Friday 27th May 2005 Elblag to jnc Nogat/Jagielloński canal.

Typical shop in Elblag - Wikimedia photo by Albertyanks

15.5º C overnight – getting warmer. Sunny with hazy clouds. Mike was up first at 7.30 a.m. and we all went into town on foot. Bill took his bike to carry some beer. First we went in the little sklep by the mooring and bought bread and tomatoes. Bill cycled a bit further down the street to get some beer in cans then took all the heavy stuff back to the boat. We walked on across the footbridge into the town, most off which was flattened by the Ruskies at the end of WWII because the Nazis built U-boats there. Most of the buildings are post-war “jerry”-built! We went to the Post Office and sent off two bags containing four films to be developed and five postcards in envelopes. Calculating how much the postage costs is a nightmare. From the tariffs we’d reckoned 2,80 Zł each for the postcards and 3,90 Zł each for the films – but she charged us 16,40 Zł - cheaper than what we thought the rate was. Give up. We went in the internet café, checked e-mails (got none), had printouts of the WWT phone bill and wrote down details from the bank statements as there hadn’t been many transactions. Mike didn’t notice that Bill had come in and was sitting behind us on the far

E7 road bridge in Elblag - Wikimedis photo by Aktron

side of the room – he went to look for him while I did a bit of surfing. He got the guy from the Tourist Info Office looking for him when he was already in the café! Paid 5 Zl for the hour plus and 1 Zł (there were 6 Zł  to the pound) for the two printouts. Next stop a top-up for the ‘phone, which will expire next week when the two months from when we bought it are up. We found the Idea shop. What a setup. A smart young man stood at a small reception desk. He spoke a little English, so he told us to go to the cash desk (a window at the back of the room) and he would tell the young lady what we wanted. We bought a top-up, valid for a month, for 25 Zł and took it back to him and he charged our ‘phone with it for us as we couldn’t understand the Polish instructions. I asked if he could change the language to English, he tried but couldn’t. There were lots of people in the shop, sitting on chairs waiting for someone who was at a desk behind screens. The only ‘phones on display were behind locked glass panels on the one wall. We went back to the other end of the main street to a small supermarket

Tram in Elblag - Wikimedia photo by Francuz-el

and bought a few more groceries: milk, coffee, eggs, butter, coffee-creamer, cheese, Mike asked for some boiled ham this time, lettuce and a treat - a packet of chocolate coated biscuits and a bottle of Fanta orangeade!  Loaded up the rucksacks as armed guards (Polish version of Securicor) were collecting or delivering cash. Walked back to the boats through a park (where the U-boats dry docks were?). I unloaded the groceries. Bill had got some decaff coffee that he doesn’t drink anymore. I said it was a pity he didn’t drink tea any more either (he drinks beer or bottled water) as I could do him a swop. He said he really could do with some Bonjella as he had a sore gum, which looked like an abcess. I thought we had some, but after a fruitless search the only thing I could think of to ease the pain of a gumboil was Veganin tablets. He said he’d try nitric acid if it took the pain away! I started making a salad for lunch as we cruised on to the yacht club to get some drinking water. They knew we were coming as the purple hosepipe was out along the wooden landing stage and there were no other boats moored there, which made life easier. Two teenage girls were sitting on the grass at the end of the landing, so I asked them if we could have some water. They giggled and said tak (yes) and one of them went off to the tap to turn it on for me. Bill brought Rosy alongside and he topped up too. The hydrofoil went past and instead of coming up the canal at a slow cruising pace, the steerer kept bringing it up on to the plane and then slowing off, which was sending big waves up the cut. Prat, he knew what he was doing. It was 2 p.m. before we finished filling up and set off again, waving bye, bye to the few locals who were by the basin. We turned left into the Jagielloński canal, if we’d taken the route straight on it goes out on to the lagoon – the way the hydrofoil goes to Kaliningrad in Russia. It was getting hotter. For the first time this year I made some ice cubes and we had cold drinks instead of tea. At 3 p.m. a small yacht went past heading for Elblag, followed by a lone paddler. Just before we got to the junction with the Nogat, the wind picked up and turned over the front section of our big blue sun canopy. Mike had to put it on the front deck and sort its bent legs out later. It was 3.30 p.m. as we arrived at the junction, where we had moored in the pouring rain on the 17^th, the weather couldn’t have been more extreme (apart

