Sunday 20 May
After a slow start, my crew were finally ready to depart around 1100, and we motored down the channel past the shipyards, blissfully quiet on this day of rest. Skipper hadn’t noticed on the chart that a bridge, not in our pilot, barred our way, so we turned back around half a mile to go around the other side of the island. We followed the Odra River back into the lagoon, interestingly via alternative channels from those we took on the way South, so different views could be enjoyed. Locals were out enjoying the wonderful sunny weekend with a spot of fishing.
Once we rejoined the main channel just South of the Zalew Szczeciński lagoon, we wove our way through many German and Polish yachts, and the wind started to build but was a little variable in strength and direction. Mate gave up trying to eat her lunch of a bowl of salad, needing two hands on the wheel, leaving Skipper to deal with sail trim. She suggested he take the first reef in my mainsail while we were in a calm patch in the lee of an island, as she could see the white horses cresting the waves out on the lagoon.
We swung back into the fairway, Skipper set my staysail and Mate nobly steered me all the way across the lake, ten miles close-hauled in a NNW blowing a steady F5. She managed to stay just outside the main shipping lane without straying too far into shallow water, as I needed my full centreboard, which gives me a draft of three metres and a good stiff sail to windward. Towards the end of the crossing, we started playing dodgems with numerous red flag fishing marks and stakes: around here these are usually in pairs with nets strung between them below the water surface. After an exhilarating sail of around two hours, at times touching nearly 7.5 knots, we slid gratefully into the entrance of the Piastowski and Mielinski canals, which lead to Świnoujście and on to the Baltic Sea.
It took us about another hour to potter up to our night’s berth in the municipal Basen Północny/Stoczniowy, where Skipper found me a comfortable hammerhead out of most of the residual wind, amongst many yachts registered to Ueckermünde.