Or switch to another website of course. It's your call!
Anyway, after a couple of nights in Leba we sailed the 34 miles to Wladyslawowo on 25th May.
Wladyslawowo (bet you can't pronounce it - it's vwa-de-swa-vo-vo to us English speakers) is a small fishing town and seaside resort. Like other places we've visited in Poland, it has a lovely sandy beach. Unlike some - shock horror - there aren't any pirate or viking boats! There is a funfair though, which I suppose makes up for it from a kid's perspective.
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| Not sure what these are. We saw 4 altogether. Something to do with surveying? |
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| Wladyslawowo from the sea |
Apart from the beach and the tower we climbed to get the photos below, there's not an awful lot for us in Wladyslawowo. This was just what we needed, as it meant we could simply enjoy lazing about reading books. Sometimes you need a day or two off!
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| That's the Hel peninsular. Hel's at the far end |
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| The harbour. Cyclone's towards the left of shot |
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| The funfair. I used to get excited about those. Before I got old and warty... |
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| There's also a lot of Soviet era housing |
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| Jo said she thought that was what I was. How rude! |
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| The requisite sandy beach |
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| It wasn't that busy in the yacht part of the harbour! |
After a nice relaxing break, the 27th May saw us heading for Gdansk - a city we were keen to explore.
We beat (zig-zagged) into a light headwind for hour after hour, looking forward to rounding the Hel peninsula so we could alter course and sail directly for Gdansk. Naturally, the wind died as soon as we changed course and we had to motor. That's sailing!
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| En route. Sandy beach. Trees. Dunes. Usual stuff! |
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| The entrance to Gdansk's Nowy Port |
Once inside the harbour entrance, we passed the war memorial at Westerplatte where the first shots of WW2 were fired by the German pre-dreadnought battleship, the Schleswig-Holstein. In accordance with tradition and to pay our respects, we lowered our ensign as we passed.
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| The war memorial at Westerplatte. Monument of the Coast Defenders |
It's nearly 5 miles to Marina Gdansk from the harbour entrance, but there's plenty to see:
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| Westerplatte - Guard house No.1 |
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| Wisloujscie Fortress - the only sea fortress in Poland |
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| The massive shipyards. More about those later! |
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| Our first view of Gdansk city |
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| The Crane - the oldest port crane in Europe and a massive defensive structure |
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| The Long Embankment |
The marina itself is just opposite The Crane so we were right in the centre of things.
That's the good news. The bad news will become clear later...
We spent our first day in Gdansk following the Freedom Trail. This includes a permanent exhibition in the European Solidarity Centre telling the story of how Poland gained its freedom from communist suppression.
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| The European Solidarity Centre |
What struck us was how (relatively) recent this was. Poland was still under Martial Law when I married Jo (I suppose that was many, many, years ago...)!
Anyway, time for a quick history lesson.
On 14th August 1980 a strike broke out in the Gdansk shipyard. The trigger was the dismissal of Anna Walentynowicz - a crane driver - for engaging in illegal Trade Union activity (that, in itself, surprised us as we'd imagined shipyard work to be male dominated).
The strikers' demands included the reinstatement of the activists of the Free Trade Unions of the Coast; the erection of a monument dedicated to the victims of the December 1970 protests; a guarantee not to repress the strikers; and wage increases.
Lech Walesa, an electrician, stood at the head of the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee and the strikers presented all 21 demands on 2 wooden boards. The boards themselves, with their handwritten demands, are now entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List entitled "Memory of the World".
On August 31st 1980, the Polish communist government approved the first independent trade union in the Communist Bloc and made a commitment to implement the strikers' remaining demands.
The construction of the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970 started immediately. Built by volunteers, it stands near to Gate No.2 where the first victims of the anti-communist demonstration in December 1970 were killed.