Brewery in Elblag - Wikimedia photo by  Michiel1972

from a blizzard!) We moored in front of Rosy on the piling. Crowds of local kids wearing knickers and vests (no posh cossies here) were swimming in the canal (which was a murky shade of khaki) or the river by the bridge. A woman was washing clothes in the cut at a set of steps by the house on the opposite bank. The kids decided because we didn’t speak Polish we must be German and kept saying Guten tag! Dumpkofs! Mike went back to taking the 35mm camera apart. I did the callback phone bill calculations. Our rate per minute had gone up because we’re in Poland. It was 38$c (20p) a minute in Germany, now it’s 42$c (22p) a minute (fixed ‘phone rate). Someone swimming in the cut knocked on our boat hull and said hello in English. It was an Irishman! Originally from near Athlone, he was an English teacher and had been living in Elblag for twelve years, running his own private English school (called Speak Easy) he was married to a Polish lady and they had a young daughter. He said he was very happy to live here, Poland is a wonderful country. He warned us to be careful as this was a very poor area, as there is no form of social security some people would steal anything to sell it that wasn’t nailed down. He told Bill to keep a close eye on Fanny, they’d steal the dog and sell it to the local Chinese restaurant! Remind me never to try Chinese food in Poland. We chatted for about twenty minutes while he trod water – he must be a good swimmer. This was the first time he’d been to his favourite swimming place this year and had been astounded to find us moored there. I did egg and chips for dinner (with all the chatting I’d forgotten to defrost any meat from the freezer!). Watched “Corrie” and the weather. Another fine day tomorrow. Bill came round to check on the route on his maps for where we were going over the next few days. I had the PC on again, still three days behind with the log entries. Will I ever catch up? Mike carried on working on the 35mm camera and lost a tiny, tiny screw which had flicked out of the container he was using to keep them in and gone into hiding. He searched the floor, the cushions, his clothing and still couldn’t find it. He asked Bill if he had any old clocks he could steal a tiny screw from. Bill told him that Rosy was a modern boat and there were no clockwork items on board! And this is a bloke with a collection of hurricane lamps in his engine room?! 

Thursday 26th May 2005 Below lift 3 Oleśnica to Elblag.

11º C Sunny and warm. Up at 7.00 a.m. Did a few chores while Bill glued the rubber gasket on the lid for his weed hatch (the only person we know who does that!). Set off at 9.00 a.m. following Rosy to lift 4, Jelenie, arriving at 9.30 a.m. Rosy went into the trolley to go down

first. When the other side came up we got on that. Meanwhile Mike had a good look at the bearings on the wheel carrying the cable. He said the bearing was on the wrong way round for the direction of thrust. Mention of clocks and monkeys came round again (After the end of WWII an eminent British politician was quoted as saying “Handing over former German industry to the Polish – when the Germans left Prussia, retreating to west of the Oder and it became Polish - is like giving a wristwatch to a chimpanzee” – very insulting but Mike is beginning to believe there is some truth in what he said). We had to wait on the trolley as there was something coming

uphill. Two small Polish yachts were in the upcoming trolley as we went down. More video. It was ten past ten when we reached the bottom. Mike changed the film in the 35mm camera and had problems with it – the shutter had jammed. He went inside to try to fix it and I steered down the canal to lift 5, Całuny Nowe, the last lift. We passed the newest trip boat of the fleet, called Ostroda, the guide book boasts it even has air conditioning! I pressed the buzzer to call Mike and the engine alarm went off. Mike went to check it out, either the alternator was packing up or the oil pressure was falling – but he could find nothing wrong.

Photo from Wikimedia by Lestath

Could be a momentary intermittent fault. Bill called on VHF to say he was setting off down lift 5 and there was a tripper coming up and another one waiting at the bottom. We went down the last slope with Kormoran coming up. Mike filmed the steep slope from the stern of the boat as we came down. We left the bottom at 10.50 a.m. passing a swim-suited Polish couple on a tiny sailboat heading for the lifts. The engine alarm kept sounding off and Mike had come to the conclusion that mending the camera was not going to be easy, there were hidden fasteners to find. The alarm stopped going off on its own! There were lots of weeds and twigs and muck in the Elblaski canal between the lifts and below them too.  The goat willow along the banks leading to the big nature reserve around lake Druzno was shedding fluff again – it looked like snow blown by the wind. Bill called on VHF to say that some fishermen had a net out across the canal at the end of a long straight and he’d had to get them to move it to let Rosy through. He told them we were coming. There was no net out when we got there. It was ten minutes before midday when we reached the beginning of the lake. It was getting weedier, full of birds – swans, black-headed gulls, pochard and ferruginus ducks, plus coots and mallard, grebe and heron. We passed an anchored small open boat with three men with cameras on board. They waved and said hello. At midday we noticed Rosy drifting into the lilypads and thought Bill’s gone to get his lunch, when he came on the radio to say he’d got something ‘orrible on his prop. Weed hatch up and he proceeded to extract metres and metres of blue fishing net from around the blades. We hovered in the channel in case he needed assistance. We ate lunch following Rosy out of Druzno on to the canal. Common terns were diving for fish and black terns were

