THE KIEL CANAL IN THE 2010s

摘要

Maurice Napier's fascinating illustration of the Kiel Canal in the 1960s (MARINE NEWS 75/4/April and 75/6/June 21) prompted me to follow-up. It really is amazing how much things have changed in five decades. My wife and I have made three transits, the first one northbound on the cruise ship BALMORAL (8506294; 43537/1988) which turned out to be a useful reconnaissance for one each way in our own 35 ft motor boat KARIN. She is a Linssen 35, constructed in Maasbracht, the Netherlands, in 1985. We bought her in 2004 and based her on the Medway until 2014 when we sailed her over to Dunkirk to spend our summers cruising north west Europe.After exploring Belgium and the Netherlands, in 2016 we headed for the Baltic via Germany, including a visit to Meyer Werft in Papenburg with our daughter and family. After a few days in Hamburg - one of our favourite cities - we sailed down the Elbe and entered the lock at Brunsbuttel at midday on 25th August 2016. Having spent the night in the yacht harbour there, we headed north and the canal's claim to be, in normal times, the busiest in the world for both ships and pleasure craft was amply proven. There are a number of narrower stretches and bends where ships cannot pass each other and have to wait for permission to proceed. A traffic-light system gives warning of something coming the other way.