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| The Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970 |
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| The purpose of the Monument is written in many languages |
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| Recreated historical model of Gate No. 2 |
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| The reaction from the world's press |
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| Part of the shipyard from the observation platform of the ESC |
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| The Health and Safety Hall where negotiations took place |
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| Inside the Hall |
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| Detail from the stage |
However, the victory was short-lived as, in December 1981, Martial Law was imposed. With it came the brutal suppression of protests by the Citizens' Militia. The Solidarity Trade Union, with its 10 million members, was outlawed.
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| The day Martial Law was imposed. The film at the cinema is Apocalypse Now |
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| This amused us, but you'll have to enlarge it to read it! |
Eventually, against the background of Poland's dire economic situation, perestroika and glasnost, the regime was forced to compromise. They negotiated with the opposition in the Round Table Talks of February to April 1989 and, as a result, Poland's first partially free elections were announced.
A Solidarity man, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, took over as Prime Minister and the process of disassembling the communist system had begun.
The disintegration of the Soviet Union was one of the most important events of the late 20th century. The (almost) bloodless revolution in Poland led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the dictatorships in one Central and Eastern European country after another.
From what we can tell, Lech Walesa is a hero in Poland. It's easy to see why.
Going back a bit further in time, in April 1945 Gdansk had been turned into 3 million cubic metres of debris by the Soviet army (with a little help from others). The photo of a photo below shows what it looked like then:
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| Gdansk in 1945 |
It's therefore incredible to see the city as it is now - particularly given Poland's post-war situation.
Tenement houses, churches, gates and whole streets have been painstakingly rebuilt - and they've made a fantastic job of it. Just look at the pictures below!
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| Mariacka Street |
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| Upland Gate. "rum omnium fundamenta" taken out of context means rum is the basis of everything! |
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| Prison Tower and Torture Chamber |
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| Golden Gate |
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| Dluga Street - the city's longest medieval street |
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| Dluga Street again |
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| You have to look up to see some of the detail |
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| Inside the Old Town Hall - the former seat of government |
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| The Golden House |
At the end of Dluga Street is the Green Gate which was built to accommodate visiting Polish Kings. Cold, damp and located over the then foul waters of the Motlawa River, you get the impression that the locals didn't want them to stay long! It now houses a branch of the National Museum in Gdansk as well as the office of Lech Walesa. Apparently he doesn't complain about the location...
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| The Green Gate. |
As usual, we found something to climb. This time it was the 409 stairs of the tower of St. Mary's Basilica - the largest brick building in Europe.
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| There were a lot of these... |
It sure was a long way up. The first picture below is the top of the Old Town Hall's tower which we looked down on!
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| The gold plated figure of Zygmunt August on the Old Town Hall's tower |
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| Looking towards the marina. Cyclone's visible if you look (very) carefully |
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| More views from the basilica... |
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| ... and more... |
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| ... and more... |
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| ... and more. Well, it was a long way up so we were going to take lots of photos! |
Back down to earth we had the Great Armoury...
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| The Great Armoury |
... and the Great Mill to see. This was located on the Radunia Canal which was dug by Teutonic Knights. It's the largest industrial works in medieval Europe.
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| The Great Mill |
We know nothing about this chap, but found him sat outside the above:
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| Cheeky monkey! |
The defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig (Gdansk) was one of the first acts of World War 2 in Europe. On September 1st 1939 55 postmen, army officers and civilian volunteers plus 1 railwayman defended the building for some 15 hours against more than 200 SS and SA soldiers, policemen, paramilitaries, regulars and 3 armoured cars. 6 were killed (2 after surrendering), 14 wounded, 4 died of their wounds and 38 were captured and executed.
The picture below is of the Monument to the defenders of the Polish Post Office.
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| Monument to the defenders of the Polish Post Office |
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| Close up, showing the cap badge |
And finally from Gdansk, we couldn't leave without a picture of Cyclone in her berth. Note the building work in the background. This was the bad news alluded to above! Work started at about 0630 and finished at about 2100. Sometimes we were lucky and the dust was blown away from us!
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| Cyclone in Marina Gdansk |
Well, it had to happen eventually and now was as good a time as ever so, on 1st June, we headed for Hel.
