The next year we went on sailing on Masuria. This time we made (i.e. Agnieszka and Mikolaj) in one week the Polish sailing certificate and directly thereafter, we made a one-week cruise with our boys – on the same training boat, a Sasanka 660, a family crew of four.

During the training, we lived with the trainer on the boat, while the children went on holiday with the granny in the neighboring resort in Ruciane. After the exam, our trainer checked out and the children moved on board. Now where do we want to go? From Ruciane one has only a restricted choice: we did not want to take the southern rod about Nidzkie Lake because of ban on motorboats, the answer was thus “go north!“ Through the shallows (pull the centerboard!) and a lock we came out on Beldany. At first, it was a challenge to lay the mast for the lock, with the inexperienced crew, but it was mastered.

Then we tried some tacking and jibing on the brad waters of Beldany, and I lost my hat in the progress. Just the first in the long sequence of hats and caps lost to this hobby! We reach the planned day’s target of Wierzba in a good mood anyway. We went into one of the last free “parking slots”. The maneuver is executed as if it were a textbook example. One neighbor notes: “You are a motivated but inexperienced crew. This whole command-and-repetition pattern, you will soon pass on it…”

It goes on northwards after the overnight stay in Wierzba. Passing the “metropolis” of Mikolajki, we entered the southern part of the Lake Talty. This is a part of the main Masurian Lakes’ route, so there are many yachts here. Someone in Wierzba hinted us however to a small restaurant in the northern part of the Lake Talty, in the village of Jora Wielka. It was not easy to find the small private pier of the restaurant, but it was really worthy to do this. The restaurant is beautiful, the food very tasty, and the keeper had may tales from his trips to tell.

Thereafter, we begun our return trip to Ruciane. We passed a night at a wild shore, than sailed on through the Guzianka lock and the shallow thereafter. We returned the boat to the instructor and returned home via Warsaw full of impressions. We decided to sail on Masurian lakes again. We were hooked up.

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The story continues in The big boat 2010