Laboe

After a more restful night's sleep, we set off along the canal for the final 25 miles with occasional flurries of big ship watch. It really is quite an experience coming up so close to these giants who at 6 Knots glide calmly over the water barely making a sound. The gentle winds and lovely sunny day helped make it more relaxing - The tow path that runs the length of the canal had the odd cyclist and fishermen on the banks but not as much as you'd expect on such a beautiful day.
On the whole traffic was light and we had luck on our side as we arrived at the lock at about 3pm to then immediately be able to lock in🙂 with just a handful of pleasure boats, phew! The neighbouring lock had the towering container vessel that we had been following.
I could see at least 2 boats who unfortunately missed the sliding gate as it closed off the lock.
As the gates opened we emerged into the Kieler Forde where boats of all shapes, size and age filled the water. We soon discovered whilst trying to find a berth for the night that it's the closing weekend of Kieler Woche the annual sailing regatta (first held in 1882). The marinas were packed. We siezed an empty space in Laboe marina. Not the best space but a space and with options running dry it was good enough.
We decided to put the cockpit tent up with tomorrows forecast set to rain hard all day and went off to enjoy the rest of today's sunshine. We met a lovely local couple who we shared travel stories with over dinner .
With the sun setting it was hard to imagine the rain would be here by the morning.Read more