A much nicer day for inland cruising today as the morning dawned fine and sunny. We enjoyed a breakfast of free range boiled eggs provided by the lock keeper at Wiesens and were ready for our scheduled bridge opening at 8am. In the event, a piling contractor, waiting to start work when we left, opened it for us instead and we had a smooth passage through another catalogue of lifting and swing bridges and locks. There were more low bridges on this section but it was an easier prospect to manage them without the torrential rain of yesterday. We took the right fork at the Emden junction which led to the Kesselschleuse, a fascinating construction which links, or separates two perpendicular waterways. At the Falderndelft basin we made a lunch stop and had a quick look at the town. We were approached at the moorings by a one-man tourist office who bombarded us with useful information (in English) about the town and the harbour including vital details of the opening times of the railway bridge and the Nesserlander sea lock.

We arranged to continue our passage at 2pm and luckily a barge also passed at this time with a special locking arranged which we were able to join. Normally there is only one lock per hour for yachts due to the busy road bridge which crosses it, but fortunately with 5.8 metre clearance at mid-tide we could go under with only our aerials folded down. We thought this must be the last chance for anyone to collect any money from us for our canal transit but there seemed to be no formalities so we had to assume there was no longer any charge for visitors on the Ems-Jade canal.

From here it was plain sailing along the buoyed channel up the Ems estuary and into the well marked Delfzijl harbour. We made our way into the tidal Neptunus Marina where all the guide books told us we should be able to get diesel from a pump. Unfortunately, 'Olie tanken' did not start until 5pm when the harbour master arrived so we decided to moor up and enjoy a fine evening in port. Diesel pumping proved a popular activity that evening with a stream of yacht owners arriving on the pontoon with cans to fill up at the typical Dutch rate of €1,04/litre. Fortunately the motor boat moorings were right next to the pump so we could have our fill without needing to move from our mooring.

Cruising Statistics

Distance: 24 nm

Total to date: 1233 nm

Avg Speed: 5 knots

Duration: 6:15 hours

Diesel: 30 litres

Mooring: €12

Electricity: €1 (4A)

Water: Included

Locks

Rahe

Kessel

Nesserlander

Bridges

Aurich (swing)
Aurich hafen footbridge (lift)
Aurich road (lift)
Haxtum (lift)
Rahe lock bridge (swing)
Fahne (lift)
Bangstede (lift)
Mittelhaus (swing)
Marienwehr (swing)
Uphusen fixed (4.6m)
Uphusen (lift)
A31 road (4.4m)
Wolthusen (lift)
Kesselschleuse bridge (swing)
Emden footbridge (swing)
Ebertstrasse road (swing)
Faldern (lift)
Eisenbahn rail and road (lift)
Nesserlander lock (5.8m)

Charts

1812.6

1812.7