The Journey -
In the Groove on Rosy

[Bill sends me his witterings on CD to put on this web site.  Two arrived in quick succession - but the first, which covers his setting off from Germany to Poland, was broken in half.  Another copy has now arrived, and can be read here.]

GETTING INTO THE GROOVE

Our voyage into Poland is now well under way and, fortunately, the worries that I had before the voyage started have failed to come to fruition.  It is still a little troubling that the current flows against us at between 3 and 5 kph, and, if the engine stopped unexpectedly, or if the propeller was fouled, then life would be considerably more difficult than if the same thing had happened on a canal.

Indeed, as a single-handed sailor, it makes life very much more tricky.  I can only go below for a few moments at a time - to fetch refreshments (for example) that I have prepared and pre-placed at a convenient spot, or to get some more warm clothing (that hangs in the back cabin).  On a canal, I can stop Rosy, and go below for several minutes without any problems, but on a river, 10 to 20 seconds is the maximum that I can be away from the tiller.

The tiller itself requires constant attention.  The currents swirl around, and the wind is usually a bit fluky, so a momentary lack of concentration can have one entangled in the trees on the bank.

Obviously, I pre-prepare food and drink, and stow it near the steering position, but even so, 6 to 8 hours of continuous attention and concentration is a touch knackering and, thus far, we haven't had to exceed this.  We are nearing the River Vistula where we will have a 115 km downhill ride.  Even if we make 10 kph through the water, this will still be an 11 or 12 hour trip.  We are hoping to be able to pick a mooring spot for us on the way, and four or five that we could use on the way back up.

The scenery has been quite spectacular.  Initially we were voyaging through a flood plain, with a wide expanse of reeds, water and marshland between us and the distant heights of the horizon.  There was very little habitation or land management, just a marshy, wild wilderness.  With birds.  Gulls, geese, ducks, swans, herons and the wonderful storks and cranes.  Unlike in Holland where many of the stork houses are empty, here it is the opposite and most are occupied.  A 'stork house' is a 15 or 30 feet high pole, surmounted by a small platform on which a pair of storks can build a nest.  Many householders will erect a stork house to encourage a pair of storks to nest - in the same way that other folk might put up some nesting boxes.

The other surprising (for me) feature is the amount of damage to trees being caused by beavers.  I mean, these beavers attack BIG trees - three or four feet in diameter.  How big ARE these beavers that can wreak such havoc?  And will they please stop gnawing as we go by!!! 

Eventually, the flood plain closed in on us, and we are now travelling up the valley of the River Notec, with habitations and civilization not too far from us.  Some agriculture (with the sight of horses working in the fields along side tractors) and some industry are evident as the river itself narrows and seems to become more excited.

And then the first locks appeared.  We had thought that the locks were to be 9.5 metres deep, but this was only our lack of Polish - they are 9.5 metres wide!!  Each rise is a touch more than a metre.  The locks are well maintained and managed.  A green and yellow colour scheme predominates.  No balance beams - the gates are wound open.  Ground paddles are standard, with the paddles dropping under gravity, but with a nifty lever that operates a friction brake to stop the paddles crashing down.  We have some 18 locks to negotiate between the Rivers Oder and Vistula, and we thought that we were being asked to pay about £1 per boat for the whole lot.  We chortled about this all the way along the pound from the first to the second lock, where we discovered that it was about £1 per lock.  Still good value though, considering how few locks we will use whilst in Poland.

I say that the locks are 'about' £1 per lock per boat.  They are exactly 5.68 Polish zlotys per boat.  A price that is obviously set by a bureaucrat!!  A capitalist would set it at 5.60, maybe even 5.50 or 5.70 or perhaps 6.00.  As it is, change is always a problem, and everyone ends up with pocketfuls of 0.01 zlotys.  Tomorrow we face a big problem, as our small change is exhausted and we only have 100 zloty notes.  We KNOW that the lock-keepers won't have any change, so it will be interesting to see what will happen.

Rubbish disposal is, thus far, not available - mine is piling up on the front deck in an old plastic coal bag.

Water, too, is a problemette (so far!!  In a day or two it will become a full blown, adult problem).  We asked at one lock for water, and were offered a 20 litre plastic container, and were pointed over to … the weir stream.  We said that it was drinking water we wanted, and were told 'Next lock, next lock'.  Once in the next lock, we learned (as it was filling) that we should have stopped at the house below the lock if we wanted water.

Actually, all we want the water for is to run Mike's washing machine!!  I'm dubious about our ability to do this, as his generator runs off the engine, and has to run at a set speed to produce the necessary 220 volts.  On canals, this means travelling a touch faster than we normally would.  On this river, it is possible that we will have to run the engine slower than normal, and, maybe, so slowly that we will no longer be making forward progress against the river current.  We shall see.

Talking of Mike - he is a number collector.  For example …..

For each lock he collects its GPS grid reference, its number in the flight, its distance form the start of the navigation and its rise (or fall) (which he gets from his depth sounder).

He does the standard daily engine hours, miles/kilometres, number of locks etc.

He marks his maps with suitable mooring spots, rubbish disposal and water points etc.

He checks his batteries every month and notes how much distilled water he has to add to each numbered cell.

etc. etc.

He is an avid user of the GPS.  A lock keeper asked us how far it was from England to Poland, and Mike could tell him that it was 1,253 km from Mike's mum's house near Brummagem to his lock.  Isn't that brilliant!

(Several days later)

Our journey up the Notec river continues.  Water ceased being a problem at a lock, where the inhabitant of the lock cottage (who was not the lock keeper) let us fill with water AND relieved us of our rubbish.  For unknown reasons we had to pay for the lock PLUS the next two locks, and madame treasurer was able to change our 100 zloty note.

The lock keepers take notes about each boat that passes, but there is no standard list of requirements!  We have been asked for our names, the boats names, the passengers/crew names, our boat registration numbers, the horsepower of the engines, the make of the engines, the type of fuel used by the engine, and our ages.  The various bits of information are carefully noted, and all this has to be done before any lock filling operations start.

The river current subsided considerably when we passed through the village of Ujscie (no, I don't know how to pronounce it either!!  One prominent village that we quite often had to refer to, became known to us as "The village starting with T".) Anyway a major tributary joined the Notec at Ujscie, and beyond the confluence the current on the Notec dropped away to near negligible proportions - less than 1 kph.  The Notec links up to a short length of canal, which will take us over to the Wisla river, better known to us as the Vistula.  We have to go down this, and the current is quite strong.  We have to come up it on the way back, so on the way down we will be:

… Trying to spot suitable mooring sites for the return journey.

… Hoping that the current will decrease for our return journey.

Didn't I mention the name of the linking canal?  It's the Bydgoszcz Canal, leading to the town of Bydgoszcz, formerly known as Bromburg, and thoroughly beasted during the Nazi occupation in World War 2 when some 25% of the inhabitants were annihilated.  It seems to be pronounced Bid-gosh - leastways, folks understand us when we refer to it as that.

During our two-week journey along the Warta and Notec rivers, we saw just four other boats - two commercial barges, one waterways authority work boat attending to the painting of the kilometre marker posts, and a trip boat without any trippers on it.

Because of the marshy nature of the land beside the river, our normal mooring position is to face upstream, with the bows tied to a substantial log or tree.  We moor up tied alongside each other, and we each try to attach ourselves to a different log/tree.  The current tends to keep the stern ends in, but even so, we put out stern lines as well.

That's all, Folks!

(Remember Fred Quimby?  Whose name used to appear at the end of Tom & Jerry cartoons, along with the phrase "That's all, Folks!!")

Toodle pip!!

Bill