Log date: 9 aug. 2020
Route: Brunnsbüttel – Cuxhaven
Time: 09:00 – 11:47 ( 2h 47min )
Distance: 17,7 nm
Average speed: 5,4 knots –> Max speed: 8,3 knots #happyface
Wind: 0 knots
Rain: None
Visibility: Great
Temperature: +30 C
Today was a short and sweet jump from the safe and secure area inside of the lock to the scary place on the outside with tides, waves and current. We were quite happy that it was a sunny day with more or less no wind so we could focus on just one thing. The current that was about between 3 and 4 knots today. That might not sound like a lot but with a boat that averages about 4.5 knots it is.
Our awesome plan was to head out with the tides to get some extra oumpf towards Cuxhaven and we sure did, the trip that should take about 4 hours took less than 3 and all the boring waiting for the Brunnsbüttel lock is included! When in the river Elbe it was fun not to push the engine and still do almost 8 knots, we actually did 8.3 knots at one time. Crazy!
On the “road” we met the biggest fella this far the guy below is 400 meters long and 53 meter wide and even if he isn’t fully loaded he’s huuuuuuge!! I have no idea what’s in the containers but quite a lot of it is for sure “stuff” and other cool and really necessary things for the everyday life.
When we reached Cuxhaven we realized that we made a small error when calculating the current, it was still about 4 knots just outside of the piers to the harbor and not 1.4 as expected, unfortunately we forgot to capture it on video but we almost missed the entrance due to the current. That would have been a sad story to tell.
After a quick VHF call to the lock master in Cuxhaven the bridge was opened we reached the harbor and once again made one of those “we have been doing this our entire life”-docking (pure luck that we didn’t crash into the jetty and broke it in half).
Cuxhaven seems to be a nice place and we plan to stay here for two nights to change the engine oil and get a slim and neat garden hose that is easy to hide away on the already jam-packed boat, we’re probably going to purchase two of them just in case, that we found since many countries outside of the Nordic doesn’t provide hoses in the marinas so refilling 125 liters with a 10 liter bucket is a quite tedious task
Next step will then be to plan the route from Cuxhaven down to England or northern France, the tide with different depths and current gonna make that super fun. I mean what can possibly go wrong?
One thought on “8 knots towards Cuxhaven”
You deserve all the cux <3