Elblag - Wikimedia photo by Janusz J

skimming over the weeds catching insects. Where the lake narrowed there were big groups of over forty swans on either side of us, all close together and heads down dredging something they were all particular to from the bottom of the lake. We passed another small sailboat heading across the lake towards the lifts. At the end of the lake there were lots of great crested grebe. A mink swam past then dived out of sight, right opposite some fishermen, as we entered the canal. A tiny day boat went past with two kids on the bows, several adults stood at the back and more inside the little cabin It was so far down at the bows we were surprised that the outboard leg reached the water! They were all having a great time. Two two-man canoes went past – another family having a nice day out. As we approached the outlying houses and factories of Elblag there were more and more people on the banks (which lead us to suspect that they were on holiday today) they were fishing or sunbathing, and most of them were smoking. It was ten past two when we tied up on the town quay. Loads of people were promenading up and down or sitting on the wall at the back of the quay. Mike and Bill went off on foot to do a bit of reconnoitring. The Post Office was closed (it was a bank holiday) so they went to find people to talk to about the

Elblag - Wikimedia photo by Janusz J

availability of diesel. I wrote out the postcards we’d bought from the stall by the top lift. We moved the boats over to the other side of the canal by a canoe hire place, with Rosy on the inside (sitting on the bottom) and us on the outside. The proprietor had told them where they could get diesel and had offered to take them to the garage in his van. They made two trips with as many cans as they could muster. We had 268 litres at 3.54 Zł to top up our tank and Bill had about the same. They both gave the guy 25 Zł, he said no, he didn’t want paying, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer and so Mike stuffed the 50 Zł in his ash tray! They were back at 6.40 p.m. and started siphoning the diesel into our tank (Bill had the first load). Later Mike and Bill went for a couple of well-earned jars on the ship moored next to the town quay.

Sorry for the lack of photos, first two were taken with our ancient 35mm camera (and I've posted them before!) before it broke, things will improve soon when we enter the digital age!!

Wednesday 25th May 2005 North of Miłomłyn to below lift 3 Oleśnica.

CLICK HERE for a map of today's route through the lakes and down the lifts

A cooler 4.6º C overnight. Sunny warm day. Set off at 8 a.m. with the pins and did some washing before we arrived at the lifts. I sat outside with my coffee at 9.35 a.m. half way up

Ruda Woda lake. I believe we saw the same male marsh harrier again just south of Małdyty, that was here last time we came through, hunting low over the reedbeds at the top end of Sambrod lake. Swallows were nesting under the road bridge at Małdyty. Lunch on the move. As we went into the narrow channel we passed a tripper going in the opposite direction. Through the cutting at the top of the lifts and we arrived at the top at 1.00 p.m. The next tripper, Kormoran, was loading up at the staging. We tied to the low rails along the concrete edging before the trip boat landing, noting all the green paint and the battered wooden fendering just above waterline, the notice which said no winding, and the green paint along the waterline on the tripper’s bows. Hmm. Bill and I went to look at the maps and postcards on offer at the stall by the top lift. I bought a few more cards and Bill paid for two guide books in English (he’d missed the ones in English when he bought the previous ones). I had a good look through

the maps they’d got on display and found one of the Elblag canal with the all the lakes down to Ostroda and Iława, plus a map of the Nogat and the Szkarpawa as far as Gdansk and Malbork. The maps were only 15 Złotys each (about £2.40). I also had a look at all the souvenir gifts made from amber and bought a tiny little brown frog (16 Zł) as a present for a friend. The museum which was supposed to be open from ten until four was closed. Tripboats came up and went down. We waited for a gap. At 1.45 p.m. all went quiet so we got on the first trolley and paid 28,40 Złotys to the man in the overalls who came from the (inaccessible on foot) far side of the canal. I did some videoing as we went down the slope on lift 1, Buczyniec. A short uphill run, then down the long steep slope. It was more hair-raising going downhill than uphill, but this time nothing fell off shelves. Arrived at the bottom of the first lift at ten past two. Bill came on the radio to say, “Another perishing trip boat has slipped in between us!” (Only he wasn’t quite so polite)  He was not amused. Down the short canal section to lift 2, Kąty, and went straight into an empty trolley, set out the ropes and banged on the gong to let the spotter know we were ready – being at the top of the long slope he was less than a hundred metres away. Mike measured the angle of slope, surprisingly it was only 5º. We were soon at

