Friday 15th October 2004 Wergensee to Eisenhüttenstadt for winter.

Christian - the Boss at the boat club

3.7° C Grey chilly morning, breezy afternoon, rain started at 2 p.m. Off at 9 a.m. Rosy following us. Mike had to untie and do the lock by himself, as I was still having trouble bending due to my bad back. I tried taking pain killers, but they didn’t do much good. Up Neuhaus lock. Mike gave the keeper a bottle of French red wine, which he refused to take - but only for the first five seconds! Mike said he seemed very pleased to have been given a present for keeping an eye on our car in the corner of the WSA yard. Followed Rosy back up the Spiesekanal and on to the OSK. Both Mike and Bill saw a pair of cranes fly over very low, squawking loudly, at less than a hundred feet. I made lunch at 12.15 p.m. The wind was very chilly and the temperature never crept above 10°C, so I left the central heating on. As we were passing the enormous factory complex of the Ekostahl around 2 p.m. the rain began falling. There were no signs of life at the factory except for one man on a tall chimney stack. A large bucket was being lowered down from the top, the wind swinging it out from the side of the chimney by about 20°. We turned into the basin at 2.40 p.m. There wasn’t as much

Furstenberg church from the R Oder

space as when we visited by car, three more large cruisers were moored along the wall. We moored on the wall beyond the new landing stage and Bill tied on the landing by the pump out, then the two of them went to find Christian. Mike unloaded the moped and we moved up alongside Rosy on Christian’s instructions. He connected up the electricity and set up the TV. Tired, we both went for a snooze, only to be reawakened by a knock, knock. Guess who? Our friend Hans the school teacher and his little dog. Mike

Police patrol boat in Furstenberg

stood outside chatting to him and Klaus, one of the club members who speaks English. Hans said he was off on a 100 km bike ride next day. It started to rain again, so Mike said bye ’bye and he went home. Bill came round with a bottle of red wine and we sat and had a chat (Fanny stayed at home). Mike opened a couple of bottles of his favourite white wine, Erben Spätlese, and we talked about all the jobs to do while we were on our winter mooring and having an exploratory trip or two into Poland by car.