Today we chugged sixteen miles, but it took four hours to go the very last leg of the Staande Mast canal route and pop out into the salty waters of the north sea at Delfzijl.
The day began slowly at the Oosterhaven marina where Sirena IV has been snugged up for 10 days while we were in Scotland. For the first time we saw another British boat, Solera, and met her friendly owners Val and John. They are heading the same way as us.
The annoying thing about Sunday in Groningen is that you can only get through the many lifting bridges at certain times...in convoy!
So at 11am we steered into the crowd jilling about waiting for the first bridge eastwards. After the novelty wore off everyone kept pace in an orderly queue and it worked pretty well.
Just before Delfzijl we bundled into a lock and bridge arrangement where the walls of the lock were full of nasty grit which got on the fenders and rubbed on to our sides. Once into the Neptunen marina, the fender covers were whipped off and washed in scalding water (motoring generates much hot water! ) Such trivial things make up days on board.
We have just spent an hour and a half talking to Val and John about their previous experience in the Baltic. They reinforced all we have heard about how beautiful and friendly it is.
Best of all, we are back in seawater, moored near chunky tugs and barges, and we can almost feel the boat sigh with relief as the waters of the north sea (or the river Ems anyway) lap around her.
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