Friday 3rd June 2005 Marlbork to Biała Góra.

Oh isn't it nice not to have to search for other people's photos to illustrate the blog - from now on they're all mine (or Mike's!) - we've entered the age of digital photography, hooray!

Lashing to the quay at Malbork

Milder 10.8º C, grey and cloudy, drizzly light showers and occasional spells of sunshine. Bill went to the Internet café early to avoid being mobbed by twelve year old boys. Mike did the engine room month end checks, replacing an injector “o” ring which had gone flat and caused a slight leak, and I got on with the usual chores. Then I had the PC on to look at the camera software and some of the pictures we’d taken. Not too bad, room for improvement. Bill came back and said most of the shops didn’t open until ten.

Malbork castle

He went again when they reopened. We set off at 11.45am. Three young lads in a pedalo were splashing about around the boat, laughing and giggling, generally getting in the way as we untied until Mike hooted at them, then they were all smiles but moved out of danger range of collision. Took more photos of Malbork. It was dull and spitting with rain. We arrived at Szonowo lock at 12.30pm. After we’d hooted, a young man came and opened the gate to let us in, closed the gate and then lifted the paddles. A woman took Bill’s

Malbork castle

money (the usual amount this time 11,36 Zł! They charged us 12.80 last time) and then she opened the top end gate. We left the top at 12.50 pm. Low wooded hills on the left and flood dykes (no longer necessary to prevent flooding, so there were lots of paths cut through nowadays) on the right. On the right bank we spied a bicycle leaning against a fence post and Mike said I bet there’s another boat somewhere with a bloke fishing. He was right. About two kilometres upstream in the reedy bank there was a bloke

In Biala Gora lock

fishing from a boat. A bit later on we saw three men fishing by a pipe, probably a sewage discharge from a village not far away. I said if they come from that village and they catch fish that are feeding on the sewage that comes down that pipe then are they getting their own back? Mike replied only if they don’t sell the fish they catch to someone else! There was a terrible pong a bit further on up the river. It smelled like pigs being boiled. Round the next bend and it disappeared. It must have been coming from a house hidden in the woods between us and the Wisła. A white tailed eagle was being pursued by a silvery male hen

Bird's nest in the lockgate at Biala Gora

harrier. The smaller bird had no chance against the eagle’s big flapping wings. The river narrowed where an old railway bridge used to stand, there were embankments on either side the river. Four men were fishing in various spots in the narrow bit. Back into wider waters and the whole terrain opened up into the former flood plain of the Wisła from the days before they built the lock and flood defences at Biała Góra. Round the last few bends to the lock. Mike put the boat against the dolphins (new linked ones with a passerelle on t

Men still at work at Biala Gora refurbishing lock

op) and went to find someone to work the lock. A young man came and wound the gate open and we went in. The difference in levels was much less than last time. The workmen had put their electricity cable over the lock up over two pieces of wood on the lock edges but we could get underneath easily as the Wisła was now 1.3m lower than when we came down it. Hopefully it should be running more slowly. As we came out of the lock an aircraft flew over very low, right over the lock chamber. He turned and came

Moored on Wisla above Biala Gora lock

back and did it again! Bill put Rosy against the bank on the right side just beyond the lock where some piling had been exposed. It was very muddy and he couldn’t do much but stand still and hold the ropes. We went alongside and Mike got off and did the tying up, while Bill held on to the boats. It was 4pm. Mike went off with the camera to repeat the photos he took last time we were here for comparison with photos

Markers on the banks of the Wisla (Vistula) 

taken with the 35mm camera. 

