Kiel Canal Transit - Ocean Princess June 22, 2015

[AE_Collector]

One of our favorite cruising events was going through the Kiel Canal in Germany on Ocean Princess last year (June 2014). We almost did the same cruise again this year but didnt so I figured we would try to watch a lot of it on the Ocean Princess Bow Cam tomorrow. For some reason the Bow Cam on Ocean Princess has been very sporadic with its updates the last few days so I don't know how well it is going to work watching them go through the canal.

 

We were late entering the canal last year, I think they initially talked about 10 AM but we were late getting out of Amsterdam the evening before and didn't arrive at the entrance to the canal until about 11 AM. There had been a heavy rainfall over night and apparentlyp they weren't letting any ships into the canal in the early morning hours so there was a line of ships waiting their turn. It was after 1 PM before we entered. It took us about 8 hours to go through arriving at the other side at about 9 PM where we sat in the lock for about an hour off loading a medical emergency.

 

They brought a German Omm-Pah Band on at the lock into the canal and off loaded them at the lock on the other side. The band set up again on the lock and played us off to the cheering passengers as we headed into the Baltic. It was all a great adventure.

 

For those expecting locks at each end of the canal similar to the Panama Canal....not at all. Just like the lick into and out of Amsterdam, it is a single lock that effectively doesn't raise or lower anything. The lock controls the tides and keeps the canal fresh water only. I calculated that we DROPPED a couple of feet in the lock entering the canal.

 

The 98 KM (61 Mile) long canal shortens the distance into the Baltic by about 250 miles but ships the size if Ocean and Pacific are pretty much as large as can possibly go through the canal.

 

I went armed with a list of all of the 10 bridges that cross the canal so that I could identify them all as we progressed. Probably the most interesting thing (to me) along te way was the Transporter Bridge suspended from the Rendsburg High (railway) Bridge. This is a ferry that holds maybe 4 cars and a bunch of pedestrians that is suspended by cables just above the water and it darts back and forth between approaching ships carrying people from one side to the other.

 

While this season will be Ocean Princess' last trips through the Kiel Canal (as a Princess Ship), I see that Pacific Princess will do this cruise next year.

 

If the Bow Cam smartens up it could be a good tour but will likely start through the middle of the night for those of us in North America.

 

Here is the Bow Cam for the Ocean Princess:

http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/?shipCode=op

 

Here is the WiKi or the Kiel Canal:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/?title=Kiel_Canal

 

Terry

Edited June 21, 2015 by AE_Collector

[Essiesmom]

If you would like to see the ship in parts of the canal, start here with the locks at Brunsbeuttel:

http://www.kiel-canal.de/webcam/webcam_choice.htm

Cams 3&4 are Brunsbeuttel, and sometimes the time changes but the picture sticks.

With the HD cam, you have to click the bars in the upper left corner to choose Brunsbeuttel. It is a streaming cam and it doesn't work for me in Chrome, so I have to use it in IE.

Later on the first cam she will pass is at Schulp bei Rendsburg:

http://www.kielkanal-live.de/index.php

It takes about ten minutes to get to the next cam.

 

The next cam is Ahlmann-Zersson. Click on the crane to get the cam:

http://www.ahlmann-zerssen.de/index.htm

As soon as she is past this cam, switch to the next cam below.

 

Next are the cams at the Rendsburg railroad bridge:

http://www.canalcup-cam.de/

There is an AIS map at the bottom of the page to follow her progress.

 

Next is the other cam at the bridge, on the other side. this one also has the AIS map below, and it shows more than just passenger ships and updates automatically:

http://www.brueckenbote.de/webcam

 

The last cam in the middle is Gemeinde schacht Audorf: It takes about ten minutes for her to get there from the Rendsburg cams.

 

http://www.schacht-audorf.de/gemeinde/webcam#content

 

The last cams will be at the locks at Kiel-Holtenau. Same link as at BB, the UCA cams, plus this one:

http://www.sartori-berger.de/kiel-canal/webcam-kiel-canal/

 

Happy tracking! EM

[AE_Collector]

Aahh, I didn't even think of land based web cams. Thanks for putting all the links together. I will try to keep up with the progress.

