Tuesday 14th September 2004 Schmergow to Spandau - Berlin mooring N° 1.

A pusher tug on the Sacrow-Paratzerkanal - Wikimedia photo by Biberbaer

11.2° C Grey clouds, sunny spells, light showers in the afternoon. Set off at 7.30 a.m. Crossed the Trebelsee and on to the course of the river Havel, then turned left to shortcut back to the Wannsee via the Sacrow-Paretzer Kanal. The surface of the canal was covered in green algae. A small commercial went past, the smallest we’d seen for a long time, it was longer than a péniche (the standard French/Belgian working boat - 38m long x 5.20m wide) but narrower, called Odertal - 41.5m long by 4.60m wide, went past us empty heading

Former fish trap between Sacrow-Paretzerkanal and Fahrlandersee
Wikimedia photo by Photodocumentationbroker

downstream as we went through the Fahrlandersee. Two men in a fishing boat, a long narrow open boat powered by a large outboard motor, had just hauled in a net full of fish. They overtook us and stopped, then came back along the canal section slapping the water with a long stick with a plunger on the end. We guessed that they were chasing fish towards their nets. There were two fishermen sitting on the bank who didn’t look too impressed, but we were as we had only ever seen pictures on National Geographic TV of Africans fishing like that. We started running southeast down the Jungfernsee, a little later we saw the first tripper of the

Sacrow-Paretzerkanal nr Marquart
Wikimedia photo by Botaurus

day, Cecilienhof, returning to its base not far from the Schloss Cecilienhof. I made a cup of soup as we turned to run northeast up the Wannsee. In the narrows we met an empty heading downstream, called Annelies of Bremen, it was a little bigger than the last commercial boat at 66m x 8m. Three coxed four rowing skiffs and a lone canoe went past as we went along the narrow channel on the east side of Pfaueninsel (peacock island) with its famous white turreted Schloss. Lunch was eaten as we threaded our way through the light melée of sailing yachts. At the north end of the lake a

Jungfernsee - Wikimedia photo by Botaurus

woman steering an open power boat went straight across our bows (from our left - we had right of way! - boats must give way to those coming from their right) and she got a loud hoot from us as she went past. As she passed Rosy Bill reported that she was looking very puzzled. All the space in that enormous lake and she had to pass within inches of our bow fender! A few minutes later we saw a sailing boat tack and swerve across the path of a solid square Kuhnle hire boat. Again, it was from the hire boat’s left side and with nothing else around for several hundred metres. Do they play a game of “chicken” here we wondered? Must be something in the

Wannsee - Berlin's playground - Wikimedia photo by S. Hahn

drinking water, we’ve noticed that a lot of Berliners drive like that and even walk like it too! As we entered the narrow channel heading north into Spandau we saw fifteen Canada geese swimming in a straight line under the first road bridge. There are thousands of geese here, mainly greylags gathering for their winter flap south, and these were the first Canadas we’d seen in Germany. The mooring at Spandau was only a third full, we took the second gap between the dolphins and Rosy took the third. Two cruisers had occupied the fourth and fifth bays. It was 1.30 p.m. when we tied up. At 3.15 p.m. Mike went off on the moped to get the car from

Schloss on Peacock island Wannsee-
Wikimedia photo by A. Savin

Schmergow, calling via the MBK shop, (which was just down the road in Stresow), to order a new chain sprocket for the moped. The moored cruisers changed over when the lunchtime ones left and some overnighters arrived. A Kuhnle hire boat moored upstream of us in bay one. We’d still got no callback service on the ‘phone. Later in the afternoon Bill called with a battery Mike had asked him to get from the shop in Spandau old town which specialises in batteries of all shapes, sizes and types. Mike returned at 6.30 p.m. while I was cooking his favourite chicken nuggets and chips for dinner. Passing traffic was heavy as usual, with trippers, commercials and pleasure boats, although the latter were beginning to get fewer. Bill came on board to show us a couple of treasured items he’d come across that he’d had since his army days. One was a “potty”, a navigator’s map reading tool, consisting of a short length of plastic tube with a magnifying lens which was placed on the chart or map. The top half of the tube was coated on the inside face with a phosphorescent paint which glowed in the dark - no need for lamps, wires or batteries. Very neat. The other item was a rectangular

Spandau Charlottenbrucke and a fine view of Berlin no 1 mooring
(RHS far side of bridge - unusually empty)
Wikimedia photo by Lienhard Schultz

mirror with a small circular central section half silvered and cross hatched. Bill told us he had had this since his diving days and that it had been developed as a signalling device which had saved the lives of many fishermen in the third world who couldn’t afford such luxuries as EPIRBs and who often get swept out to sea. A flashing mirror directed at a search plane gives them a much better chance of being rescued. The central section was for aiming it at the rescuing vessel or ‘plane. Cheap, but effective.