The boats moored on the Wisla from the lock gates at Biala Gora

Thursday 2nd June 2005 jnc Jagiellonski canal to Marlbork.Nogat river - Wikimedia photo by

River Nogat - Wikimedia photo by Kepiny Wielkie

A cold night 5.5º C. Heavy rain in the night. Then grey clouds, rain showers with a cold wind all day. Mike was up at 7 am to be ready for off at 8 am. I had a hand-crafted birthday card from Bill (and Fanny)! The clouds were getting darker as we went under the first road bridge. A pair of cranes took off from the meadow on our left. Around 9.30 am we had a ten minute shower of rain, so up went the brolly and the radio, maps etc, went into plastic bags. An hour later we arrived at the first lock, Michałowo, the lock was full and there was no sign of anyone, so we put the boat in the lock mouth and Mike went to find the keeper. Bill went with him as it was his turn to pay for the lock. When they got back, Mike said he’d been to the farmhouse which was surrounded by a wire fence. He hadn’t noticed the lion (an immense old dog), which was sleeping under an iron bench at the front of the house, until he had crossed the yard and climbed the steps to the front door. The lion walked to the bottom of the steps, as i t was a very old lion it woofed at them in a very deep voice, but not with any great conviction. Mike knocked the door which caused an explosion of dogs inside the house, they all collided with the front door at the same time. Fortunately it opened inwards. The lady keeper calmed them down (there were only three of them, it seemed like a dozen!) brought her windlass with her and worked the lock for us. We rose 1.7m. Bill paid - she hadn’t got any change and Bill only had a fifty note. We loaned him a ten. We said bye, bye to the keeper and thanks. Above were two canoes waiting for the lock; the very elderly couple paddling them were waiting to go down.  I made a cuppa and cooked some Scotch pancakes, setting the fire alarm off (it’s very sensitive). A medium-sized yacht from Torún, south east of Bydgoszcz on the Wisła, went past heading downriver. I went in the cabin to make some lunch. Mike called me to come and look at something swimming across the river. Through binoculars I could see it was an otter and two black terns were giving it some grief, it kept diving under water to get away from them. Had it been thieving eggs? There were lots of birds about. Herons and common terns and black terns. Another couple in a two-man canoe stopped for lunch, pulling into the bank and paddling with trousers rolled up above the knees to get ashore. The flow rate went up to 1.5 kph before we got to the next lock. It must have been a shallow section, after about a kilometre it slowed back down to 1 kph again. We passed a fisherman with a most unusual boat. He’d nailed a couple of bits of wood on top of two oil drums and was sitting on it

Nogat at Malbork - Wikimedia photo by Der Hexer

, fishing without a care in the world as we went past. Bill thought it was just a seat in the edge of the river, but the water was too deep to paddle out to it and he’d got poles to move it around. Up Rakoweic lock. A young man came out to empty the lock when we hooted and two older men came out to help and talk. One was in uniform, wearing an olive green short sleeved shirt with badges on the sleeves. This time Bill had change from his fifty. On the outskirts of Malbork we passed an old arm with two pans and an old Bydoszcz tug in it, plus an old barge converted into a bar and “hamburgery”, which was now disused. Beyond it was a long piled quay with bollards where there was a big pile of sand and a crane, plus an empty 80m pan. Behind the quay was an old abandoned factory, partly demolished, surrounded by a fancy concrete fence which was also broken down. We followed Bill upriver to Malbork and moored alongside Rosy on the quay. Bill went off on his bike to do some shopping. I went to the tourist information office to find the location of the nearest supermarket. On my return Mike came out with the bags and told Bill where we were going. He’d fetched our mail from the Post Office after having to argue with the woman behind the counter, who insisted there was no poste restante mail waiting – Bill said there was – she went to look and, well I never! - there was! He offered the loan of his bike to carry our shopping back on instead of us having to carry it. Great idea. Our post was a parcel from Mike’s Mum and Dad containing three birthday cards for me and some VHS tapes of our favourite soap. We called in a shop selling digital cameras and treated ourselves to a new Kodak digital camera (1399 Zł) plus a bag for it (54 Zł) and a 256 mb flash card (129 Zł), all for the sum of 1573 Zł (£262) – I used my new Nationwide credit card for the first time to pay for it. Then we topped up with groceries from the Bomi supermarket, spending another 204 Zł on my Nationwide credit card. On the way back, I held on to the bike with all our groceries while Mike took some cash from our current account via a cash machine to compare the rates that Nationwide charge on credit card sales. By the castle there were lots of tourists. Among them we heard the unmistakable loud voices of Yankee tourists! The first Americans we’d seen since leaving France. Unloaded the groceries and Bill went off on his bike to do more shopping. Loaded the software for the camera into the PC and had a look at the new camera. It had got a load of features, including being able to turn off the automatic functions and take pictures manually. We had fresh baguettes with cheese and onion and Pringles crisps (a treat). Later Mike and Bill wanted to try some EB (Elblag special brew beer) so they went next door to the floating bar - but they weren’t open - so they went to an open air bar by the river and drank a few Tyskie beers under a tent instead. They got talking to some locals who spoke English who told them that the Polish-German border used to be here on the Nogat and there was once a customs post on the bridge. 