the bottom. It was 2.45 p.m. Bill came on the radio to say he’d had a good start, his ropes had jammed and he’d had to cut them and he’d broken a boat shaft. The trip boat following us was at the top of lift two as we left the bottom, so we hovered and waited for him to pass us. Alongside the canal was a farmhouse. A little girl shrieked when she saw the boat and ran for the fence to come and wave and shout hello. Her mother got up from sunbathing and waved too. On their barn there were two wheels on poles and two pairs of nesting white storks. I filmed them for posterity! Made a cuppa while we waited for trip boat Pinguin to go past. A smaller trip boat was coming uphill, we passed it on a bend. He hooted and I think was surprised to get a loud hoot back! The passengers were all very cheery and waving. We dropped on to the trolley at lift 3, Oleśnica, that the tripper had just left and ran up the slow short slope, then down the bumpy longer downhill slope to the bottom. As Bill was coming down 3 he called to ask if we were going to stay on the pound below it again. Mike was quite happy to keep going, but when he looked at the time it was ten to four already. We made for the bank and were quite surprised to get almost right next to the towpath, which had two tracks of concrete for vehicles to drive on. It was 4 p.m. when we tied up and half an hour later Rosy came and tied alongside. Easy access for Bill's dog Fanny – for once there was no plank! Bill told us that his ropes had got jammed under the round plates he has on the top of the dollies on his counter. They weren’t tied, he said it was his own fault for not keeping a closer eye on which way the turn was around the bollard. The pole that broke was his nicely painted short boat shaft, he pushed on it and it snapped! It must have been rotten. I read the first part of the English version guide to the Elblag canals and lifts and asked myself is this really in English! There were lots of errors in it too, locks missing from the text and dates obviously wrong. Ah well, they sell them mainly to tourists, not canal anoraks like us!

Tuesday 24th May 2005 End of Szelag lake to north of Miłomłyn.

Today's voyage consisted of retracing our steps through the lakes and mooring a few kms to the north of Milomlyn. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE MAP

12.8º C Rain in the night with thunderstorms. 15º C chilly and overcast when we set off back down the lake at 8.15 a.m. The lake had been covered in a layer of white when Mike went out

first, but then the wind picked up and the waves washed the surface layer down to the end of the lake where it turned yellow – it was tree pollen. We looked at the channel into the rest of the lake as we passed it and decided that a cold, blustery morning was not the time to try it. The northwest wind was in our faces all the way back down the lake. We were sheltered from it once we’d turned into the channel leading back to the locks. The water was clear and the edges were shallow. Water weeds were starting to grow, lilies and water crowfoot. A couple of hoots and the lady keeper filled Mała Ruś lock for us. Bill had already paid for the return

passage. Mike got off and helped by closing the gate on the offside for her, as it was a long walk round via the bridge over the bottom end. Motored slowly across the lake so Bill could catch up. We moored above Ostroda lock and asked the keeper if we could stay for an hour or so to get some shopping done. No problems. Bill brought Rosy alongside and we went off to get re-supplied. Bill took his bike. Mike didn’t want to go but I threatened him, I wasn’t going to

carry it all on my own. There were three skleps (shops) across the bridge, a grocers, greengrocers and a butchers. We got all we needed from them, posted a card a birthday card to the UK, and went back to the boats. I unloaded the groceries and Mike went to pay for the lock. The pink cat was still following the lady in the green dungarees around the lock. Bill went down first with Rosy and we followed. It was 12.05 p.m. as we went across Drweckie lake with Ostroda town off to our left. We ate lunch crossing the lake and going into the Elblaski canal. This time we noticed that there was evidence here too of beaver damage to the trees. Bill was going slowly so we could overtake him and be first in the next lock. Just before the lock we saw a green woodpecker going round and round the trunk of a dead tree. We hooted and the keeper at Zielona stopped strimming the lockside grass and came to open the lock for us. There were bars recessed into the walls of the lock and I put my side rope around the bit pointing uphill. The keeper showed me it was better to hook a loop up through from the back of the cross then it couldn’t slip off as the water came up (that’s OK as long as you make sure the rope doesn’t “lock” by crossing the one under tension over the free end). We rose 1.7m with Rosy’s bows attached alongside our stern to make sure there was enough room at the tail end to clear the duckboard on the inside face of the wooden clapper gate. The gate paddle in the top end gate opened under water. I made remark to the keeper that there were no centre boards on his lock – in our little locks in Britain we would have sat with the bow fender on the gate and wouldn’t have used ropes. I stepped off to pay for the lock and showed him some photos to illustrate what I meant as he didn’t speak English. His wife came out to have a look too. She knew a few words of English. Their “Baby” speaks English! I helped wind the

