Monday 6th June 2005 Grudziadz to Chełmno.

Rosy leaving the arm at Grudziadz

11.5º C overnight. Cold and breezy with grey scudding clouds and occasional bright spells. The water level in the Wisła had dropped another 5 cms overnight. Rosy went out of the arm first, turning right heading downstream with the flow to turn upstream out in the river. Mike powered gently round the corner, turning left into the flow, out of the mucky hole we’d tied in overnight. I made a cup of tea as we went upriver. The local authorities had been busy building new concrete capped groynes both

Sand quay at Grudziadz

up- and down-stream of Grudziadz. A pair of goosanders were using one as a diving platform until we passed them, then they flew off. Criss-crossing the river started again. Not long after we set off another little yacht came flying down the river with the flow. A sandbank was showing its head above water at KP 829.5. Two swans and a load of gulls were sitting on it. At KP 828 we caught the edge of another sandbank, so I warned Bill on VHF to keep off to our left and Mike backed off it, sending up

Bridge over the Vistula at Grudziadz

clouds of sand, into deeper water. We had been in direct line with the markers. Another one nearly caught us between KP 826/827, where we had to back off yet again and cross further downstream than the bank markers. It looked like the sandbanks had moved further downriver than the markers. Learning to “read” the river, we could see there was “flat” water over the sand and the wind was picking up bigger ripples where the water was deeper. We’d also noticed that, when we were coming up to a submerged

New tower blocks at Grudziadz

sandbar, the boat’s speed increased dramatically as it found slack water, increasing from 2 kph to 6 kph in no time. We backed off and tip-toed very gingerly across the river to the left hand side, downstream of the right hand markers on a right hand bend! As we crossed back to the left side, we could see the clearly defined downstream edge of the sand bar where the water cascaded over it. Then a team of three men in a fast boat that looked a bit like a dug-out canoe with a large outboard was coming down river crossing from side

Little yacht whizzing past heading downstream

to side. They were changing the bank markers!! Hopefully we will now miss the ends of the sandbanks! I took photos of them moving the goal posts. We were right! The sand was moving, rolling downstream, being churned along like sand dunes in a water covered desert. The wind started picking up at 11.45 a.m. I went in to make sandwiches for lunch at 12.30 p.m. Mike needed a spotter, so I left the sandwich making while we crossed back across the river. I finished making the

Exposed top of sand bank near Chelmno

sandwiches and we ate lunch whilst zig-zagging back and forth across the Wisła. A large bunch of mallard drakes and goosanders took off from a sandy beach, disturbed by our passage. Between KP 815/814 the bank markers had changed completely from when we came downriver. The channel had been routed along the other side of the river, right over on the left hand side at the start of a long left hand bend, downstream of Swiecie, a town practically invisible from the river. Mike’s charts of bank

Waterways lengthsmen changing the bank markers!

markers would have to be amended, which meant they would be of little use should we ever come here again. Upstream of the town there was a big sweeping right hand bend with a large sandbank on the inside. At 2.45 p.m. we could see the church towers of Chełmno in the distance. On the inside of the next big bend they had built four new stone groynes. More seagulls were standing on sand in mid-river at KP 811. Across the river, under the high girder road bridge at Chełmno and back

Speeding off to change more bank markers
to match the ever moving channel

across the river again to moor against a concrete capped piled quay that was higher than our cabin roofs. It was 4 pm when we tied at the upstream end.  Several car loads of people had come to watch. Mike gave Bill a hand to tie up behind us. A strange looking vessel set off from the waterways basin opposite and came steaming past us twice, then moored behind and an old chap came to chat to Bill, who was giving Fanny some grief and a bath as she’d found something smelly to roll in within seconds of tying up. Bad dog! Strange how

Chelmno and another sand bank

humans have no liking for eau-de-poisson-mort (perfume of dead rotting fish). Mike went to talk to the old chap. He told them that the return journey via the Warta from Bydgoszcz was prettier than the Notec and had fewer locks. 

Our visitor from across the river at Chelmno

Mike waiting with boat shaft to catch Bill's ropes