Wednesday 1st June 2005 Przegalina to jnc Jagiellonski canal

Dolphins at Przegalina lock
Wikimedia photo by Gdaniek

A chilly 7.7º C overnight moored next to an ancient accommodation barge on the Wisła above Przegalina lock. It was sunny first thing, then black clouds rolled over and we had showers until mid-afternoon, when the sun came out again but the wind was still cold. We set off at 8.20 a.m. and turned the corner out of the lock channel heading upstream, against the flow on the Wisła. It was five kilometres to the lock at Gdanska Głowa, where we would turn off on to the Szkarpawa. The river was flowing at about 4 kph and we were making about 4 kph against it. I went in to bake some bread buns for lunch as we’d eaten all the bread. When I’d finished making the dough and kneading it, I put it in the engine room to rise. We were at the lock after a run of about an hour and ten minutes. One lock gate at Gdanska Głowa was open ready for us to go down. Bill went to pay the woman while the old man worked the manual lock. We dropped down 1.1m (it was 1.7m rise when we went uphill so the river level had dropped by over half a metre since we were there last time). Set off again at 9.45 a.m. on the placid little river Szkarpawa. The flow was against us by about 1 kph (they told us that the Baltic has no tide?). Stopped again

Gdanska Glowa lock - Wiki photo by Lukasz Katlewa

at Drewnica at 10.10 a.m. to wait for the pontoon bailey bridge to open. There was nowhere to tie up and wait, so Mike put our bow fender on one of the pontoons (called Alexandra – strangely all nine floating boxes had names!) I tied the bows to it and he threw a small grapple anchor out on the windward side. Bill brought Rosy alongside. The next opening time was eleven. The bread was ready for knocking back and shaping into buns. At eleven o’clock Mike got off on to the bridge and went to find the bridge workers. OK. They were coming. They wouldn’t if he hadn’t gone to tell them we wanted passage through the

Pontoon bridge at Sobieszewski - Wiki photo by  Jarba

bridge. Bill untied and backed off, then Mike lifted the anchor and we did likewise. The middle section of the bridge motored open and we went through. Just in time to get the bread out of the oven. For a while a silvery male hen harrier flew along parallel with us over the reeds along the edge of the river. White and yellow water lilies were just starting to bloom along the banks. We had a salad in bowls for lunch with my fresh brown bread buns. The boat went under the big yellow liftbridge at Rybina with the mast off to get under the bridge deck at 2.58m, so we had no need to wait for its opening time. Herons, black-headed

Pontoon bridge at Sobieszewski - Wiki photo by Yanek

gulls and terns were fishing along the next stretch of river. The clouds had blown away behind and in front of us and we had blue sky and warm sunshine, shame about the chilly wind. Had a cup of hot coffee to warm us up. At 2.50 p.m. we turned right out of the Szkarpawa’s widening channel before it arrived at the lagoon and started heading into the Nogat. The wind was blustery and two fishermen with a khaki camouflaged boat were checking fishing nets. A small yacht from Gdansk was moored in the reeds, it had a small solar panel on its stern. A man came out to wave and say hello as we passed. We were going with

