3.5º
C overnight. Sunny with a chilly wind. Set off at 8.15 a.m. on to Ruda Woda
lake. The lake was surrounded on all
sides by forest and it was a deep (the echo sounder went off –
either a bad
bottom or very deep) winding, reed-fringed, long narrow lake. Mike did a short speed
test. Up to 2,000 revvs and the best speed we could manage was 10 kph. It
seemed very quiet, no birds about - not a swan or a duck in sight. Two men in a
long narrow fishing boat, powered by an outboard motor, went past towing
another similar boat, hugging the left hand bank. Out of the lake into a narrow
winding shallow channel, 1.5m deep, dodging overhanging trees into the next
wide lake. At 10.20 a.m. in Iłinsk lake (another deep one) we passed Marabut a
trip boat heading towards Elblag. We turned left into another channel and met
another trip boat as we turned in. Under a new bridge for the route 7 bypass
and a railway bridge on the
outskirts of Miłomłyn, round some more winding
bends and went under the old route 7 road bridge which was only 3.6m wide and
3.5m high and fitted with a single wooden clapper stop gate. Just beyond it was
a small aqueduct over a stream. We came to a junction where the canal to the
left went to Ostroda, but we carried straight on for Iława on the Iławski
kanal, another narrow winding channel through woods past little farmhouses and
under arched farm road bridges. Four shirtless youths were fishing where the
canal had been narrowed to accommodate another stop gate. Suddenly we were in
the middle of a cloud of red dragonflies, hundreds of them darting around us
and way up into the trees. I hoped they were eating all the mossies that had
started eating us. I made lunch, baked the last of our German part-baked long
life buns and made some biscuits to bake after the bread had
 |
| White tailed eagle - Wikimedia photo by Jacob Spinks |
cooked while the
oven was still hot. At 1 p.m. we came to the end of the Iławski kanal and went
into the first part of the long lake called Jezorio (lake) Jeziorak. By the
road bridge a smiling old lady was sitting fishing, she asked where we were
from (in Polish), she looked impressed when we said Engand. A white-tailed
eagle swooped down to the surface of the lake, talons out, grabbed something
and flew off to sit in a nearby tree. Magic! The lake was surrounded by trees
and deserted as we ran south down the long narrow leg. To our right we passed a
wider section with a campsite on the far distant bank, where a couple of
sailboats were moored and another one was sailing. In the
far distance we could
see a couple more sails going in the same direction as us, but several miles
away. On past a small sailing club with a wooden building at the top of steep
bank behind the moored yachts. The yachts that were sailing were not going far
as there was very little wind. We turned a bend in the lake shore and saw a
hotel with a bar and six moored yachts. As we rounded the next bend we were off
our map - we needed the map that Hans sent to us by post that never arrived! On
the left, along a low hill, there was a string of large detached houses set in
well-tended grounds which stretched down to the edge of the lake. It looked
like the banks of the Thames had been transported to Poland. Along the frontages
were boat houses and moored fast speedboats. Hans sent a text - we’d just been
talking about his missing maps. An invoice had arrived for the maps he’d got
for Bill. They were already paid for so Bill said he would ring him back later.
We passed another hotel with moorings in front of it. Mike put some paint on a
small section of the starboard gunwale that he’d sanded earlier as the paint
had lifted and flaked. A small trip boat went past, its passengers waving enthusiastically,
followed by a yacht without masts. A group of fourteen yachts were milling
about, slowly. All but one did half tacks as we stooged slowly down the right
hand side to keep out of their way, the exception went straight across our
bows, tacked and sailed behind us. There’s always one! We were travelling at 7
kph, but Rosy was way off in front as Bill had got a move on. When we arrived
at Iława Bill was having a mooch round looking for the good moorings that the
German skipper of Uhuru had mentioned.
We passed a group of blue-sailed pram dinghies - kids having sailing lessons -
and again there’s always one bright Herbert who sails right in
 |
| Panorama of lake Jewiorak at Ilawa - Wikimedia by MesserWoland |
front of our
bows. Then the cheeky little oik turned and grinned from ear to ear! Bill had
found a concrete quay, just the right length, it was even equipped with mooring
bollards. Excellent. Behind the mooring was a grassy bank sheltered by a few
trees, where people were walking dogs and kids were playing. We moored
alongside. It was 4.30 p.m. A yacht pulled alongside as we were tying up. Oh
no, we thought, we’ve got somebody’s mooring. They were Germans, on holiday on
a charter yacht, who had seen Bill on TV back home in Brandenburg. Fame at last,
Bill! They stayed and chatted (all in German, but we could cope with that) for
about ten minutes before motoring over to the far side of the lake. A group of
teenagers came to sit on the grass under the trees and chat a couple of feet
away from Rosy, so Bill went over to talk to them, a few spoke English, they
were getting happy with a few bottles of alcoholic stuff.
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