6.4° C overnight. Sunny with
a cold wind blowing. Bill set off first at 8 a.m. Mike had a problem, one of
the bolts holding the air cleaner’s bracket had broken, he had to fix it
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This is a gyrfalcon much like the bird we saw
Wikimedia photo by Elena Gaillard |
temporarily before we could move off. We followed after Rosy at 8.15 a.m. I
made tea and cooked schrippen in the oven for Mike’s lunch. It was so cold we
needed coats and woolly hats. I sent Peter a Happy Birthday text. I was going
to ‘phone him later, but our D2 credit had almost expired and our callback
service had been suspended until we get a new card number for them and that’s
in the post on its way from Glyn’s to Werder. We should be able to collect the
post on Monday. We saw a large bird of prey sitting on the bank facing into the
sunshine, in a small grassy clearing in the woods, much like herons do - in
fact at first I thought it was a very pale heron until I looked through my
binoculars. We couldn’t identify it. It was almost completely white. The only
thing vaguely like it in my bird book was a gyrfalcon and we’re too far south
for it to be one of those. I made us a cup of soup to warm us up a bit. It was
11.20 a.m. as we were arrived at Bahnitz lock. Rosy was moored next to the
pontoon and the lock was emptying. Just the two of us again in the huge lock
chamber. As we left the lock half an hour later the wind was gusting strongly,
so Mike decided to take the sunshade down. As he did so it folded up. Being
oblong, the front half of it blew backwards over the back half. He had to take
it on to the front deck and leave it until later to sort it out. We passed a
“Tom Sawyer” raft (very popular here - wonder what our UK boat insurer would
make of one of those? Think they’ve got the equivalent of a BSS cert?) with a
shed and chimney stove pipe, being propelled slowly downstream by an outboard
motor. In Plau we noted that the quay, which used to have a notice saying “For
passenger ships only by arrangement in advance and payable by the hour”, was
now being used by passing pleasure boats and three were moored on it now that
the sign has gone. It was breezy going across the lake. An osprey flew over
carrying a huge black finned fish in its talons - it’s a wonder it took off
with the weight of that - it flew off over the forest to our left and I was
surprised that the seagulls left it alone. There were lots of sailing boats
taking
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| A Tom Sawyer raft (taken earlier in 2004 near Vosswinkel) |
advantage of the sunshine and a good breeze as we crossed the Plauersee.
The big police boat WSP1 was moored by the marina at Plauenhof. An empty 80m
commercial came down the channel from Quenzsee and turned to our left to head
towards Plau as we turned the corner, heading southeast into the Breitlingsee,
and moored on the old concrete wall by Junkers at 3.15 p.m. A young lad on a
Thomas trail bike appeared on the wall as we were tying up. He was obviously
gob-smacked. He said we were his first English contact and he had so many questions.
Some I understood and others not. We finished packing up and then took the
sunshade on the bank to straighten it out. The fabric had been torn where it
had been forced down over the central boss, so I had a sewing job to do.
Luckily none of the arms had been bent or broken. Mike went for a nap. I read
for a while, then dozed too. It was hot with the sun directly on the side of
the boat and the hot concrete behind us. I changed back into summer gear, skirt
and cotton blouse, after the morning’s winter clothes it was an abrupt change.
Mike went to work on his broken bolts in the engine room. I made a Ratsherrentopf,
using a Maggi packet mix - pork and bacon casserole with potatoes, which was
very tasty.
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