Pontoon bridge at Sobieszewski - Wiki photo by Yanek

the flow now, again about 1 kph. Lots of water lilies, both white and yellow, lined both banks. We slowed down when the cable ferry at Keparybaka went across. Bill didn’t slow down and went past us. Mike had to tell him on the radio that there was a cable about 1.5m above the water (plus two more on water level). He hadn’t see it and thought the cable was underwater. The ferry went back again, then the operator lowered the cable and called us through. At 4 pm the water flow changed and started running the other way. The access into the other route to the lagoon from the Nogat, the Cieplicówka canal, was blocked

Pontoon bridge at Sobieszewski - Wiki photo by  Karina

with reeds and water lily pads. There were two small boats with people fishing from them by the entrance to the Jagiellonski canal. We turned into the canal and moored next to the piling for the third time. It was 4.30 pm. Fanny had rolled in something stinky again while Bill was tying up (she did it last time we were there) and had to have a bath - which she didn’t like at all and barked at Bill. A medium sized wedge shaped power boat went past. He'd slowed down, but his wash (from the speed he had been doing) caught up with him

Liftbridge at Rybina - Wiki photo by Andrwej Obtrebski

as he was passing us. Prat. He went through the bridge, turned round and went back again the way he'd come! Bill came over to have a chat about where we would be stopping on the Wisła. If the Wisła was flowing at about 4 kph it will take us four days to get to back upriver to Bydgoszcz. We should make 30 kms per day against it and be able to stop at Grudziadz and Chełmo, but the first night will be difficult as there was nothing that we noted as a mooring possibility on the way down. I helped with the video camera re-assembly by cleaning all the lenses. It still didn’t work. Back to the drawing board. Not another dead camera?

Sunday 29th May & Monday 30th May 2005 Gdanska Głowa lk to yacht club Neptun on Wisła Smiała.

Sunday 29th May 2005  Gdanska Głowa lock.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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). 

Tuesday 17th May 2005 Malbork to jnc Kanal Jagielloński.

2.2º C Mild with hazy sunshine at first. Rain, windy and cold later. Bill went to the Post Office first thing, still no sign of his package from Hans. We set off downstream on the placid little river Nogat just after 9.00 a.m. At ten to ten we arrived at the first lock, Rakowiec. It was empty, the keeper filled it and we went in. Mike paid for the two boats 11,36 Zł (back to the old price) and then we descended. Surprised to see the Dutch boat, Uhuru, waiting below the lock as we left it. The German skipper said he’d been to Ostroda and the moorings were better at Iława, he’d also managed to get to Gdansk. He said he’d gone straight down the Wisła first and crossed the Szkarpawa canal to get to Elblag. He had been pushing on as he has to be home by 1^st June. We noted his home port on the stern of the boat was Lingen (on the Ems

– almost in Holland!). We wished him well and said we’d meet again no doubt. Below the lock the river was narrow with

Map of location courtesy of Wikimedia

broken topped dykes on either bank. Nesting black terns were hovering over the lily pads catching insects. We had an SMS from Hans, he told us that in Germany they keep Poste Restante mail for two weeks and asked what they do in Poland. We sent one back to say that EU regulations say post should be kept for one month, but there is no guarantee of that anywhere. It began to rain. We arrived at Mikałowo lock just after midday. A lady keeper had just arrived on her bike, with two dogs trailing her every move, and opened a gate for us. She'd come from a farm house two hundred metres further back up the river – the lock house was unoccupied and slowly rotting away. We asked about water. She replied OK, we could have some in containers from her house. No, but thanks a lot, we needed our tanks filling, we need a tap near enough for a hosepipe. The bottom lock gate looked really heavy, shame I couldn’t get off to help her. The paddles had looked hard work too. It was now pouring with rain and getting colder. We pushed on. Lunch under the brolly. We were really cheesed off with the weather by the time we reached the junction with the Jagielloński kanal. We turned right, under a bridge with stop gate and moored next to some piling beyond the bridge. It was 2.45 p.m. and I was soaked and cold. Mike put the satellite dish up and we got changed into dry clothes. We watched the weather forecast, rain was indicated for the next day all over Poland again. We had the central heating on, which Mike switched off last thing, but left the coal fire burning all night.

