Our position is53:54.746N 14:16.266E

Distance covered 18.3Nm

We had a lie in the next morning followed by a good look round the town including the museum housed in the Schloss. It was all about the local Pomeranian area, and interesting enough despite the random mix of exhibits and lack of English explanations.

 Views around the town

Not many customers here

but here come some potentials

They do like their bronze statues

The Schloss housing the museum

Pomeranians seem to have different shaped feet

and yet more dodgy mannequins

Nicholas had decided that we would leave at 12.30 and form up in size order so we could arrive at the canal up to Swinoujsche in a convoy and process up to our final harbour.  As he was in the smallest boat he would lead the way.

 Leaving the quay in more or less the right order

This looked a bit small to be a roro ferry

We managed more or less to get off in the right order and by the time we arrived at the canal we were formed up in line. On the way Dauntless, the American motor boat had managed to get a rope in his bow thruster but it was decided to leave its recovery until he was tied up and it didn’t affect the passage. There was a customs boat anchored by the buoy sited on the German/Polish border -counting us in? – otherwise the passage was uneventful, if damp as it rained for the first half, and the fleet made a fine sight as we followed each other up the canal. Graham was on the shore trying to video us as we arrived but a large lorry ferry caused the second half of the fleet to scatter in some disarray by entering the canal as we were crossing over to the marina entrance. Hopefully it didn’t spoil the effect of our arrival.

 The line forming

Crossing the border to Poland

Entering the canal

We all managed to miss the ferries crossing from side to side

Plenty of working boats waiting for work

This was what caused the disruption of the line behind us

It was good to be all tied up on the same pontoon (apart from Dauntless, who had gone against the wall further up, in a big space, because of his lack of thruster), although as we all came in at once because of the convoy, it was a rather hectic quarter of an hour. It was also immediately apparent that the harbour area was thick with mosquitos, and during the course of berthing everyone was savaged mercilessly.

Ben, the sea dog. I thought he should have been jumping ashore with a warp in his mouth

Plenty of sociability on the pontoon

Even Fay & Graham’s camper van (Tam O’Shanter when radioing) was nearby

The harbour master’s office seemed to be operating in the 19^th century, with some sort of manual record keeping in triplicate, so checking in caused a long queue to form, not helped by the fact that some things had to be paid for in cash not credit card and not everyone had zlotys. There was not much time to get ready, particularly with the need for insect repellent and covering clothing, before we all headed off to a local restaurant for our last meal together.

All together for the last supper

After the meal the group broke up and at Simon and Sue’s behest the local HLR tried to find somewhere with live music. Mindful of what we had missed the previous night we went along, as well as Simon and Nancy from Footloose and Pat and Pam from Phun. We were out of luck at the first place and in desperation he took us over to the seaside part of the town – it was all a bit reminiscent of Benidorm! Still Majek the HLR bought everyone a beer, although the hapless young waiter managed to spill 3 of them by not putting the tray down securely. Pat’s trousers got soaked but otherwise most people were unscathed. Some dancing was done and Nixe Simon introduced me to the delights of air hockey. Although we had walked there Majek said it would be safer to get a taxi back and we did, to everyone’s relief as it started to pour with rain when we were back at the boats. Everyone went for a nightcap on Footloose, which made it rather a late night by the time we got to bed.

and dancing the night away!