Saturday 4th June 2005 Biała Góra Heading to KP860 nr Grabowko.

Wisla pouring through the breakwater at Biala Gora

Milder 14.1º C overnight. Grey clouds and occasional showers, windy, with a thunderstorm in the afternoon. The water level had gone down 30 cms overnight. Mike was up early, woken by the noisy bridge by the lock. Every time a vehicle went over it went bong-bong. (Almost like the “ding-ding” bridge at Strawberry Island.) We set off at 8.00 am. with lifejackets on (Editorial note: Ha! Must be serious for us to don likejackets! These Polish rivers are like no others we know of, flowing fast with

Heading upriver on the Wisla from Biala Gora.

frequent sandbanks to be avoided and bank markers indicating the channel to follow, binoculars are a very necessary tool for this). Out of the lock cut, where the causeway upstream of the lock cut was starting to show and water was gushing between the trees growing on it. The river was flowing at about 4 kph, we had engine revvs to do 8.5 kph and we were actually travelling at between 4 to 4.5 kph (according to the GPS) when we started off. As we moved over to the right bank the flow rate increased and knocked our

Ferry boat at Gniew

speed down to between 2 to 3 kph. At 9.15 am. we could see the town of Gniew in the distance. It would take us more than two hours to do the six kilometres to Gniew. We turned the first right hand bend, five kilometres from the start, after an hour and twenty minutes running time. Our speed was averaging 3.6 kph. At 10.45 we’d done 10 kms. Our speed over the riverbed had been down as low 1.8 kph and up as high as 5 kph. The cable ferry at Gniew was back at work (it had been out of action when we came downriver because the road was underwater). It was crawling across the river with three cars on board. On the next

Rosy passing the ferry at Gniew

bend, upstream of Janowo, there was a sandbank starting to emerge from the river which stretched halfway across. I took photos of the seagulls and terns which were walking on it. It started to spit with rain as we went through lots of swirling water passing the sandbank. In the far distance we could see the factory chimneys and the church towers of Kwidzyn. At midday we had good views of Gniew behind us. For lunch we had ham and salad sandwiches on the stern as yet another short light shower of rain started. At 1 pm. the cable ferry

Birds walking on an exposed sandbank at Janowo

at Opalenie/Krzenie came into view. We could still see Gniew behind us at 1.30 pm. More gulls on a sandbank on the right hand side just downstream of the ferry. The ferry was loaded up with cars to cross the river left to right, but it waited until the two of us crawled past before setting off. We hooted and waved. It was 2 pm. by the time we’d passed it. Just upstream of the ferry a stone groyne was almost visible on the right hand side, the water boiling over it was causing lots of turbulence in the river. Five hours after we first saw it, we could still see Gniew. It was a shame that the nice looking off-line basin and

The ferry at Opalinie

quay by the ferry were not ten kilometres further upstream. We carried on, hoping to find a good mooring after we’d done battle with the river for around 30 kms. The rain showers got heavier and the wind picked up in strength. We saw our last glimpse of Gniew at 2.30 pm. As we approached the ruins of a railway bridge, where only the stumps of the supporting piers were left, the channel was over 8m deep. It was 2.45 pm. when we started to turn left following the bank markers, which indicated the channel went across the river from right to

Water pouring over the downstream edge
of a submerged sandbank near Opalinie

left close to the old bridge. I was taking photos, when suddenly we were no longer making forward progress. Stuck on another Wisła sandbank!! I called Bill on VHF to tell him not to follow where we’d gone as we were on the bottom. Mike tried powering it off and it didn’t budge. Just then the ‘phone rang – it was Vision Express in Bydgoszcz ringing to tell him his glasses were ready. What timing! Then rain was getting heavier too. I went to check around the hull with a shaft to find where we were stuck and how deep the water was. We had a sandbank to our left, the front port side of the boat was hard aground showing three inches of hull which should have been wet. Bill came to have a rope and pull with Rosy. Mike managed to get the

Approaching the demolished railway bridge in pouring rain

rope around his small jackstaff on the bow breaking it off with the rope and Bill’s pilot jack went sailing off down the Wisła. (He’d got another one but Mike said he would buy him a new one later) Once the rope was attached, Bill tried pulling us off by reversing Rosy. It didn’t move. I went inside and (trying hard not to panic) moved all the moveable heavy stuff; mud weights, coal scuttle, HF radio, microwave, plus all the tools and my sewing machine - all from the left side to the right - to make the boat list away from where it was

The rest of the demolished railway bridge

aground. Meanwhile, under Mike’s instruction, Bill carefully turned Rosy so he could pull our stern with Rosy in forward gear. That worked. Thank goodness! Bill now qualifies for Tugmaster! (Honorary title given by us to anyone who has rescued another narrowboat stuck on the mud/sand, whatever) Relieved, I went in the cabin to put all the gear back and restore the boat back to normal – ie, without a severe list to starboard. The heavens opened and thunder crashed. Mike and Bill decided to try crossing over the river downstream of where they thought the sandbank ended - well before the bank

Rosy powering through the demolished railway bridge

markers. We went slowly across the river at forty five degrees, eyes glued to the echo sounder, until we were in the deeper channel on the left bank. A big sigh of relief went up. Then we had the gap between the end two railway bridge piers to contend with. The water was flowing very fast through the gap (we reckoned that after the bridge was destroyed the other gaps between the piers were left filled with rubble and only the one gap was dredged out and made navigable), we were doing good speed through the water but going nowhere – l

Gniew

ooking at the banks told us we were not moving forward. Mike increased engine revvs to almost maximum, wriggled the boat from side to side and we began very gradually to crawl through the demolished railway bridge. That was almost worse than being stuck on the sandbank.  A couple more passages from one bank to the other, following the bank markers, but without much confidence now, done very gingerly when the echo sounder showed less than 1m, Mike reduced the engine revvs right down to tick over, ready to stop and back off, until the echo showed more water beneath us. Our nerves were in tatters, so we started looking for somewhere to moor, we’d hd enough for one day. A small yacht went past

The passing tug and pan

us, heading downstream really flying along under sail, going with the wind and current. We pulled gradually over to the left hand bank by the next set of channel markers and I threw a rope from our bows around an old tree stump and we tied up with Rosy alongside. Mike and Bill put our long poles out to the bank to keep the boats off the bottom and put ropes around more trees at the stern ends. We were in the wilderness with grass as far as you could see, but within minutes of tying up we heard the voices of some people walking past at the top of the bank. We didn’t think they saw us, it must have been either fishermen or poachers. A tug and pan went downriver just after we tied up, we wondered if they knew about the sandbank in the channel below the railway bridge and expected that they would be much better informed than we were. 

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