A
very much milder 9.4º C. Sunny with a cold breeze. We set off at 8.15 a.m. Lake
Płaskie was empty, no one around. We wondered if the sign by the entrance meant
it was off limits to powered boats, we’d assumed that it meant the place next
to the sign - not the lake. I translated the words on the sign “strefa ciszy”
to mean quiet zone. Back down Płaskie to rejoin Jeziorak, threaded our way back
through the islands, turned left heading north again on Jeziorak (this end of
the lake is shaped roughly like a trident, with Płaskie being the leftmost
prong and Jezirorak being the other two. As we passed the village of Matyty we
noticed there were lots of little houses and a campsite on the left bank with a
few moored
yachts and a very interesting flag. At the top of the flagpole there
was an Aussie flag and below it a union flag above pale blue and white stripes
with a rising sun at the bottom edge. Bill had a flagmaker’s catalogue, but
there was nothing like that in it. Among the little bungalows were a few old
caravans which had been converted and given a new lease of life. They looked
like short railway carriages with rounded roofs and big wheels, possibly used
between the wars for housing road workers and were originally towed by horses
or traction engines. We did a turn around the bay at the end of the lake,
looking for a channel leading to the next lake. We saw a white diamond
navigation marker and headed for the little channel. We didn’t get within ten
metres of it as we ran out of water and into some really foul smelling mud. As
Mike reversed out of it, after warning Bill that it was too shallow, I remarked
that nobody should light any matches! Pooh! Heading south again to find the
entrance to the third “prong” of the “trident”. Past the village of Polajny on
the left bank and through a narrower section, then into a big wide bay on our
left. We saw the first yacht of the day at 10.20 a.m. The breeze was getting
stronger and it was making foot high waves on the surface of the lake. Two more
yachts appeared in the far distance as we looked for the gap called Bramka
(gate) Pomielińska. There were several yachts moored, tucked into gaps in the
reedbeds under the trees at the edge of the lake. One set off under motor as we
passed. The entrance was masked by big reed beds and trees. It was calmer
heading up the lake, there were no waves and no one else in sight except a
white-tailed eagle intent on catching fish. At 11 a.m. Bill gave up going to
the ends of lakes and decided to wait for us (as is his wont) to go to the end
and come back. We passed a small village called Rudnia on the left, almost at
the end of the lake. I made salad for lunch, which we ate sat on the stern,
dodging charter yachts from Siemiany, a small village on the right bank as we
were heading south. Turned the corner at 1 p.m. (out of the wind again for a
while) as we went past the large peninsula near Wieprz. At 1.15 p.m. we started
heading north east again along Zatoga Kraga. Two sail boats were in the far
distance and a white-tailed eagle was being given a hard time by a persistent
crow. Into the narrows again and the smiling old lady was fishing there again.
She asked where we were from and beamed a huge smile (again) when we said
England. In the last section of lake Dauby, by a village called Duba, we
noticed a strange building like an ultra-modern barn through the trees that had
a series of metal masts with huge hats on top of them - a lady’s wide brimmed
hat and a Davy Crockett hat. We wondered what they were for. On the opposite
bank of the lake the Iławski canal started. We entered under an old bridge,
which had five brand new signs on each side, two width markers, a yellow
diamond, a sign which gave the width and one which gave the height - none of
which were really necessary on a canal bridge. In front of a farmhouse someone
had built the most sumptuous rustic garden swing ever made, we had to take a
photo. Close by it there was the bloated body of a dead wild pig floating in
the canal. As we went through the middle of lake Karnickie on a low embankment
there were hundreds of red dragonflies darting about flying high up into the
tree tops. Through the narrows (4.4m the new sign said) with a single wooden
stopgate again, but no topless fishermen today. The canal was 1.7m deep and we were doing a reasonable speed, 5.7 kph or
3.6 mph. A coach was parked by the next bridge and a party of twenty or more
fishermen were sitting around eating lunch. No sneaking past them, they’d
already seen us and started waving and making comments. Bill tooted, they all
waved. We stopped short of the town of Miłomłyn, opposite a road, and tied to
trees. We got close enough to the bank, although we were sat on the bottom, but
Bill, moored right behind us, couldn’t get within a metre and a half of the
bank, so we loaned him one of our long planks so he and Fanny could get off
easily. It was 4.15 p.m. We said it
wouldn’t matter being on the bottom as there wouldn’t be any passing traffic,
famous last words - within ten minutes a
yacht went past, but the boat didn’t even rock! When I went out to turn the
inverter off in the engine room at 12.40 a.m. it was quite noisy outside - the
sound of warblers and crickets filling the still night air.
(Apologies for the lack of photos, we only took one photo and I drew a blank on Wiki media)
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