gate open – there were two handles on the capstan for that very purpose. Bill had spotted a nest on the way down the canal. What he described could only be the nest of a penduline tit. We carried on along the canal looking carefully for it. Spotted a greenfinch. We found the nest just before the next lock, a delicate structure hanging from the branches of a tree, the twigs of which were woven into the construction. A neat little hole for access and the interior beautifully lined with feathers. We took photos and so did Bill. He said he’d seen weaver bird nests when he was out in Oman, but those were much larger things altogether. A marsh harrier hovered over the reedbeds a bit further on. A yacht was coming down in Miłomłyn lock as we arrived. The young man was working the lock on his own today. Same procedure, we went right to the front of the chamber to leave Bill enough room at the tail end. The lad threaded my rope through the cross in the wall, (two black frogs jumped out of the hole as he put my rope in), no chance of that coming off. In this lock there was a cill and the gate paddle opening was above it. The young man wound the paddle open carefully, a little at a time. (There was no sign of the older bloke today – Mike was very glad to note). Bill paid for the uphill lock. I took some photos of the lock and the memorial to Pope John-Paul (Bill, with his usual dry humour, asked if he used to be the lock keeper here!)  Before we could leave the lock Mike had to clean out the water filter – it was full of weeds – and he released an imprisoned backswimmer. The lad had opened the gate, got bored while we were emptying the filter contents and wandered off back to the lock house on the other side of a large vegetable garden. Round a big sweeping bend, past a wood working factory with masses of ventilators covering its roof. A large chimney near it was sending up black smoke. Before we reached the next lake we tied up under some trees. Bill took Rosy in first and slung a rope around a tree. We came alongside and Mike got a plank off to the bank across Rosy’s bows and went off to secure the stern ends. We’d seen a lady tending a garden, planting some flowers, just a bit further upstream and we thought we might be moored next to her garden, but we couldn’t see a house and no one came to say go away. A small open fishing boat went past later. 

Monday 23rd May 2005 Nr Miłomłyn to end of Szelag lake.

Another complex route CLICK HERE for the map

A mild night 11.7º C overnight. Hazy thin clouds, sunny. Set off at 8 a.m. arrived at the junction with the Ostroda canal a few minutes later and waited for the lock keeper to turn up. A middle aged guy came out of the house by the lock and started talking to us in Polish. No English or German again. He unlocked the shed by the lock and brought out windlasses, brushed the spider webs from around the roof of the shed. He made sure we were tied to the post by the lock mouth

using the entire length of my side rope. Then he filled the lock using the single gate paddle and when it was full he wound the gate open using a capstan which hauled the gate using a chain on a long wooden bar. There was a problem, something he kept talking about, but what we couldn’t make out. Eventually it dawned - we were too early - the lock didn’t open until 9.00 a.m. (but was open until 7 p.m.) A younger bloke appeared, who also spoke no English, with a

toddler in tow who clung to his leg and bawled “Papa” if he moved too far away from him. He did the paperwork and asked Mike for 22,72 Złotys. Waah! He wanted double the normal price for working the lock out of hours. Mike went to back the boat out. We’ll wait until 9.00 a.m.  No, no, they said, no need to do that and worked the lock! Mike paid 12 Złotys, they’ve never got any change! The chamber was long and narrow, 3.5m wide and 35m long, so we just about fit in it end

to end with Rosy’s bows close up the side of our stern. On the lockside was a memorial to Pope John-Paul II. The water in the chamber was full of all sorts of muck, weeds and twigs and grass. We dropped down 3m and left the lock. Mike noticed steam and no water coming out of our exhuast, so we had to stop while he unblocked the intake pipe. At 9.30 a.m. we passed the trip boat Kormoran heading uphill. The canal wound through a wooded cutting where we saw more red

deer in the woods. There were some really nice houses along the canal with some very well-manicured gardens. It wasn’t far to the next lock, Zielona, which was ready with the gates open, so we went in. The keeper came out of his very neat and tidy lock house and muttered something and went to turn his red/green lollipop sign (which had been red facing us as we came into the chamber) indicating that we’d gone in against a red sign. Wonderful! No one else uses the

damned things here, only him! He was OK really, just making a point. His missus came out to see the funny boats, she was really chatty, pity she didn’t speak English. She said her “Baby” spoke English, learned it at school. We wondered how old “Baby” was! The keeper went off to sort out someone who’d arrived in a car and kept pip-pipping on the horn, so his wife opened the gate for us. We’d dropped down another 1.3m. Out into a lovely winding canal

