Kiel Canal, 8/9/1993 Is Feature of Today's Journey

Kiel Canal is World's Busiest Channel

By Bob Van Leer

(KIEL CANAL, GERMANY - Aug. 9, 1993) - The feature of today's journey was the transit of the Kiel Canal.

  During the night our ship, the Crown Odyssey, continued sailing north along the Holland coast and then turned east along the north coast of Holland and Germany. At night the oil drilling rigs in the north sea were lit up like strange Christmas trees. These are busy waters. There is almost always some other vessel in view.

ARRIVE AT ELBE
  At ten o'clock we arrived off the Elbe river at Cuxhaven and entered the estuary on our way to the canal. If we continued up the river we would arrive at Hamburg, Germany.  But before that we turned northeast into the canal. We have to pass through a lock before entering the canal. We were told the reason for the lock is the tides in the North Sea are more than six feet but on the Baltic side the tides are only two feet.

  This is an old canal. It was started in 1887 and completed and opened in 1895. It replaced a still-older canal built in the 16th century which was inadequate for modern shipping. The canal was built at the instigation of the German military. It is ontinuously modified to be able to handle changes in shipping. The canal is 61 miles long and saves a 250 nautical mile voyage around the Danish peninsula. We were told it is 36 feet, one inch deep. Somehow, the one inch is important to someone.

  It is the busiest canal in the world with 50,000 ship transits a year as well as 25,000 private yachts. It is entirely within Germany – Denmark is 90 miles north of the canal, but is an international waterway. The treaty of Versailles after World War I internationalized the canal but put it under German administration. Freedom of navigation is guaranteed.

  The canal was built through tidewater marshes and at some places the canal water level is 10 feet higher than the neighboring farm land.

TRANSIT FEE $20,000
  Transit of the canal is not free. We were told a ship of our size pays a toll of about $20,000 for the 11-hour transit. We completed transit of the canal passing through the city of Kiel at 8 p.m., an hour ahead of schedule. The canal is officially the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal but has been known since its opening as the Kiel canal.

  The evening entertainment was a magic show and an imaginative puppet show, both quite good.  Tonight we are headed across the Baltic Sea to Warnemunde, the port entrance for Rostock, Germany.