Tuesday 19th April 2005 Słubice to Kostryzn.37.8kms

Lebus - Wikimedia photo by Lienhard Schultz

We got the boat ready to leave at 10.30 a.m. It was sunny but windy. Mike went to the local Intermarché to get a broom handle to make a replacement flagstaff. He was not amused at the rude treatment he got from the young checkout assistant. He’d got a pole that belonged to a brush. He didn’t want the brush, so he went and found a different handle. Once sawn to the right length and equipped with a few cup hooks it made a passable flagstaff. Pity our old ensign was in such a tatty state. Some time ago we’d tried painting it with fabric paint as it had faded, but had given up and bought a new one. Mike said he’d have another go at painting it later. Lutz and Bernt arrived ready to set off at ten thirty. They came with us on our boat as Bill was having an attack of

Fortifications at Kostryzn - Wikimedia photo by Norbert Radtke

nerves about getting back into the flow on the Oder through the chicane under the bridge and round the submerged sandbank – he said he only wanted to be responsible for one death by drowning  - his own! We went first, he only had to follow us. It was cold in the strong wind blowing upriver, but the two German men sat out on our front deck, Bernt taking photos and Lutz smoking as ever. I found our spare binoculars, which Bernt found very useful when pair of beautiful goldeneye ducks took off. The Germans went inside and got warmed up and I made some coffee and found some photo albums for them to have a look at. We passed two customs vans sitting on the riverside, watching for more smugglers. Lebus stood on its crag, where the generals in WWII watched the battle below on the plain. I made lunch. We had sandwiches on the stern and I gave Lutz and Bernt a tray with salad, cheese and cooked meats plus bread buns to have on a plate or as sandwiches as they wished. We were making good time going downstream with the flow. The GPS said we were flying along at 11 kph, we’d engine revvs for 6 kph which meant we were assisted by a flow of 5 kph. A German tug from Eberswalde set off from the bank, pushing an empty pan just before we arrived at the junction with the river Warta. Under the bridges, passing the old red brick fortifications of

River Warta at Kostryzn - Wikimedia photo by Axe

the old town of Kostryzn (flattened in WWII) and we turned carefully to our right, avoiding the sandbanks at the junction, and headed upstream on the Warta. The wind was no longer in our faces and we were sheltered by the bulk of a large coal-fired factory complex. The change in speed was dramatic, we had slowed down to around 4.5 kph. It was 3.00 p.m. when we arrived at the quay, which was cabin roof height, so I stepped off the roof with our centre rope and tied it to the pole supporting the sign that said Kostryzn (with a couple of letters missing!). Bernt got off to help knock stakes in. Bill kept Rosy in midstream until we’d moored, then came alongside

Moored boats and coal-fired factory at Kostryzn

us. Bernt ‘phoned Siggi. She’d been at Seelow, which was not far away and arrived to pick them up in her green Berlingo. I asked if she’d like to come in for coffee, but she said, no, they would like to get home. Bernt certainly enjoyed his day out even if it was freezing cold, Lutz too said he had enjoyed himself. We waved bye, bye as they left. Bill went to take photos from the bridge and Fanny took her ball to play with two young Polish girls who giggled a lot. Mike had another go at repainting our ensign out on the bank and a gang of four young lads came to look at what he was doing and practise their English. He’d just put our surveillance camera on the mast – they were quick to spot it. Bill

Broom handle for a flagstaff! 

asked if we’d got pictures on our TV! Watched Channel Four News. Seventy eight year old Joseph Ratzinger, a German cardinal and good friend of Pope John-Paul, had been elected Pope on the second day of voting, he is to be called Pope Benedict the sixteenth but the media were already calling him God’s Rotweiler!^.  Later, what sounded like a few pebbles landed on our roof, so we went out to investigate and found Bill out on his stern too. Three youths were walking nonchalantly towards the road bridge looking completely innocent, except there was no one else in sight. Hoped this wasn’t a sign of things to come. I couldn’t find the stones they’d lobbed. The roof was getting covered in dust again and loads of seeds off the plane trees in the park by the mooring. Lit the coal fire as the temperature started dropping rapidly.