 

As we cleared the Brunsbeuttel locks our dinner companions on the ship from Australia had friends who drove for hours to get there to wave at them as they passed by. I had just bought a new camera with a 42x zoom lens so I was able to get them some real good pictures of them waving franticly from shore. That was just the start of people waving at the ship from shore as we went by.

 

Terry

[Essiesmom]

Leaving Brunsbeuttel locks

 

[AE_Collector]

Ocean Princess just passed the Rendsberg High Bridge with the hanging ferry. Of course the land based web cam bogged down right then and updates became extremely slow. I managed to see just the very back of Ocean Princess clearing the bridge.

 

You can see the Hanging Ferry going back and forth in this link that Essiesmom provided in an earlier post:

 

http://www.canalcup-cam.de/cam1.php

 

Terry

[Essiesmom]

 

 

 

 

 

[Essiesmom]

[AE_Collector]

Thanks for posting all of the great pictures EM.

 

Good memories of a great cruise one year ago for us!

 

Terry

[Woobstr112G]

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.....:):):)

 

Bob

[AE_Collector]

Ocean Princess is in the locks at Kiel now preparing to leave the canal and enter the Baltic Sea.

 

I can see the temporary gangway to the side of te ship to offload the German Oom Pah Band in this web am shot:

 

http://www.kiel-canal.de/webcam1/webcam_live.htm

 

Terry

Edited June 22, 2015 by AE_Collector

[Thrak]

I just had to Google that Kiel Canal Transporter Bridge. Way cool! :D

 

Edited June 22, 2015 by Thrak

[Essiesmom]

Approaching the Kiel-Holtenau locks

 

 

 

 

On the Sartori & Berger cam, you can get seriously bent!

 

[Essiesmom]

 

 

 

 

That's all, Folks! EM

[AE_Collector]

I cant remember any sharp bends of that magnitude that required the ship be Articulated!

 

Thrak:

Watch the transporter bridge live in action on this link that Essiesmom posted:

 

http://www.canalcup-cam.de/cam1.php

 

Terry

[Essiesmom]

On that link, click on Zeittraffer in the upper left, then choose a date - not the current one, as the day for the cam starts at 3am. Then click the arrow on the pic and see the time lapse for 24 hours. EM

[AE_Collector]

I cant seem to figure that out. I click Zeitraffer which gives me a calendar to choose a day but the picture of the bridge with the "play" arrow on it vanishes as soon as I click on a different date. I can choose from two links then, one for each camera but that takes me back to todays date. I am stuck in a loop!

 

Terry

Edited June 23, 2015 by AE_Collector

[Essiesmom]

I click on Zeitraffer, it gives me a page with the cams stacked, and a calendar next to each. when I click on the date 22 for the top cam, it takes me to the larger picture with the calendar above. I just click on the 'run' arrow in the pic and it starts. EM

[AE_Collector]

The difference is when i click on a day on the calendar the page changes to a single calendar top left corner but no single picture below. To the right i get this message with two camera links at the bottom. Clicking one of those links takes me back to the beginning with the two pictures and two calendars back on todays date.

 

Über den Button (hier rot dargestellt) rechts unten im Player, wechseln Sie in den Vollbildschirmmodus. Mit der ESC-Taste kommen Sie in die normale Ansicht zurück.

 

Wenn Sie mit der Maus in das Bild hineinklicken, hält der Zeitrafferfilm an. Durch erneutes anklicken des Filmes läuft er weiter. So kann man sich in Ruhe den gewünschten Ausschnitt anschauen.

 

Zurück zur Archivauswahl

 

Zum Archiv der Kamera 2

 

I am using an iPad and when something doesn't work the way it does for others, it is usually something to do with me using an iPad. I will try on a real computer at some point.

 

Thanks for the help!

 

Terry

Edited June 23, 2015 by AE_Collector