Monday 16th May 2005 above Biała Góra lock R Nogat to Malbork.

Heavy rain in the night. 8.2º C overnight. Grey, overcast, windy, a few showers and sunny spells later. Mike went to have a word with the lock keeper and found two dozen workmen in green overalls wandering around on the lockside. None spoke any English. One group of them said we could go through the lock in two hours’ time – and another group just kept saying yes,yes,yes! He came back to the boat and got on with a few jobs. At ten o’clock there was no sign of life on the lockside, so Mike went back up the flood protection bank to the lock and there was no one to be seen, they must have been on a tea break. At 10.45 they started to wind the

lock gates open, so we unlashed from the bank and fetched the plank in and took the two boats in still tied side by side. A cable was across the lock, two men on each side lifted it up to let us pass underneath. I put the centre rope round an inset bollard in the wall and Mike did likewise with the stern. Bill hopped off with a big bag of rubbish for the bins and had to climb over scaffolding to get along the lockside where the men had been replacing the brickwork. The lock keeper (he had blue overalls on) wound a paddle and we descended. I let the boat run forward so the

bows were close enough to a ladder for Bill to climb back down on to the boat. We dropped down 2.3 metres from the river Wisła (which was actually in flood) above, to a full-to-the-brim river Nogat below. It was 10.55 a.m. The Nogat was much narrower than the Wisła, with high flood protection dykes set close to the edges at first, but widening out later. The river was fringed with reed beds and beyond the reeds there were cultivated fields of colza already in bloom. There was very little flow, although the keeper at Biała Góra was running lots of water down off the Wisła. Three startled red deer galloped away across a field as we

approached them. I made a cup of tea and some sandwiches as we travelled the 14 kms to the next lock. We arrived at Szonowo at 12.45 p.m. No signs of life. We tied up in the lock mouth to wait for the keeper to emerge. Mike got off to find the keeper. A lady keeper made out a till ticket for us and wanted money, but Mike couldn’t understand how much. It turned out we hadn’t paid at the first lock – well no one asked us for any money! So we paid 25 Złotys for the two boats for two locks as we were short of change as usual and so were the keeper and her husband (what’s new?). The price should be 6,40 Złotys per boat per lock. More expensive than the Bromberg canal and Notec, who only charged us 5,68 Złotys per boat (Note the exchange rate was roughly 6 Złotys to the pound). Mike asked if there was drinking water available, no, not

there, two locks further on. We dropped down a further 1.7m and pressed on into Malbork. The town was perched above the flood banks, most of the houses were almost hidden from view. The red brick fortress built by the Teutonic Knights in the Middle Ages was very imposing. Took a few photos of Rosy with the castle as a background. We found a mooring quay marked with a “P” and tied up right by the castle gates. It was 2.15 p.m. It was quiet when we arrived, but soon there were coachloads of schoolkids arriving, crossing the footbridge to the castle and generally making a lot of noise. Mike suggested that Bill would get around the town better

on his bike than he would on foot, and he asked if Bill could collect our post, which he did. The post had arrived from the UK, but there were no maps from our friend Hans in Germany. Bill had found an internet café so the two of them went back into town to have a session on the internet. I sent Hans a text and he replied that he had sent the maps on the 23^rd April to Malbork as promised. The internet café was being run by a fifteeen year old girl and the place was full of twelve year old lads playing games on the PCs. They crowded round Mike and Bill like starving refugee kids, but it was information they wanted, not food. There were no printers, so Mike couldn’t get a copy of our April ‘phone bill. Bill had a message for us on his web site, which he told us was getting over 100 visits a day, the message was from our niece bringing us up to date with family news. We had no satellite TV so we watched the weather forecast on Polish TV - sunshine and showers.

