Monday 19th July 2004 Dömitz to Grabow.

15.8° C overnight. Hazy sunshine. We set off at 8.00 a.m. following Rosy to the first lock.

Neu Kaliss lock - photo from Wikimedia by niteshift

Mike ‘phoned Glyn but got his answering machine. The clegs (horseflies) were out in force due to the thundery wet weather. We killed dozens of ‘em and Mike got the jungle gel out to stop the little beggars biting us. We arrived at the automatic lock at Neu Kaliß at 8.45 a.m. and turned the blue bar, then nothing happened. A man in an estate car turned up and told us that the locks don’t start until 9.00 a.m. - including the manned locks. (This must be a new Europe-wide thing then, locks for pleasure craft starting at 9.00 a.m. together with the new 35 hour working week? We found out later that the opening times vary, depending on which waterway it is.) Our book said 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. - at least they’re staying open later - until 8 p.m. A yacht arrived to tag along behind us. A notice said the biggest boats must go in first. It took twenty five minutes to fill a lock 41.8m long by 5.4m wide lifting 2.1m, with an annoying tannoy going bing-bong all the time the paddles were open! There was a brand new lock cabin and

An old warehouse by the canal at Neu Kaliss -
photo by Wikimedia - niteshift

house alongside the lock. We met a WSA tug and pan heading downriver as we went along the 4 km section to the next lock, Findenwirumshier, where the lady keeper was lifting the bridge over the tail end of the lock ready for us to go in. We went in first, Bill followed and the yacht came in behind us. The 2 m deep lock filled much quicker with a lock keeper pressing buttons. The sun came out. 8 kms to the next lock. I tried ringing our surveyor but got his answering machine and didn’t leave a message as I was going to try again later. Glyn ‘phoned at 11.40 a.m. to say he’d got Mike’s message and where did we want the post sent to. Mike said he’d have to get back to him with that one; Bill was having his post sent to Templin, but not until a fortnight hence. A pleasant older bloke worked the lock for us at Malliß. This time, as we were using fore and aft ropes around the conveniently placed bars in the lock walls, to make it easier for Bill Mike suggested he should bring Rosy alongside and I threw a rope over his bow stud while Bill lassoed our stern, then

Bridge over the Elde at Eldena
photo from Wikimedia by niteshift

we came up the lock side by side with me controlling the bows and Mike controlling the stern. We came up another 2m into much more open countryside. A pair of buzzards were circling over trees on our left. We went on to Eldena and had lunch sitting on the staging below the lock waiting for the keeper to finish his lunch break. A very large cruiser, called Domino, caught us up and came up the lock with us, plus the yacht and the two canoes which came up Dömitz with us the day before. The large boat overtook us just after the lock, muttering something about not being able to go that slow as he went past. The speed limit is 6 kph and our GPS said we had been going at 6.5! The canoes went past, a man paddling a single seater and a woman and an older man in a two-seater. The chap put a brolly up to act as a sail! The yacht stayed behind us. The keeper at Güritz had kept the cruiser waiting for us and we all piled in behind him and the two canoes. A youngish couple worked the lock, they chatted (in German) while the lock filled, telling Mike and Bill that they would need to take their masts down to get under a low bridge which was 7 kms further

An old mill at Grabow
photo from Wikimedia by Shiwago

up river. Mike told them he knew, we’d been before. They remembered and said we’d been with two other narrowboats! Fancy them remembering that from four years ago - which just goes to show that they don’t get many narrowboats here. They’d seen Jim’s Elizabeth too. We followed Rosy up the 8 kms reach to Grabow with the yacht still behind us. Mike managed to flick his glasses (his new ones with varifocal lenses) into the river when a cleg flew in his face. No point even trying to recover them, the water was three metres deep and the specs were made of plastic. He found his prescription sunglasses out and used those instead. I found him a plastic strap to go on them to try to avoid a repeat performance. We had a short wait below Grabow lock, which had been made automatic, but the new electronic sign board said the lock was keeper operated today. The big boat had escaped this time and gone on ahead. When the chamber emptied the canoes went in, then us and Rosy and the then the yacht. The canoes stopped above the lock, but only temporarily, they went past us as we were tying up to the rough

Muritz-Elde-Wasserstrasse at Grabow
photo from Wikimedia by OtoF

bank with a plank out. Rosy came alongside and Mike fetched the moped off the roof using two planks. He said we needed a long line out from the bows as there was a slight flow on the Elde, so he took the green rope from the bows to where he wanted it and I took a stake and banged it through a wasps nest! One of the little beggars got its own back and stung me before I realised what was going on - then I ran back to the boat - with my left hand starting to burn like hell! I stuck my hand in cold water which didn’t do much good, Mike couldn’t remember whether you needed to use acid or alkali to neutralise a wasp sting. I went to ask Bill if he could remember any first aid and he said he used antihistamine cream. We’ve got plenty of that. I rubbed some in, but it still burned like hell. Mike went off on the moped to move the car from Dömitz  to Banzkow. I sat for a while, applying Anthisan to my poor swelling red hot finger, hoping that I wasn’t one in 200 who are allergic to wasp stings - it only becomes apparent on the second sting, and my first was when I was aged about ten. I hate wasps. Quite a few cruisers went past, mostly heading upriver in the same direction as us. I made a chicken chilli for dinner. Mike was back at 9 p.m. having had lots of trouble following umleitungs (diversions). We used two planks side by side to get the moped back on board, then we had a very late dinner.