Sunday 29th May 2005 Gdanska Głowa
lock.
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| Map of the Wisla (Vistula) delta rivers |
11.8º C overnight Sunny, cool breeze. Mike got up at 8 a.m. when Bill
knocked to ask for help with getting Rosy off the bottom as the level had
dropped by 6” and he couldn’t budge it. It wouldn’t move just shoving on poles,
so Mike used Bill’s pole as a lever, driving it vertically in the mud then
levering against the counter. The plank was just long enough to reach the bank.
Mike went to work in the engine room. He cleaned Arsène’s casserole (engine cooling
water filter given to us by Arsène and it’s as big as a saucepan) out again –
half full of weed again. A large white cruiser came and moored by the lock, the
crew went to see the lock keeper and then went through the lock, and we thought
that they said the lock was closed on Sundays? At 11.15 a.m. another yacht
arrived and then went away again. Mike checked on the state of the brass water pump
that he had re-engineered. He intended to change the impeller, but there was no
need, it was in as good a state as when he redesigned the pump. He found a water leak
in the cold water supply pipe to the hot water tank (must have been all the
bumping and rocking on the trollies that caused that – it would find any weak
links anywhere on the boat, just like the Polish roads do for cars!) He
resealed one joint, then another one started leaking when I pressurised the
system. Then they wouldn’t reseal with new ptfe tape, so he decided to use hemp
and Templars paste. He couldn’t find any Templars but Bill had some new stuff,
so he used some of that. Lunch. Mike set the gennie up to watch the motor
racing as the 12v system was down to 11V. German Grand Prix from Nürburgring. Later
he had another go at the camera, it still didn’t look good. I made a stirfried
pork saté for dinner.
30th May 2005 Gdanska Głowa lk to yacht club
Neptun on Wisła Smiała.
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| Gdanska Glowa lock Wikimedia photo by Lukas Katelwa |
A mild night. Cloudy with a chilly breeze (rain and thunderstorms later)
as we went into Gdanska Głowa lock at 8.00 a.m. The large manually operated
lock was worked for us by a very thin and fragile-looking old man. A woman did
the paperwork, both looked as miserable as can be. Bill went to pay her. When
he came back he said it was nice to see people who really enjoyed their jobs (sarcasm,
not this pair!) The lock filled, raising the boat 1.6m on to the level of the
river Wisła. Out on to the river, still looking brimful and flowing fast,
turning right and running downstream with the flow. Mike stopped
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| Gdanska Glowa lock Wikimedia photo by Lukas Katelwa |
the boat dead
in the water to check the speed, it was about 6 kph. In no time we made the
short fast run down to the lock at Przegalina, which was a much larger modern
lock than the one we’d just come up, the lock edges were painted in bright
shades of green and yellow. Before we turned left, ahead of us we could see the
Baltic, looking calm and flat. Two more unhappy looking old men worked the
lock, one to press the buttons and the other to take the money – we even had
change from our 12 Złotys! We dropped down just 1m. As we left the chamber, I
made a mental note to video the wooden lock house on our return
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| Przegalina lock - Wikimedia photo by Yarlu FileBot |
trip. I made a
cuppa as we motored on down the Martwa Wisła, an arm of the river which goes
through Gdansk. Everything was going well until we came to
the road bridge at Sobieszewka at 10.45 a.m. The bridge was a bailey bridge
with a moveable floating pontoon section in the middle. Lots of road traffic
was rumbling slowly across the bumpy wooden decking. We hooted, no signs of
life. In Jerzy Hopfer’s book (Polish waterways expert, book given to us by EHS boat
club) it said the bridge opens mornings and late afternoons – whatever time
that means.
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| Przegalina lock - Wikimedia photo by Pumeks |
We dropped anchor and waited, there was nowhere to tie to the banks.
