Tuesday 31st May 2005 Yacht club Neptun on the Wisła Smiała to Przegalina.

 Wisła Smiała - Wiki photo by Pumeks

10.6º C overnight. Cold, grey clouds with a blustery westerly wind. Bill had run out of bread, so I gave him a half a loaf of rye as we’d still got some white bread and toasting sliced bread. Set off at 8.35 a.m. heading into Gdansk to see the shipyards and the Napoleonic fortress at Westerplatte. Set the video camera up on the tripod on the front deck and started filming as we went under a new suspension bridge. Beyond it was a railway bridge with a swinging centre section (which was high enough for us to get underneath) and some very battered wooden fendering around the piles on which it stood. Not long after that the shipyards began appearing on each bank. A small fast police boat (a semi rigid inflatable) came to have a look at us, he went past us, turned round and went back where he’d come

Ferry across the river at Wisloujscie
 - Wikimedia photo by  M Minderhoud

from. Loads of ships were under construction or awaiting repair. A great orange painted ship had Kingstown as its home port and a helicopter landing pad above its front deck. All the floating docks were occupied by ships. A very large crane on a barge set off from the bank on our right and went past carrying a large rectangular construction on the end of the crane hooks. A large ferry boat went across carrying cars from one side of the river to the other. A trip boat overtook us then another one came towards us, the latter was a paddlewheeler with paddlewheels on each side. At Westerplatte we went past the fortress, called Twierdza

Fortress Twierdza Wisloujscie
Wikimedia photo by  Andrezej

Wisłoujście, which looked very much like the fortifications Vauban built in France. We winded, as to go any further would have taken us out into the Baltic. The ferry was setting off again with another load of cars. A pilot boat, heading out to sea, had to stop and let it pass. Mike called me to steer while he went in the cabin. When he came back he said what’s our tripod doing in the water? The video camera and tripod had gone swimming (trying to commit suicide and join the other two dead cameras) and was being dragged along by its twelve volt cable. I pulled it back on board and water poured out of it. Well, that’s the end of another camera! Mike said I’d left the legs of the tripod at unequal lengths which made it unstable and the wind had blown it overboard. I thought I’d left it secure with one leg between the

Fortress from the river bank
Wikimedia photo by  M Minderhoud

moped and the day tank. Mike dried it out, took its covers off and hung it up in the engine room to dry out, but didn’t hold any hopes that it would survive as I had left it turned on, on standby. We decided that a circular trip around the city was out of the question as there was yet another pontoon bridge blocking the through passage. Next time maybe. I made a cup of soup to warm us up. We motored back through the shipyards. The sun came out briefly, but black clouds were gathering over Gdansk. We’d planned to arrive at the pontoon bridge at Sobieszewko at its opening time of 1 pm. The paddle wheeler was catching us up, we thought he was going

Gdansk dockyard cranes
Wikimedia photo by esbi

to go through the bridge too, but he turned and moored at a quay before the bridge. The wind picked up as another squall hit, just like the day before. The waves coming from behind us were getting quite choppy and at one o’clock there was no sign of anyone coming to open the bridge. Mike sounded the hooter. Nothing. I tried the phone number on the sheet of paper given to us by the Polish yachties. It said invalid number – there must be a Gdansk area code to go in front of the numbers. At ten past the bridge workers appeared and opened the bridge. Mike was not happy about being kept waiting while the boats were being bounced about by the waves and asked the guy if he needed a new watch as we went past. From the blank stare, he

The pontoon bridge at Sobieszewko
Wikimedia photo by Merlin

either didn’t understand or couldn’t hear with such a strong wind blowing. The black clouds rolled on by and the sun came out, but it was still windy as we ran down to the lock at Przegalina. The landing stage Bill had previously spotted in the old channel of the river had no access to the bank. The pilings by the lock had no bank access either and the dolphins looked a bit too far apart for our length. We went into the lock and asked the keeper if there was anywhere to moor overnight. He said it was OK on the other side of the lock. Bill thought when Mike said “tie up on the other side of the lock” he meant in the lock and moored on the other wall. Mike paid for the lock - Bill would pay

Old lock at Przegalina
Wikimedia photo by Nandi

for the next one. The wind was howling through the lock chamber, as it was blowing directly from behind us and covering the boat roof in sand off the lockside. It was a bit more sheltered beyond the lock and flood barriers. Three ancient accommodation barges were moored next to the dolphins on the right bank, so we went to ask if we could tie to one of them overnight. The end one looked inhabited and a bald sunburned bloke came out with something smoking as we went past. I asked could we tie up overnight, he shrugged, so Mike turned the boat around and moored next to Marta of

"New" lock at Przegalina
Wikimedia photo by Pumeks

Warszawa (Warsaw), who had seen better days, all three were very old boats. Bill moored Rosy behind us. It was 2.50 pm and the sun was out again for a few minutes before the next shower of heavy rain. The “something smoking” was some wood in a drum the guy living on Marta had just fired up to make charcoal for a barbecue. We went in and got on with some chores. The video camera wouldn’t power up to eject the tape. Mike applied power to it with batteries to get the tape out. Most likely the processor was fried. Hope we can save the tape
.

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).