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After travelling on the Stena Discovery and Dutch Railways four members of the crew met up with the other crew member who had stayed aboard from the previous week. It was originally planned to leave at 5.00am the following morning but after a discussion over the tidal rates in the River Ems this was brought forward to midnight. By 2.30am we had entered the Wattenmeer and continued eastwards until, an hour later, the depth fell to 2m below the keel when we dropped the anchor. A few hours sleep and at 8.00am we were on our way again with enough water to get into Greetseil by 11.00am.
The entrance to Greetseil was interesting. Through a lock which operates HW+-3hrs there follows a four mile passage through a nature reserve where scarce birds such a Spoonbill and Montague Harrier were seen. The town itself built around a “seil” (one of the ditches that drain the north german marshes into the sea behind the Friesian Islands. It has a big fishing fleet and the town itself, with many old buildings, seemed to be a popular holiday resort.
Early next morning we set forth for Helgoland, travelling through the Memmert Watt channel towards Nordeney (more or less retracing the journey described in “The Riddle of the Sands”) before entering the German Bight. Helgoland was reached at 7.00pm and a day’s stay was planned.  Fish rolls became a favourite snack as did Café Hendriks for morning coffee and cake. We were joined by hundreds of tourists who disembarked from the five regular daily ferries that moored between the main island and the nearby island of Dune. Returning to Pegasus we found another Jeanneau 37 moored alongside; a couple from the West Country also en route to Sweden. A walk around the upper island during the afternoon gave everyone fine views of the nesting seabirds; guillemot, kittiwake and gannet. On return to Pegasus what should there be but a third Jeanneau 37 on our raft; this time a Dutchman who was off to the regatta at Kiel.
Next day the plan was to go to Ottendorf but the forecast of NW6, gusting 7/9 made us decide that this would be a good day to carry out the oil change that had been requested - and frequent Café Hendriks again. Next day the weather was much the same but forecast to fall in the evening. Leaving late afternoon on the last of the ebb we subsequently achieved 10kts over the ground under jib alone. Ottendorf was now out of the question having an unlit entrance and channel so Cuxhaven became our next port – but not before the throttle cable broke. After a little manual operation of the throttle we found ourselves moored close to our friends from the West Country.  They left on the flood next morning while we stayed behind to repair the cable. Just as this was completed, the weather broke and we had strong winds again with heavy rain so waited till next day to sail to Rendsburg rather than only make Brunsbuttel that evening.
We were able to make use of the jib for much of our canal passage to Rendsburg although on the W/E stretches it was too close to a dead run to operate the sail efficiently. Passing under the rail and transporter bridge we turned into the Eider River backwater which led towards Rendsburg. A stroll around the town in the evening revealed a concert taking place in the church – a performance of Handel’s Messiah in English.
No longer constrained by tides we made a leisurely start next day for Kiel where the refuelling barge seemed to come at our request before we moored at the British Kiel Yacht Club; only to be greeted again by our friends from the West Country.
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