12° C Sunny and warmer, paid for
by thunderstorms later in the evening. Set off when the
lock opened at 9.00
a.m. after the keeper had let a yacht uphill through the lock first. My
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| Grabow lock MEW. Wikimedia photo by barghaan |
cold
was getting worse and Mike’s was getting better. I made tea while Mike held the
string as we descended in Banzkow lock. We met one hireboat cruiser from Schwerin
on the way down the Störkanal to the junction with the MEW. It was followed
about ten minutes later by another four cruisers, which was probably a lockful.
Mike knocked his wooden seat (it fits on the roof over the metal grab rails) overboard
and had to do a hard reverse to go back and pick it up, just as the next bunch
of uphill boats went past. The leading yacht stopped and passed on the wrong
side as we recovered Mike’s seat. Made another cuppa and a rotten fly landed in
mine before I got to the stern. I threw it overboard in disgust, washed my cup
out
 |
| Garwitz lock MEW - Wikimedia photo by niteshift |
and made another. A Locaboat pénichette (! first one since France!) was
leading the next convoy of uphill boats. We waited below Garwitz lock behind a
cruiser and a zodiac inflatable. One cruiser came down and then we all went up
the automatic lock, rising 3.9 m which took 20 minutes. A road bridge had been
built over the lock chamber, level with the top of lock wall so we had to be
careful to stay forward of it and not to get underneath it as we rose in the
chamber. A hireboat, five cruisers and a canoe were waiting above the lock when
we left. It was 12.20 p.m. when we left the lock and 10 kms to the next lock.
Lunch on the move. The next downhill lockful went past at KP 69. The first boat
was a fast cruiser making loads of wash,
f
 |
| Parchim lock MEW. Wikimedia photo by E W |
ollowed by a Crown Blue Line hireboat
and two small cruisers. I saw the first topless sunbather go by on a cruiser,
Mike said it was his second - he’d seen another earlier in the day. The
navigation followed the natural river in places and was consequently pleasantly
winding as it passed through increasingly beautiful countryside, water meadows
and forests. We had a short wait while boats came down Parchim lock, which was
keeper operated. There were only us two to go up and two more Locaboats were
waiting above when we left the lock. Just after we’d gone under the road bridge
in Parchim a chopper trike went over it pulling a little maroon caravan. I’d
never seen a chopper pulling a caravan before. Passing through the village of
Slate we found the hirebase of some “Kunzle cake” boats - Kuhnle cruisers,
actually, Kunzle cake is our nickname for the big square chunky steel boats
painted a distinctive dark blue and cream. They were turning them round, boats
were reversing in and out of the moorings. A little further on a bride and
groom stood to be photographed with the boats as a backdrop. The wedding guests
were milling around a large riverside restaurant next to the hirebase. We kept
our heads down and kept going. At KP 79, in the middle of nowhere, we moored
next to Rosy by some wooden posts piled into the bank edge. Mike got a plank
off and put some ropes and stakes into the bank as there was a slight flow
 |
| A Kuhnle hire boat Wikimedia photo by Pawel Drozd |
on
the river Elde. It was 3.50 p.m. Several cruisers went past within minutes to
test our tying up. Ten minutes later a couple of Kunzle cakes went past, one
going home and one just setting off. We both went to sleep. Mike got up at 6.45
p.m. After dinner a shower of torrential rain took the satellite picture off
halfway through a programme we were watching. A really good old thunderstorm followed
with some loud crashes quite close by.
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