DZIWNOW TO KOLOBREZG
Day 12 Friday, 31st May 2019
It’s OK today to traverse the firing range on the Eastern side of Dziwnow but we can hear guns firing on the adjacent firing range to the West. There’s a bar across the entrance and it’s suddenly 2m so we have to go to the channel. There are quite a few flags – but we don’t think they’re for crab or lobster pots, might be for fishing nets – mostly in pairs. We go round one and then through another but nothing catches on our keel. I read in the pilot book, ‘The Baltic Sea and Approaches’, that they’re fishing nets from the small fishing villages on the coast.
A grey day but not as choppy as yesterday. Poled out the genoa. The wind was from the SW and ended up W. Sailed all the way between the two ports
We sail along the coast which I remember from an aeroplane going to Beijing in 2009 – it’s sandy and low-lying all the way from Germany to Tallinn on the south Baltic coast! We see a hotel being constructed and the only lighthouse for miles, Niechorze Lighthouse.
We meet a Viking boat coming out of Kolobrezg and a pirate ship too. They’re very popular along the coast – ever since King Erik, who was married to a daughter of Henry V, did piratical raids on Scandinavia.
The entrance has lots of buffers – it’s a busy port with lots of small ships moored against wharves, fishing boats and timber piled high. The Border patrol vessel is unmanned. There’s also a ferry to the Danish island of Bornholm where we’re hoping to go in late August.
HISTORY OF THE PIRATE SHIPS
You may remember that we went to Kalmar last year, where there was a splendid castle, and mentioned the Kalmar Union. The instigator was Margrete of Denmark. On her death she was succeeded by her nephew, Erik of Pomerania. He built the first castle on the site of Elsinore (Hamlet’s castle where we went last year) in the 1420’s which he exploited to charge exorbitant tolls on the Oresund. Erik was deposed in 1439 and made his way to the island of Gotland, where we went for the Medieval Festival last year at Visby. Here he reverted to his Viking ways and became a pirate before returning to his native Pomerania (where we are now!).
Go to see the lighthouse tower and find a restaurant near the pirate ship: this is a much posher restaurant and hotel in the main tourist area. The meal costs £25 for both: M has fish soup, we share a fish platter for 2 with chips and salad, and I have a huge slice of cake for dessert, and a small and a large beer.
This ammonite near the lighthouse reminds us of Whitby and the boat is named Joanna.
Walk back to the boat and view another episode of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (I think M is addicted) but we now know that Series 3 is planned so they’ll be no denouement at the end of Series 2. Very disappointing!
The Harbour Master tells me that very few British yachts come to Kolobrezg – only 6 or 7 a year. 85% are German yachts with some Swedes and Finns.
Lady Hamilton 2019 