There were thick black clouds over Gdansk coming our way. Thunder rumbled and
rain began to pour. The boat pivoted through all four points of the compass around
the anchor rope. Lunch. A man in a small fishing boat came under the bridge (if
only it had been a few centimetres higher we could have got underneath it too)
and came to talk to us in the rain. Where were we from? (In Polish) Mike told
him and tried to ask what time the bridge opened, there was no board giving
times. He went away and came back five minutes later with an atlas – he wanted
Mike to show him
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| Przegalina lock - Wikimedia photo by Nandi |
where we had come from and how we got there. He said the
bridge opens in an hour (or at one o’clock – as it was midday it came to the
same thing). Just before 1pm several workmen appeared and shut the road
barriers to prevent traffic crossing the bridge then started winding something
in the middle of the bridge deck. Mike started the engine and went to lift the
anchor, just as a squall hit. I had to get the brolly down quickly as the wind
was blowing a howling gale, threatening to break it, and the rain was really
hammering down. I powered the bows round into the wind so that Mike
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| Sobieszewka swingbridge - Wikimedia photo by Merlin |
could lift
the anchor and the fender that he’d used as a marker buoy. To our amazement the
workmen opened the road barriers again for road traffic to cross, then they went
away again! We circled. Lightening flashed and thunder crashed for ten minutes.
As the rain eased off they came back and started up the motor to drive the
centre section to one side so we could pass through. It was 1.10 p.m. The
outside temperature had dropped from 24º C to 12ºC! As we pushed on down the
river violet flashes of lightening lit up the sky, one hit the ground very
close to us as a tremendous crash of thunder rolled down the river. We decided
to find somewhere to stop as soon as
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| Lower Wisla looking to Baltic - Wikimedia photo by Pumeks |
possible as continuing might have proved
dangerous. The river swung round to the north becoming the Wisła Smiała, which
emptied into the Baltic just a kilometre further on, and we turned left into a
smaller river channel where there was a yacht club located on the corner. All
the yachts were moored bows or sterns to the bank. As we passed the end of the
line we saw a section of wooden walkway we could tie alongside, so Mike asked
Bill on the radio if he wanted to tie on to it and we would carry on up the narrow
channel (we were now going against the flow) until we came to a wider section
by a shipyard where we could turn round and head back to the yacht club. When
we winded and went back Bill had turned and was waiting for us to go alongside
so he could attach to us. The rain had stopped.
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| Wisła Smiała - Wikimedia photo by Pumeks |
Several people came out to help
including a man and a woman who spoke good English. The river flow at the
junction was going in a circular direction making mooring difficult. To
complicate matters there were rocks along the bank edge. Mike put a pole out to
keep the bows off the rocks and the club members moved a yacht which was behind
us so that we could slide back a bit. Bill brought Rosy alongside and we moored
up. A very chatty lot, they wanted to know where we’d come from and where we
were going. Fanny got the star treatment, everyone threw sticks for her. Mike
ran a cable out so we could have electricity and Bill bought some cans of beer
at 2 Zł each from them. The overnight charge was 60 Zł each (a little under
£10). The club was called JKM Neptun. Another downpour sent us inside to get
sorted out, then when it stopped Mike ran a cable out and connected up to their
electricity supply. Bill found the hoses out, we refilled our water tanks and
got rid of our rubbish. Meanwhile the bloke who owned the steel yacht behind us
turned up and started a barney over the fact that his boat had been moved
closer to his neighbour’s boat, which was plastic and had a fancy alarm system
on board (if it went off they had to get the owner to come and turn it off as
no one else knew the code for it). The lady who had been helping us got very
upset and went back on her boat. The man (her boyfriend) came to say how sorry
he was that the man should make such a scene in front of visitors. We said it
was OK, we belong to a boat club - we know what it’s like – every club has at
least one member who behaves like that! Mike had another session trying to
repair the camera and condemned it as being unfixable. The
shutter worked again, but the electronics didn’t. He said he might have another
look at it later before he finally decides to bin it (he hates to be defeated
when it comes to fixing anything).
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