Rugenort

Approx 60 miles
15 miles under sail

Last night after much consideration we opted for the light upwind motoring kinda day as entering the River Elbe with all it's complications & making it to Brunsbuttel & through the lock into the Kiel Kanal we felt could be challenging in the strong 25 Knots SW (force 5-6) forecast for Friday.

We set off early, sun shining it would be a long day. The main sail went up, nearly out of the shallows..... then

Thud - in all the main sail faff we'd taken our eyes off the depth. Ron soon released Whisper and we were onward again.. Heading out to the Nord zee...
The conditions were calm, we enjoy a brief interlude of sailing for about 15 miles out of the 60ish miles.
Another thud as we touched a sand bank about 10 miles before the river Elbe's entrance. Twice in one day having done so many days in the shallows and not a scrape - poor Whisper! But we soon released again and were on our way.
The heat was on and the flies had found us - our latest purchase was proving a winner with Ron. The cockpit was going to need a thorough clean up with dead bodies and the messy evidence of swatter strikes.
The forecasted rain was showing signs all around. Time to get the sail down. At this point we were both in shorts, tees & tilleys. We 'd had good strong tide with us of roughly 3-4 knots. We were nearly there getting the sail wrapped - then the thunder clapped, the lightening struck and suddenly the storm had caught up with us. Monsoon rain pelting down . No wonder it caught us, the windspeed 45 knots.

The speed we were doing meant it lasted longer as we struggled to slow down. Ron had the engine idling and we were still moving over 5 knots.
Don't know how we managed to get coats & lifejackets on. Neither of us could see. Ron holding Whisper in 45 knots of wind with zero vis. All lights on. I was navigating & I had to yell directions to him through held up hatch boards.
Ron surfed the waves that were bubbling with rain like a jacuzzi only smoothed out by the force of the wind.
Lightening striking all around offering the only glimmer of light - and so it went on for at least 30 minutes.
Simply Terrifying!
After a while Ron could just make out the boat ahead that we'd been following.
Finally it started to ease. The lightening was still striking long after the rain had passed.

I think we were a bit shaken as the lock loomed ahead. Luckily we were able to follow the Germans through which helped. The low level wood pontoon was completely different to any others. We shared it with our friends 'Gramasel' and just a small distraction - a regular ship for the Kiel Kanal!

Following the lock we settled for the marina . It had been a long day and I was pretty sure no amount of ships passing right by us was going to bother me.

Just after supper Ron couldn't resist dragging me with boyish glee to check out the sliding gate and big ships. No need for a sweet shop!Read more