We set off for Norderney at 0600 in a force 5 from the west. We could have been there before lunch but captain Brenda said seeing we had such a good wind we should carry on to Helgoland. We arrived at 18.30 after a 80 nm trip. In the last few days we have learnt various new sayings. A Dutch man told us about the weather, he said it will be the same as today unless it is different, it could be a bit worse or a bit better. A Swiss man called Rene who looked more like Tom Cunliffe than Rene from Hel'o Hel'o the TV series told us In broken english that he loves sailing in jumpers. He has sailed in the Tropics, but likes it cooler, so we are now jumper sailors.
Today we had to be up again at 06.00 to let the inside boat of our raft out so they could catch the tide. Later after another couple of hours sleep we walked around the island. Everything has been rebuilt since the war as it was bombed flat, there is still evidence of the destruction, bomb craters and holes in the harbour walls can still be seen. At low tide there are some bits of old warships poking out above the water. Up on the cliffs there were thousands of nesting Gannets very close to the paths, it was fascinating watching the males bring food back to the feeding females, we stood there ages taking lots of photos. On our return to the boat I was working on the plan to get us to the Keil Canal when we heard a van with a load speaker up on the dock wall calling ACHlUNG..! ACHIUNG..! followed by lots of german speak. I just ignored it but Brenda said something serious is going on, it sounds like we're back in 1945 with the Germans making their demands. The next thing we knew we have a policeman on board explaining that we must evacuate all the boats, they had found a bomb in the harbour and were going to explode it. He was not amused when I asked him if it was one of ours or one of theirs. The SAR boat (lifeboat) left the harbour and went out to sea to stop anybody else entering the port or just to stay safe. We all had to stay back behind the fire engine for about an hour. I would like to say there was a massive explosion but we only heard two explosions the first smaller one, probably to deternate the old bomb followed buy a slightly loader one. No huge bang or waterspout. Boats all ok we could return. There are still a lot of unexploded ordnance still in the harbour. They have a teams looking with detectors all the time as bombs are still found buried deep in the mud. All this meant we could not get fuel so we would have to spend an extra day on the island as the fuel dock could not be accessed till mid day because of the tide, we would have needed to leave at 06.30 to get to the Keil canal lock. We had a meal out in a restaurant up in the town. A plan was made to leave at 06.30 on Thursday for Keil canal