through meadows and woodland to the next lake, Drweckie. It was 11.15 a.m. and the only other vessels on the lake were a two man kayak, a small powered fishing boat and a single seater canoe. Poking up over the tops of the trees we could see the church spires and chimneys of Ostroda. We went under a low bridge, 3.2m high – mast down, and ran into Ostroda. There was a wonderful long concrete quay without bollards. A section of quay with bollards and no

mooring signs at either end of them (for the trip boats) plus a pier for pedestrians which was not designed to have boats tie to it as it had the ends of timber beams sticking out every couple of metres. A small yacht had tied to the end of a high wooden landing, which was also for the use of the passenger boats. We took photos to show we’d been there and headed off into the canal. Under another low bridge and past a basin and dry dock, where there were several passenger boats moored. A short channel lead to Ostroda lock, where a pleasant lady keeper was letting a waterways power boat (the winged variety) out of her lock. We went in. The

next two locks were uphill and too short to accommodate us both at the same time. The gates were wooden mitre gates at either end, opened by lifting up a yellow painted wooden bar which was attached to the gate and heaving on it. Gate paddles on each gate for filling and emptying the little lock, a mere 26m long by 3.3m wide. The lady keeper wore green short dungarees and was followed everywhere by a pink and black cat!  Dropped ropes on stumps of cut trees

above the lock and Mike went back to lend a hand and help lock Rosy through. I took a few photos. Bill paid for the uphill lock. At 12.50 p.m. we were on our way again. The navigation widened out, we went under a modern concrete bridge and there was a lake off to our left, although the depth was less than two metres and the channel marked with red and green cans. It was getting hotter. The lake was empty except for a few mallard and grebe. While I was preparing lunch Mike saw a snake go swimming past. Another lady keeper worked the next

lock, Mała Ruś, which was the same as Ostroda lock, but a little shorter. We went up another 1.7m, but this time there was nowhere to tie up and assist the keeper to work the lock for Rosy, as the right bank was too shallow and the left had overhanging trees and the lockside was fenced off anyway. Bill paid for up and down. We waited for Rosy in the canal above the lock. It was 1.45 p.m when we left the lock. 2 p.m. when we set off again. The canal was clean enough to see the bottom. We passed three fishermen fishing by a winding hole. Beyond the fishermen all the

way to the lake there thousands of 2” long fish. We turned right on to Szelag Wielkie at 2.30 p.m. heading southeast along a wide deep lake with forested steep banks. The was just one man fishing from the far bank and a couple of kids on the right hand bank. Apart from them the lake was EMPTY. A couple of small farmhouses were located on the right bank. We tried fruitlessly for over half an hour to find somewhere on the left side to tie up under the trees in breaks in the reedbeds. The banks shelved out to two metres, before plunging to a depth of 65 metres, (according to a booklet we bought later), too shallow too far out for a plank. Bill tried the left hand bank (and had the same problems), while we stooged up the right bank until shallows

stretching halfway across the lake forced us to go back to the left side too. We trundled on right to the end of the lake (or so we thought) until our bows were against the bank and the rest of the boat was in seven metres of water. In front of us was a main road, the 7, and a layby with a café bar and a small culvert under the road leading to the last bit of the lake. The end of the line! From here it’s turn round and go back the way you came. Bill arrived and we went a little ways back down the lake to a campsite where there was an L-shaped wooden decking on top of oil barrels. As we tied to it a man came out saying no, no, you can’t tie up here. It’s private. All this in Polish, but then he managed a few words of English to explain that it wasn’t a campsite - that was next door - and we couldn’t tie on the pontoon as it belonged to all the residents of a chalet site. Try next door. We did. They came out saying no, we couldn’t tie on their landing either, as the boats were too big and heavy and if the wind blows it will take us and the landing away. We couldn’t explain to the guy, (as he spoke no English), that we were going to lie along each side of his jetty and tie the boats together and put anchors out the back, which meant we wouldn’t be putting any strain on his jetty at all. Bill tried to get close to the bank by the trees, but couldn’t get within 5 metres. We gave up and went back to the end of the lake and tied either side of a short public landing with the bows tied together across the wooden decking, our side rope round one of the wooden legs of the jetty, and anchors out from the stern. While we were tying up a guy arrived in a car and came to apologise. He was the brother of the campsite owner who was concerned because he couldn’t communicate with us about his worries about his jetty (which I thought probably only ever gets used by his patrons for jumping off to go swimming or lying on to sunbathe). Whilst knotting ropes I told him we’d planned to anchor and not damage his jetty – just to use it as an access to the bank – but we were OK where we were. He said there was a track from by the café down to the site and we could use any of their facilities if we wanted to. I thanked him for his kind offer. He also said that there was a little channel by the side of the bungalow park leading to the rest of the lake beyond the road. I had thought it looked overgrown and shallow, he it was OK lots of boats go up there. We’ll have another look next day. It was 5 p.m. Mike went to have a look at the  channel from the road. He said he was going for a cold beer in the café, so after I’d packed up and tidied up I went to join him. I met him coming back down the road from looking at the way into the next lake. The traffic on the 7 was complete madness. As I walked up the slope to meet Mike there was a large 4x4 overtaking a line of cars, going up the hill over cross-hatching and then stayed on the wrong side of white lines. As I walked back with Mike there was a lorry coming downhill overtaking some slow Fiats (very popular little car here) doing the same. Crazy! He noise was deafening. We went in the bar and had draught beer at 3,50 Zł (56p) for a half litre. It was ice cold, tasty and – I found out after I’d drunk it – very strong stuff. Mike had a couple, I’d had enough after one. I went back to cook dinner. He came back and ate his dinner and went back with Bill for another couple of cold ones. I put the PC on to try and get up to date with the log – fighting a losing battle! The bar closed at 8.30 p.m. The proprietor said he’d only be closed for an hour and gave Mike a free beer, but when Mike went back later the bar was still closed. Mike found the last bottle of Erben Spätlese (our favourite German white wine) in our store cupboard and we sat on the stern to drink it, listening to music on Radiozet and watching lightening in the distance.  

