Lowestoft to Cuxhaven

At the end of April 2007, Annabel and I, accompanied by friend Nick Methold, sailed up the East Coast of the UK from Southwold to Lowestoft. This was the start of our journey to Denmark. The weather was fair, but the wind and sea conspired to make it a rough and not particularly pleasant trip. This was just an introduction to what was ahead.

There was brilliant sunshine in Lowestoft as we readied the boat and waited for the full compliment of crew: in addition to myself and NIck, Peter Green, a friend of Nick’s had kindly agreed to join us. I had also obtained the services of Bill Coates of Professional Yacht Deliveries to help us out. Annabel decided that she would join us later in the trip.

We reached Norderney (in the German Frisians) at 17:45 and managed to fill up with water before the heavens opened and it poured with rain.  Another boat came in only some ten minutes after us and they were  soaked.

We left at 06:30 the next morning and for the first time on the trip the  wind was not on the nose - we had a W force 4 but unfortunately the  weather was cold wet and miserable. However, by mid afternoon the sun  was shining and the rest of the day was lovely as we entered the Elbe  Estuary on our way to Cuxhaven. The previous evening we had spoken to  the Harbourmaster at Norderney for advice on the best time to leave so  that we could catch a fair tide to Cuxhaven. He pulled out a thick  volume of tides and times, and told us when we should leave. He was  completely correct: we had the tide with us all the way. Bill told us  that he knew of a small marina in the city, and suggested that we go  there rather than moor in the main marina off the estuary. We had to  wait for a small road bridge to open, and then found a charming marina,  still rather empty, which had a bar attached to it. We also found a  delightful restaurant called the Austernperle on the corner of the  marina. There were perhaps half a dozen tables upstairs overlooking the  marina. The food and service were excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed  ourselves. I would recommend it to anyone visiting Cuxhaven.

We had to be up early enough the next morning to make sure we could get  through the road bridge leading out of the marina. We had enjoyed  ourselves rather too much the evening before, so it was a struggle.  However, we made it in time and headed out in to the Elbe Estuary again, this time towards Brunsbuttel, the start of the Kiel Canal (Nord-Ostsee Canal).

The weather wasn’t exactly kind to us...

Next: Cuxhaven to Kiel