checks and found an exhaust pipe had been weeping seawater around part of the engine. He had to cut off some damaged pipe and re-site it. To do that meant moving the microwave from its snug cupboard. You get the picture.  He effected the repair quickly enough for us to be on our way only 20 minutes later than planned. 

Now we discovered that the water tank is empty.  It's 2245 but it has to be done. Just another thing to keep us on our toes. 

Today may have been our last long passage for some time. Tomorrow we cross the river to the start of the Kiel Canal and our passage to the Baltic.

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