Friday 13th May 2005 Brda lock to abv Biała Góra lock Nogat. 124 kms no locks

A cold night down to 2º C, but it was sunny - the break in the weather had arrived. Off at last! Mike was up at 5.30 a.m. to get ready for lock opening time at 7.00 a.m. At 6.45 a.m. a tug arrived, pushing a pan, and went into the lock, so we followed it in. Bill went off to pay for the lock and got back on board just before the keeper pulled the plug and we started to descend. We followed the commercial out of the lock

down the short channel to the Wisła. The gauge below the lock was registering another 5 cms drop in the water level. Once we reached the river Mike turned upstream, avoiding three fishermen in a small power boat, and checked to see how fast the river was flowing. He reckoned the flow rate was between five and six kph. We turned and ran downstream with revvs for 6.5 kph and did

11.5 kph over the bed. Started chasing bank markers, X’s on the left bank and crossing over to the +’s on the right bank. The pan and tug had turned and were heading back upstream to join up with the dredger, which was just above the bridge at Fordon. We crossed to the right by the dredger, then swung back to the left for the road bridge. A couple of waterways boats were

moored just downstream of the bridge on the left bank. There were lots of fishermen along the left hand bank and a couple of tiny sail boats moored on the right. I made a cup of soup to warm us up, the wind was bitterly cold, as we approached Chelmo, K802, the spires of the old town on the right bank and factory chimneys on the left. Under Chelmo road bridge at a few minutes before eleven o’clock. We passed a tug

pushing two pans, battling upstream against the current near Swiecie K811. There were cliffs along the left bank and a picnic area, which was occupied by a family, by the hills at KP815. The multi-coloured tower blocks on the hills of Grudziadz came into view. We zig-zgged back and forth across the river practically every kilometer. I made some coffee. Changed the film in the camera and took photos of the fortified town of Grudziadz as we went flying past it. The buttressed walls were topped with houses, it looked very impressive from the water. The wind picked up. A

parascender was attempting to take off on the right bank, the curled pink wing lifting into the air and descending again. On a wide stretch the waves started getting bigger, encouraged by the wind against the flow. A large hill on the right bank reached up to the giddy height of 87.8metres. A white tailed eagle was being persecuted by three brave crows as we passed the slopes of the big hill. The wind was very strong

right in our faces as we neared Nowe, where two tall churches stood on the hill. I took photos of some strangely formed flat-bottomed clouds. It was still windy as the river bends took us to the east with wooded hills on our left, we expected some shelter from the wind but got none. The anitquated ferry at Korzenieowo, KP 867, was out of action as the road on the left bank was under water. There appeared to be a smart

looking offline basin with boats moored in it just downstream of the ferry – maybe to be investigated on the way back! As we reached Lipianki the waves became more sploshy, but this eased off as we reared Gniew, another town perched on the hills on our left. This town had several interesting towers and a huge square building which was probably a monastery. Downstream of the town was another ferry,

Bill's photo of the boats moored on the Vistula
waiting for the stop planks to come out

also out of service as the road on the right bank was also submerged beneath the waters of the Wisła. It was 7 p.m. when we arrived at the junction with the river Nogat. Calamity! The lock was out of action, stop planks barred our way! We threw ropes around trees, called Rosy on to the inside and chucked a plank off the stern for the dog and Bill to get on and off. Bill went to have a look. He said they were doing maintenance

work. Mike went to investigate too but there was no one to ask when the stoppage would be over. We were very glad to be here but wondered how long we would have to wait for the lock repairs to be finished. Friday the 13^th!!