Tuesday 27th July 2004 Waren to Lärz.

12.2° C Cloudy, sunny spells and light showers of rain at lunchtime. Set off at 8.15 a.m. The

Schloss Kink from the lakeside
Wikimedia photo by Darkone

inside wall of the harbour was filled with huge hired cruisers - Bill had remarked earlier that the biggest had taken half an hour to fiddle his way into the gap opposite him with bow and stern thrusters going, making that hateful noise - zuut - zuut - zuut! We sailed round the shallow bit in front of the harbour in the Binnen Müritz and down the narrows past Schloss Klink into the Müritz see, largest lake (entirely) in Germany. I made tea on the way. Gentle waves rocked the boat as we cruised south down the lake. It was early, so we almost had the whole lake to ourselves except for some early morning fishermen. Had a text from Jim thanking us for the invite to Poland, but he had

Schloss Klink front door!
Wikimedia photo by X-Weinzar

planned to go south in ‘05 to the Midi, so he was going back slowly to Gent for the winter. There were three fishing boats anchored in a semi-circle about 50 m off the middle marker buoy. We had to stick to tradition and circle the buoy to take photos of each other with the name of the buoy showing. We did so, but slowly so as not to disturb the fishing! It was 10.00 a.m. I took a photo of the huge expanse of sky and lovely cloud formations to the southeast of the lake. Traffic was starting to build up as we ran south with lots of small open speed boats and sailing boats. Waves would suddenly

The magnificent Muritzsee - photo by me!!

appear from nowhere from the wash of a speed boat long since gone down the far side of the lake. Hugh McKnight in his book likens a passage across the Müritz See as to a trip across the English Channel. We have not taken a cruiser across the English Channel and we don’t think Hugh McKnight has taken a narrowboat across the Müritz See. We travelled down the dog-leg exit from the lake, past Vipperow whose buildings were invisible behind the trees, into Kleine Müritz where the red and green channel markers swapped sides as the MEW (the Müritz-Elde-Wasserstraße) became the MHW (the Müritz-Havel-Wasserstraße). At the

Rosy circling the Mitte marker, Muritz

beginning of the canal section we passed a very large pontoon/cruiser from Genthin as we went under the Vietzen road bridge. It was 12.45 p.m. when we tied up next to the old WSA quay between the two bridges at Lärz. Mike decided to leave the car where it was at Waren for the next few days. We had lunch and both of us went to sleep - must be the cold bugs - and didn’t wake until 5 p.m. Shortly after Bill came over with his map to sort out the route for the next few days. We decided to backtrack and explore the Müritz Arm as we’d missed it out last time we were here and come back to Lärz. Mike also decided to go for an early start and move on to moor at Wolfsbruch. Made pasta à la carbonara for dinner.