With the wind now forecast to go round to the south it was back to Plan A today for a sea passage out to Borkum. From here we would make our way out to Helgoland as originally planned and fill up with duty free diesel before making the passage into the Elbe estuary. This is a quicker route than the cross country alternative and avoids the 39 miles and 6 locks of the Eems-Jade canal. It was an uneventful passage from Groningen down the Eemskanaal which was just as well as it gave us chance to catch up on our course planning and log writing. This is a rather busy schedule we have set ourselves, necessitated by our wish to return to Holland by mid-June to join the BOC cruise-in-company. Three days of light to moderate south or south westerly winds should see us safely into the Kiel canal and maybe even a day or two ahead of schedule.

The harbour at Delfzijl is dominated by the singularly unattractive Akzo Nobel works and even the guide books could think of nothing to recommend it so once clear of the lock we were not unhappy to pass straight through and head for Germany. We had to time our passage up the Eems estuary to be against the tide so it would not be in conflict with the remainder of the northerly swell as we reached more open waters near Borkum. This meant a rather slow passage with 3 knots of tide against us but the sea was indeed flat and again we could use the time to plan our onward passage. The fast ferry passed us on its way to Borkum and again as it returned having picked up a new load of passengers.

It was a fine evening as we pulled into the Fischerbalje approach channel and headed for the "new" yacht harbour which had only been dreamed of when Mark Brackenbury wrote his "Frisian Pilot". There was no problem finding a space in the almost deserted harbour with only a handful of the 200 visitors spaces in use. It was similarly quiet in the restaurant cum harbour office, with only one couple dining and a harbour master who looked quite surprised to see anyone. With its German menu proving even more mystifying than the now slightly familiar Dutch ones, we opted for the comparative predictability of dining aboard.

The harbour lies some 5km from the main town, a popular holiday resort for German visitors on the westerly tip of the island. We had packed away our bikes for the sea trip and although the harbour-town bus did put in an appearance we did not feel inclined to venture off into the unknown with another early start planned for the next day.

Cruising Statistics

Distance: 44 nm

Total to date: 473 nm

Avg Speed: 9 knots

Duration: 4:45 hours

Diesel: 104 litres

Wind: W-NW 3

Mooring: €16/night

Electricity: Included

Water: Included

Bridges

Oosterhaven (lift)

Driebonds (6.8m)

Borg (lift)

Bloemhof (lift)

Wold (lift)

Eelwerder (lift)

Eemskanaalsluis (lift)

Locks

Eemskanaal

Charts

1812.6

BSH 3015.2