Wednesday 16 May
We continued down the Peenestrom, accompanied by sea eagles, kites, herons and cormorants. The day began rather overcast, but the sun soon broke through and we had a lovely downwind sail under the genoa to Wolgast Bridge. We were very early, so Mate tied a line from my bow through the rail of a mooring post, as the locals do, and put the kettle on, as the British do, while we waited for the appointed opening time. Bridges seem easy after all our experience in Holland’s canals.
This region is reminiscent of the Norfolk Broads, with better weather. South of Wolgast, the channel opened Into Achter Wasser, ringed by pretty green banks lush with May green on leaves and reeds. Spaces in the greenery are carefully maintained to keep clear lines of sight to the leading marks that supplement the buoys. We sailed under a variety of combinations of main and genoa, including a couple of stretches of very satisfying goosewinging, and some motoring, to reach Zecherin Bridge only minutes before opening time.
Around the bend we passed a disused railway bridge, standing unattached in the middle of the channel. It was bombed during the Second World War, has been neither repaired nor removed, and remains in silent testimony to the troubled past of this now peaceful area of Northern Europe.
As we entered the Stettiner Haff in the late afternoon, the wind filled in the open space and we enjoyed a lovely last couple of hours’ sailing in the evening sunshine, towards the approach channel to our night’s berth. Skipper dropped my mainsail tidily into its bag and we entered the tree-lined Uecker River, feeling like we’d turned left out of the sea into a field. Mate prepared my fenders and mooring lines and we were soon tied up neatly at the top of the navigable water on the town quay in Ueckermünde.