Sunday 22nd May 2005 Opp Jerzwald to nr Miłomłyn.

CLICK HERE for a map of today's voyage through the Masurian lakes

A very much milder 9.4º C. Sunny with a cold breeze. We set off at 8.15 a.m. Lake Płaskie was empty, no one around. We wondered if the sign by the entrance meant it was off limits to powered boats, we’d assumed that it meant the place next to the sign - not the lake. I translated the words on the sign “strefa ciszy” to mean quiet zone. Back down Płaskie to rejoin Jeziorak, threaded our way back through the islands, turned left heading north again on Jeziorak (this end of the lake is shaped roughly like a trident, with Płaskie being the leftmost prong and Jezirorak being the other two. As we passed the village of Matyty we noticed there were lots of little houses and a campsite on the left bank with a few moored

yachts and a very interesting flag. At the top of the flagpole there was an Aussie flag and below it a union flag above pale blue and white stripes with a rising sun at the bottom edge. Bill had a flagmaker’s catalogue, but there was nothing like that in it. Among the little bungalows were a few old caravans which had been converted and given a new lease of life. They looked like short railway carriages with rounded roofs and big wheels, possibly used between the wars for housing road workers and were originally towed by horses or traction engines. We did a turn around the bay at the end of the lake, looking for a channel leading to the next lake. We saw a white diamond navigation marker and headed for the little channel. We didn’t get within ten metres of it as we ran out of water and into some really foul smelling mud. As Mike reversed out of it, after warning Bill that it was too shallow, I remarked that nobody should light any matches! Pooh! Heading south again to find the entrance to the third “prong” of the “trident”. Past the village of Polajny on the left bank and through a narrower section, then into a big wide bay on our left. We saw the first yacht of the day at 10.20 a.m. The breeze was getting stronger and it was making foot high waves on the surface of the lake. Two more yachts appeared in the far distance as we looked for the gap called Bramka (gate) Pomielińska. There were several yachts moored, tucked into gaps in the reedbeds under the trees at the edge of the lake. One set off under motor as we passed. The entrance was masked by big reed beds and trees. It was calmer heading up the lake, there were no waves and no one else in sight except a white-tailed eagle intent on catching fish. At 11 a.m. Bill gave up going to the ends of lakes and decided to wait for us (as is his wont) to go to the end and come back. We passed a small village called Rudnia on the left, almost at the end of the lake. I made salad for lunch, which we ate sat on the stern, dodging charter yachts from Siemiany, a small village on the right bank as we were heading south. Turned the corner at 1 p.m. (out of the wind again for a while) as we went past the large peninsula near Wieprz. At 1.15 p.m. we started heading north east again along Zatoga Kraga. Two sail boats were in the far distance and a white-tailed eagle was being given a hard time by a persistent crow. Into the narrows again and the smiling old lady was fishing there again. She asked where we were from and beamed a huge smile (again) when we said England. In the last section of lake Dauby, by a village called Duba, we noticed a strange building like an ultra-modern barn through the trees that had a series of metal masts with huge hats on top of them - a lady’s wide brimmed hat and a Davy Crockett hat. We wondered what they were for. On the opposite bank of the lake the Iławski canal started. We entered under an old bridge, which had five brand new signs on each side, two width markers, a yellow diamond, a sign which gave the width and one which gave the height - none of which were really necessary on a canal bridge. In front of a farmhouse someone had built the most sumptuous rustic garden swing ever made, we had to take a photo. Close by it there was the bloated body of a dead wild pig floating in the canal. As we went through the middle of lake Karnickie on a low embankment there were hundreds of red dragonflies darting about flying high up into the tree tops. Through the narrows (4.4m the new sign said) with a single wooden stopgate again, but no topless fishermen today. The canal was 1.7m deep and we were doing a reasonable speed, 5.7 kph or 3.6 mph. A coach was parked by the next bridge and a party of twenty or more fishermen were sitting around eating lunch. No sneaking past them, they’d already seen us and started waving and making comments. Bill tooted, they all waved. We stopped short of the town of Miłomłyn, opposite a road, and tied to trees. We got close enough to the bank, although we were sat on the bottom, but Bill, moored right behind us, couldn’t get within a metre and a half of the bank, so we loaned him one of our long planks so he and Fanny could get off easily. It was 4.15 p.m.  We said it wouldn’t matter being on the bottom as there wouldn’t be any passing traffic, famous last words -  within ten minutes a yacht went past, but the boat didn’t even rock! When I went out to turn the inverter off in the engine room at 12.40 a.m. it was quite noisy outside - the sound of warblers and crickets filling the still night air.  

