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Practicalities
22 April 2024. First, alongside at the diesel berth: refuel, sort out payment for the ‘rescue’, and find a berth for the night.
Almost empty, any berth available. Two arrangements: alongside finger pontoons or bow-to with the stern on a buoy. After my epic circling round buoys a couple of years ago, an obvious choice.
A Search and Rescue boat lay alongside. I went aboard, found the crew and asked the price of their help. €200 an hour; good news, they’d spent less than half an hour on me. Papers would go to the Bremen office, with an invoice by post.
Then the harbourmaster, a young man with no English. My broken German, gestures and familiar English words sufficed. He switched on the fuel pump and waited while I filled tank and cans. Diesel €2.20 a litre, no biofuel. I still added 25ml of Liqui Moly Marine Diesel Protection as a precaution.
Berthing: €15.50 for under nine metres, plus €4 per person. Another €20 deposit for the facilities card. Surprisingly, free unlimited showers. Rare in Germany.
Fish
On the way back, a fishing boat berthed and unloaded baskets of fresh fish and ice. Had I waited aground for them, might the tow have been cheaper? I thought of buying fish for soup, but exhaustion won. Bed.
Woke a couple of hours later to a delicious smell on the pier: the fishermen were smoking their remaining catch. An enormous garfish — or needlefish — cost only €4. Too much for one person, yet they added three pieces of another fish free. I sat by the water. Bony, tangy fish, with green bones: never seen that, especially at this price.
Around the village
After lunch, exploring east: a beach and a ‘Caution: wild area’ sign. Little to do.
Cosy village: a dozen houses, restaurant, café, a couple of hotels and a campsite. Like a Soviet holiday camp.
West was better. A well-kept path, flowering wild plums on both sides, sweet-smelling air. A strange buzzing everywhere, as though from the ground. Past a viewing deck over a lake, a closed museum and a €1 tower. From the tower, I understood: dense swarms of midges over every tree and bush, black tongues of flame dancing in the air. Frighteningly beautiful.
The field
A fork by a field. One sign back to the marina, another towards a ‘sight’. I continued. Bushes, then clouds of mosquitoes at head height. Doubts, then I crouched and ran. Midges in hair, eyes and collar.
At the end: a second viewing deck over the lake and three more black clouds. That was it. Dead end. A field probably full of ticks, midges behind, nowhere ahead. Trapped.
Back at the marina, a shower, then evening on the beach, watching a rainbow over the sea.
#passage
22 April 2024. First, alongside at the diesel berth: refuel, sort out payment for the ‘rescue’, and find a berth for the night.
Almost empty, any berth available. Two arrangements: alongside finger pontoons or bow-to with the stern on a buoy. After my epic circling round buoys a couple of years ago, an obvious choice.
A Search and Rescue boat lay alongside. I went aboard, found the crew and asked the price of their help. €200 an hour; good news, they’d spent less than half an hour on me. Papers would go to the Bremen office, with an invoice by post.
Then the harbourmaster, a young man with no English. My broken German, gestures and familiar English words sufficed. He switched on the fuel pump and waited while I filled tank and cans. Diesel €2.20 a litre, no biofuel. I still added 25ml of Liqui Moly Marine Diesel Protection as a precaution.
Berthing: €15.50 for under nine metres, plus €4 per person. Another €20 deposit for the facilities card. Surprisingly, free unlimited showers. Rare in Germany.
Fish
On the way back, a fishing boat berthed and unloaded baskets of fresh fish and ice. Had I waited aground for them, might the tow have been cheaper? I thought of buying fish for soup, but exhaustion won. Bed.
Woke a couple of hours later to a delicious smell on the pier: the fishermen were smoking their remaining catch. An enormous garfish — or needlefish — cost only €4. Too much for one person, yet they added three pieces of another fish free. I sat by the water. Bony, tangy fish, with green bones: never seen that, especially at this price.
Around the village
After lunch, exploring east: a beach and a ‘Caution: wild area’ sign. Little to do.
Cosy village: a dozen houses, restaurant, café, a couple of hotels and a campsite. Like a Soviet holiday camp.
West was better. A well-kept path, flowering wild plums on both sides, sweet-smelling air. A strange buzzing everywhere, as though from the ground. Past a viewing deck over a lake, a closed museum and a €1 tower. From the tower, I understood: dense swarms of midges over every tree and bush, black tongues of flame dancing in the air. Frighteningly beautiful.
The field
A fork by a field. One sign back to the marina, another towards a ‘sight’. I continued. Bushes, then clouds of mosquitoes at head height. Doubts, then I crouched and ran. Midges in hair, eyes and collar.
At the end: a second viewing deck over the lake and three more black clouds. That was it. Dead end. A field probably full of ticks, midges behind, nowhere ahead. Trapped.
Back at the marina, a shower, then evening on the beach, watching a rainbow over the sea.
#passage
Location
Barhöft
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