I’m doubly lucky after a good night’s sleep. In the morning, many ships leave the marina, heading for Hamburg on the up moving tide. Then I can moor directly at the jetty, because I don’t need to leave right away, I want to go west; what’s the point of fighting the current on my way west? So I have at least another six hours to organise petrol until I slide along on the Elbe with the tidal current at low tide into the North Sea. And I have time to keep an eye out for ports with fuel facilities that are on my way – I would never have thought that I would ever become so dependent and that my journey would be controlled by such constraints. In the Baltic Sea (in Estonia, Finland and Sweden as well as Poland) I found at least one type of petrol (regular or super or both) at every port, besides diesel; but in Denmark and Germany of all places, the infrastructure seems to be oriented differently. Environmental protection?
In any case, new acquaintances in the harbour help me to look ahead and find harbours with petrol in Holland (there are several again), and here in Brunsbüttel I fill up and refill so much petrol at a roadside petrol station with willingly provided canisters that I can easily get to Norderney, a booming island on the German North Sea coast. I even find a taxi company that transports the fuel canisters for me (although this is forbidden). Anyway, I reach the reservoir in time to be let out into the surging waters of the Elbe – and ride past Cuxhaven at breakneck speed and out into the surging North Sea: Wow, I think, the water is now ‘pushing’ hard on my ArgoFram. At first I’m practically pulled out, with a tidal speed of almost 10 kilometres per hour (I only need 50 litres/hour for over 60 km/h!). Later, however, I am also pushed violently in as I chirp from the North Sea between the islands into the Wadden Sea. (Sailing ships have enormous respect for such constellations, because they are easily pushed into a slanting position in the suddenly rising metre-high waves and then threaten to capsize). But the ArgoFram also seems to like the Atlantic. In any case, she is much less impressed than I am and makes her way ‘around the outside’ of the North Sea to Norderney.
The marina there is beautifully situated, full to bursting, and I am glad that the harbour master shows me the way to a free jetty with a hand signal, but I have to leave it early tomorrow morning (because it is reserved). When I have to show the Coronatest, I’m a bit embarrassed – Germany is free, after all; I’m coming from a German port. It doesn’t matter, this state does it this way, others do it differently. I see. – Should I be afraid, should it be particularly dangerous here? Oh no, that’s just the procedure. But I could show the test tomorrow, before I left, and then the test centre would be open again…
Already during the outward journey I phoned a petrol station attendant to discuss my petrol delivery – on Norderney, too, there is only one diesel filling station on the water, but this entrepreneur offers a service where he fills petrol from his car filling station into a specially made (and approved!) tanker and pumps it into my boat at the harbour. Costs the (cheaper) road petrol plus a surcharge of 35 euros per 300 litres. – Deal!