I have to say that it wasn't as bad as had been made out at Sunday School (What? Wrong Hell?), although it did have its minus points.
The first night we were there the wind direction changed, sending a gentle swell into the harbour. This turned a row of peacefully moored yachts, including Cyclone, into a line of nodding donkeys, with lines that snatched every time they became taut. Naturally this only happened in the early hours of the morning when we were comfortably tucked up in bed. It was impossible to sleep as our berth was rudely yanked from side to side, so I had to get up to slacken off the lines to reduce the snatching. After doing this, we just rose and fell gently as we were rocked back to sleep!
Our second night in Hel was fine but the third, which had started very nicely as we'd been taken out for a meal by a local man we'd met, was clearly party night. This naturally involved copious quantities of alcohol, which had clearly removed any modicum of consideration that those partying might normally have had for others. As the darkness gave way to dawn, so the loud voices, shouting – oh, and we mustn't forget, occasional use of a foghorn – continued. I'm not sure how much sleep we got that night, but it certainly wasn't a lot!
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| Cyclone in Hel harbour |
Hel is a small fishing town that, like many others along the Baltic coast, has developed into a popular tourist resort. It has the standard sandy beach, a seal sanctuary and a number of fortifications from the 1950s in the woods. It also has some wooden houses which, despite everything the town's been through, have somehow survived since the 1850s.
Hel was German from 1772 to 1919 when the peninsular became part of the Second Polish Republic. It then acquired considerable military significance and was turned into a fortified region with a garrison of about 3000. During the years of German occupation (1939-1945) Hel's defences were further expanded. Yet more gun batteries were built in the 1940s and 1950s after it had been returned to Polish hands.
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| Hel's main shopping street |
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| Wooden houses from the 1850s. Now restaurants (there’re a lot of those in Hel) |
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| Remains of the 1940s/50s fortifications in the woods… |
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| ... and more |
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| Oh, another sandy beach. Yawn… |
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| The monument marking the spot where Poland symbolically begins. |
I think it's time for a rant. I haven't had one for a
while, so I feel entitled!
This time the focus of my rant is those Russians who organise military exercises off the coast of Kaliningrad.
Kaliningrad is a Russian country that's sandwiched between Poland and
Lithuania. We therefore had to pass it en route to our next destination.
Normally a
country's territorial waters extend to 12 miles offshore, although we had
already been advised to give Kaliningrad a clearance of maybe 20 miles to avoid
attention from Russian patrol boats.
By what right I know not, Kaliningrad periodically conducts
military exercises in waters much further than 12 miles from its coast. When it
does this, it issues a navigational warning to the effect that this extended
area is dangerous to shipping.
I don't know if they have the right to prevent vessels crossing sea that's more than 12 miles from their coast but, having been advised that the area is dangerous, you’d have to be a
bit loopy to plough through it regardless.
We'd therefore stayed longer in Gdansk and Hel than we might otherwise have done, waiting for the exercises to
finish at the stated time of 2100 UTC on 3rd June.
On the morning of 3rd June I checked the
navigational warnings to ensure all was OK for our intended passage only to find, to my horror, that the exercise period had been extended until 7th
June!
I have to say the language following this discovery was
appalling. I was quite cross too!
How bad can the Russians' military planning be that they don't know
whether they'll complete an exercise in 5 days or need 9 days to do
it? That strikes more of a local council run building project than military
precision to me! (As it happens, the exercise period was later extended by another 4 days! Huh?).
Rant over.
Anyway, the effect of this extension was
that we'd either have to mark time for another 4 days or go around the Russian
exclusion zone. We decided on the latter, which made what should have been a
long trip (by our standards) of just under 110 miles into a very long trip
of more than 150! For Solent sailors such as us, that’s the equivalent of
sailing from Southampton to Guernsey and back without stopping – i.e. a long
way!
So it was that, after a rotten night's kip on the Saturday
night in Hel (remember party night?) we set off for Klaipeda, Lithuania, at
0650 on Sunday 4th June.