(Apologies for the lack of photos, we only took one photo and I drew a blank on Wiki media)

Saturday 21st May 2005 Iława to opp Jerzwald

CLICK HERE for a map of today's voyage through the lakes to Jerzwald

5º C sunny, but cool. We all got up early and went to the shops. The kids Bill had been talking to the night before said they would show us where Kaufland was, about 3 kms away, at around 9.00 a.m. Mike and I went to the skleps opposite and got bread, but couldn’t find any veg, so we took a walk into the town and spotted a sign for Plus (a chain of small German supermarkets a bit bigger than Aldi normally) we found a greengrocers before we found the supermarket so we crossed the road and bought the best veg we’d seen in Poland. New potatoes, lovely white mushrooms, spring onions, lettuce, etc, and then we walked back along the shore of the little lake beyond the road bridge. The kids had turned up and were chatting to Bill when we got back at 9.20 a.m. We said thanks, but we didn’t need much stuff and 3 kms was a bit too far to walk for us geriatrics. Mike asked them about getting central heating oil and they wrote down what to ask for. I’d spied a bin by a café close to the road, so I took all our rubbish before we left to go under the road bridge and take a turn around the little lake. There was a fountain in the corner, so we took photos and then went back through the low road bridge and went across to the yacht harbours to find some drinking water. We found a landing in the corner of the lake and the Germans that we met the day before came to help us to tie up to the landing, we were at their boat charter base. Several people came to look at the boat and chat. One Polish lady was enthralled and asked Mike how many rooms had we got, so he asked her on board and I gave her the guided tour. Her son, aged about ten, and his friend came on the boat too. He was wide-eyed and forgot all the English he’d started learning at school. The water was free, it came through half a mile of hose from a building way across the moorings. We said thank you and went to join up with Rosy who’d been stooging around in the middle of the lake and being harried by a strange looking contraption that looked like a car ferry. Mike put the big blue sun shade up

as it was getting warmer, but had to take it down again when the wind got blustery and threated to turn it inside out. There were lots of speedboats about and the sail boats were also out in force. I made lunch and we ate late at 1.30 p.m. There were lots of yachts milling about between the chain of islands where the main body of lake Jeziorak lay off to the north west. We threaded our way through the islands and past a large tree covered peninsula into a series of islands of reed beds full of competing warblers. The course through the lake lay to the north for a while, then to the northwest into a dead end arm. A wide shallow lake called Płaskie. Deserted except for one sailboat which left as we went in - we went to the right of an island in the entrance and he went out to the other side of it. A female marsh harrier was hunting, swooping low over the surface of the lake. We passed a string of islands off to our left as we went as far as we could into the small bay in the northwest corner. We’d spotted a landing stage, opposite the village of Jerzwald, next to what looked like a camping site, so Bill went off in that direction and tied to it. We turned round and went back down the lake to moor alongside Rosy. Mike got off with the camera to take a photo of the mooring - a T shaped wooden construction. The best angle was from a small stand of trees, but he didn’t linger long as the mosquitoes descended on him and started biting. We expected someone from the camping place to come and ask us for money, but no one came near. No heating on for the first time in ages.