We had a GREAT time at the meeting of the light vessels in Hamburg.



Here is a little preview of a very unique and historic occasion. The three lightships have never been together like this and it is unlikely that they will EVER meet again.

All three were celebrating something special.

Elbe 1 on the left celebrated two anniversaries. She was retired in 1988 and she was first taken into service in 1948

Fehmarnbelt (my favorite lightship EVER) celebrated its 100th birthday on the day before it arrived in Hamburg.

And Elbe 3is 120 years old this year. That makes it the oldest lightship in the world still seaworthy.

As you can see, quite an illustrious gathering. We had a ball!
More later... when life is a bit more normal.

WOW! Wished I could have been there.

Margret, sounds like it was a very fun event !!!

It WAS fun. We spent four nights sleeping on Elbe 1 in the cabin that once was the chief engineer's. That was worth the trip allone!
I promise I will post more when we are back at my Mum's. Next week!
Meantime there is at least one more lighthouse to photograph today!

Awesome Margret! Four nights onboard - Brilliant!
Looking forward to more details and photos.

Margret
Did you tour all the ships?

I'll repeat Bob:

Now tell us all about it, along with pictures! Can't wait to see & hear about your adventure.

Very very cool! Looks like all three are sporting fresh paint jobs for the gathering!

Can't wait to see more pictures and hear about your stay and the event. I hope the people of Hamburg appreciated the uniqueness!

Now this would be something to see!

It was totally cool. I spent time on all three ships. And met a huge lot of new friends. All three ships are manned by volunteer crews and are open to the public, when they are "at home" and of course they were at Hamburg too.

If you want to know more about the ships, have a look at Iris' pages about them. about the meeting too!

OK... sorry folks that it took sooooo long, but here is the first installment of our Lightship adventure...

It all started in Cuxhaven near the lighthouse, where the light ship Elbe 1 is moored.



Elbe 1 left on Thursday morning, for a trip up the river. On the bridge they are busy to get us to our first rendezvous.



We were to meet another light ship, at Brunsbüttel, where the Kiel-Canal joins the river Elbe.



Here the light ship Fehmarnbelt was just coming through the last lock to join the river. And we all wanted to be the first to see it.



If you look very closely you can see Fehmarnbelt coming out of the canal. Sadly we had already passed the canal entrance and could not see too well...



We continued along the busy river, now followed by the Lightship Fehmarnbelt.



How do you like our special guest? The little guy is 15 years old and had no problem lapping up all the attention.

We were glad to see, that the ship was properly provisioned since we were to spend the next five days living on board.



On up the river past all kinds of lighthouses (I'll show some of those, once I have identified them) and industrial places and still followed by Fehmarnbelt



One of the lightstations I already know is the old and the new light at Mielstack.



We passed the "Ship Greeting House". Here all ships entering the Harbour of Hamburg are greeted by their national anthem being played over a loudspeaker system. We heard it really clearly.



At the museum harbour of Oevelgoenne, we met with the light ship Elbe 3, which now joined our little procession.

So now we were followed by TWO other light ships.



This has NEVER happened before and will never happen again. Three light ships together in one locations is a unique occasion!!!

Closer to our eventual mooring, smack in the center of one of the busiest harbours in Europe, we were joined by a boat of the harbour's firebrigade!



We passed one of Hamburg's famous landmark; "The Michel" The tower of St. Michaels Church. In the foreground are the landing stages (Landungsbrücken). From here most of the 150 000 people who work in the harbour get picked up to be ferried to work.



After a bit more time and some waiting, we tied up at the "Überseebrücke" (Overseas Bridge) in the busy harbour. The next day three beautiful lightships were turning the heads of all passing ships traffic as well as attracting a lot of visitors.

Elbe 1 or Bürgermeister Oswald II is the largest of world's light ships. She is 49 meters long and started her service in 1948. She came to Hamburg to celebrate her 60th birthday as well as the 20th anniversary of her decommissioning.

This is the most rammed light ship in the world. 50 collisions in 40 years is a bit of a record.

Fehmarnbelt or Ausseneider is 100 years old this year. She was built as a two masted sailing ship.

Her outstanding feature is the four legged mast.

This light ship is a film star. She was the light vessel used in the Film "Das Feuerschiff"

Another claim to fame is the fact that this light ship has a ships post office.

The 120 year old Elbe 3 or Weser I is the oldest seaworthy light ship in the world.

She belongs to the Museum Harbour of Oevelgönne (not far from Hamburg) and has a remarkable light circle on her mast.

We were moored very near an English Light Vessel LV13



LV13 is moored permanently in the harbour and is used as a pub-restaurant-hotel.

The light ships were all geared up to entertain visitors and crew alike.

The shanty choir "Elbe 1" came from Cuxhaven to entertain us all.



Elbe 1 has a great canteen where we had our food, and as you can see, one or two drinks could be had there too.





Elbe 3 has also got a bar and they were frying hering on board





Fehmarnbelt - of course - also has a bar. But they also served a really delicious green pea soup.

All too soon it was time for Elbe 3 to go back to her home port. The volunteer crew had to leave on Sunday, so they could get back to work on Monday.




And on Monday Fehmarnbelt left just before us!


And sadly then it was time for us to leave too.



Well so much for the time in Hamburg. But our light ship adventure was not quite over yet. But more of that later!!!

Gee, I wonder if that made it a little difficult to get volunteers to serve as crew.

Some great pictures that you have shared with us. I can only imagine what a great adventure you had. Some very cool looking scenery along your route in. The Mielstack looks very interesting.

Kind of interesting that an English lightship ended up as a restaurant in Germany.

The 'keg' on the Fehmarnbelt looks very interesting.

Really great seeing images of all the lightships. Just like lighthouses, each is so unique in its set up.

Margret, What an outstanding adventure to sail on a lightship for five days.

Great pictures and narrative !!!

Thank you so much for the photos and narrative. Almost felt like I was on the ship with you!

Excellent photos and narrative Margret!
What a fantastic opportunity for you to be part of a unique and I'm sure historic event...thanks so much for sharing !
Look forward to more.