The wind was forecast to be from the south
east until about 2300, when it was due to veer to the west and strengthen to a force 5. As we had to sail approximately north for 80 miles before
turning just south of east for the remaining 70 odd, this looked likely to give
us a following(ish) wind for most of the way. There was a bit of rain forecast
but I kinda ignored that as the wind speed and direction is far more important.
Things began well as we left the harbour, passing people who were opening yet another bottle of wine in their cockpit... We sailed north
with the wind as forecast, gaining speed as the wind increased. Yes it had
started to rain at about 1400 (and continued to do so until about 0100 Monday
morning) but the wind is the most important thing…
In fact we sailed so well that we arrived at our turning
point too early and had to deal with a headwind for a couple of hours as we
travelled east. Then the wind backed (rather than veered), going from a south
easterly to a westerly in less than 30 minutes. And then it increased. Rapidly.
It was pretty dark at this point (around midnight) but
fortunately I know Cyclone pretty well and had 2 reefs in the mainsail and 2 in
the headsail before long. With that configuration we bowled along for the
next few hours.
It's amazing sailing up here as there's so little darkness.
The sun was due to set soon after 2100 and rise again a little after 0400
(remember we’re an hour ahead of BST at this stage) but it’s still light for at
least an hour after and before those times respectively. In fact, I could see
some light in the sky from around 0200 and by 0300 it was light enough to
clearly see the sea state.
Naturally we saw nothing of the Russians during our long
diversion. In fact, I only saw 3 other vessels between about 1000 Sunday and
0800 Monday. Just grey sea, grey sky and rain!
The wind continued to rise as we neared Klaipeda, dragging
up some pretty big waves in the process. It’s difficult to estimate wave
height, but I'd guess that when we were surfing on the top of one we were
looking down about 3 metres to its associated trough.
This isn't a problem for
Cyclone. You don't need to worry about swell – only breaking waves. It does
make it hard work for the autopilot though as the waves are never exactly on
your stern. As they travel through at an angle they push the boat off course
and the autohelm has to swing about to correct.
It's not great for the sails
either, as it's possible they'll fill from the wrong side as the
boat's nose swings off course. If this should happen, they can then fill again with an almighty bang when the boat regains its course - stressing the rigging and potentially stretching (or worse, tearing) the sail.
To reduce the likelihood of this, and the
impact of it if it did happen, I took down the mainsail and reduced the headsail to
the size of a handkerchief. We were still making almost 6 knots with this configuration as, by this time, we had a good force 6, gusting 7, behind us.
The entry to Klaipeda was straightforward (despite warnings
in the pilot that it could be difficult for small craft in strong onshore
winds) and I called ahead so the marina was expecting me.
There’s a manually operated swing bridge in the entrance to
the marina – which is actually in the moat of a castle – and it wasn't easy
holding station as we waited for this to open in the strong winds (boats
unfortunately don't have handbrakes!). Fortunately they didn't keep us waiting
long and we were soon directed through the tight entrance to our berth.
It was now just after 1100 Central European Time (1200
Eastern European Time which now applied to us) and, having been sailing for
some 28.5 hours, we were a little tired. Jo had got some sleep during the night
but I'd got none at all. Yes Tim, a caravan would be (much!) easier!
So, dog tired, I went to the marina office to pay - where I was told that they
only accepted cash...
After a stroll into town to find a cashpoint and a much needed shower …
… we bumped into Fay and Graham from the Cruising
Association!
Truth be told, we didn't really expect to meet anyone we
knew in Lithuania and, whilst we probably weren't on top form due to sleep
deprivation, it was a pleasure to have them on board for a good old
British cuppa!
I grabbed a couple of hours kip in what remained of the
afternoon before dinner and an early night. The squeal of tyres, boom boom of in-car hifi and
revving of engines courtesy of the assorted youths in the car park adjacent to our berth weren't going to keep me awake!
I slept like a log.
If you've got this far, you deserve a medal. I'll make the next post shorter, Promise!
Thanks for reading.
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