Thursday 5th to Sunday 8th August 2004 A nice rest at Liebenwalde

Thursday 5th August 2004 Liebenwalde

11.6° C overnight. Blue skies, sunny and hot. When all the little boats behind us left, we moved the boats to the end of the quay furthest from the canal - so we could run engines or

A typical Kaufland supermarket -
Wikimedia photo by Frank Vincentz

the genie without disturbing the crews on other cruisers, yachts and canoes. As we were getting ready to go shopping, the lady from the house (Somersalt’s) came by with her dogs, taking them for a walk - she breeds black and chocolate Labradors and black long haired Retrievers. We went outside to have a chat with her. She remembered us and said it was OK to park the car in the lane by her house. The dogs made a huge fuss, she’d brought one black Labrador bitch out for a walk who’d had eleven puppies earlier in the year - she was a beauty with huge shoulder muscles like an Olympic swimmer - and two Retrievers, mother and “baby”, the latter wouldn’t stay out of the water and chased anything - she was following the ducks while we chatted. Took Bill with us shopping by car, calling at the post office in Liebenwalde to post our letter to the bank, and then went shopping at Kaufland in Orianenberg. There was a huge road diversion, so we had to back-track through Liebenwalde and went via Zehlendorf. The store was as we remembered it, big, untidy, sprawling, with stuff everywhere - not laid out logically - so we ended up walking round the place three times. Bill had been waiting ages for us - he’d finished his shopping, paid for it and was waiting beyond the checkouts. Shattered. Back to the boat and unloaded the car by the boat. Bill ran Rosy’s engine. Mike went for a nap - I dozed in the heat with a noisy 12v fan blowing cooler air. The weather was stifling and very muggy.

Friday 6th August 2004 Liebenwalde

13.5° C Clear blue skies, sunny and hot. I was up first at nine. Mike slumbered on. It was too

Rathaus (townhall) in Liebenwalde -
Wikimedia photo by Lucien Monfils

hot to make any toast for breakfast. When Mike got up he had cornflakes. I did the chores, then read some of Bill’s old copies of Waterway’s World magazines. Spotted an error! A picture of  Helen’s Petrel had been labelled as GUCCCo motor acting as host boat at the Easter Ellesmere Port boat gathering. I'm sure it’s an FMC motor! I checked in the listings in my books - “The George & Mary” and “FMC” to be sure. We had some lunch and then went out in the car, calling via the post office to send off three 35mm films for developing in the UK. Mike was pleased to find that the Freepost system works here too. He asked about Internet and the people in the Post Office, after a short debate, said that they thought that only private houses had Internet, they suggested we could try at the Rathaus – but they didn’t open until 4 p.m. We gave it a miss and went to see if we could book the locks on the Finow kanal. Mike went to have a word with the lock keeper at Ruhlsdorf, the top lock, and the keeper booked us for 9 a.m. on Monday morning. A sign said that the canal was open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. all week from May to September. So we probably didn’t need to book! We’d spotted a service station selling bio-diesel in Zerpenschleuse, so Mike collected two loads in cans for us - 243 litres at 76.9c - then did another run to fetch some for Bill to top up Rosy’s tank. I did pasta with a bottled Tuscan sauce (Mike’s gone off tomato based sauces, but it was too hot to cook from scratch). The mooring filled up again with small cruisers. One large cruiser stayed, called Meilan from Emereich on the Rhine - he must be staying here for his holidays – well it is a very pleasant spot! 

Saturday 7th August 2004 Liebenwalde

Malzer kanal - Wikimedia photo by Botaurus

12.4° C overnight. Sunny and hot again. Mike took Bill with him in the car to get more bio-diesel from Zerpenschleuse and to collect ingredients from the Plus supermarket in Liebenwalde for a BBQ later. Put the genie on to run the Mac and did some catching up. Mike and Bill returned after their second run to Zerpenschleuse for bio-diesel for Rosy. We’d got a slight diesel leak on the ZX (car), so Mike fixed it. I switched the genie off at 2.30 p.m. then made some sandwiches for lunch. I got on with the chores and Mike went for a siesta. Bill was trying to get Fanny to swim. She’s not keen and hates going in the cut where she can’t easily get out, so he grabbed her by the scruff and lowered her into the canal in front of the boat by the

Langer Trodel (unnavigable end of the Finow canal)
Wikimedia photo by Botaurus

quay. I suggested she could try climbing up our ladder, as he says she can climb ladders. She didn’t like the boarding ladder as she was in too much panic to get her feet on the rungs properly. Mike lit the BBQ and I prepared the veg etc. The lady from the house came past with five black dogs today, Fanny barked at them but they were all friendly. A young couple had arrived with a canoe and had set up their tent opposite our bows. They came over to chat while we were eating and bought some sour apple schnapps with them. They were Berliners on their way to Rheinsberg (their car was already there). After a few jars, Bill went to sleep sprawled on his new chair - which had collapsed and flattened - he said Mike had told him that it was a good buy at 9€! The canoeists went to their tent at 11 p.m. and Mike helped Bill back over our boat on to Rosy while I cleared the debris from the BBQ. We’d both been bitten by the mossies at dusk and had ended up covering up as much skin as possible and spraying more insect repellent on so as to remain outside. There were just three small boats moored overnight at the other end of

Zerpenschleuse - cut off, filled in end of the Langer Trodel -
Wikimedia photo by Olaf Tausch 

the quay and their crews had all gone to bed hours before. It was midnight by the time we’d packed everything away except for the BBQ and the chairs.

Sunday 8th August 2004 Liebenwalde

11.5° C Sunny, warm and breezy. At 9.30 a.m. Mike started the genie to read my log on the Mac. Bill loaned us the log of his first boat, a Norman Conquest (23 foot centre cockpit) he’d bought in ‘81 from Davidsons at Sawley. I checked our log for ‘81 and, although we’d been in a lot of the same places during that year, we hadn’t been in any of them at the same time, so our paths hadn’t crossed. The name of the cruiser had been changed to Christmas by Bill, for his wife Chrissie and son Thomas, but had previously been called Tina Two which rang bells, but I couldn’t place it. I read some more of Bill’s back copies of WW. The moorings had filled up during the evening and the overspill (three cruisers) had moored opposite us on the lock island.