Lipno lake - two weaks in heaven

In the summer we went for two weeks to our largest lake in the Czech Republic called Lipno. It's artificial dam build in 1950' and is located in the national park Šumava. There is allowed to use the gasoline engines only on sailboats and it's pretty far from any big city so it's virtually free of speed motorboats. I call this sailboat heaven also because of the winds blowing almost all the time.

The only downside is that's its 5 hours away from our home. The trip to the lake was fine and the boat sat on the trailer pretty much like in the bed.

Near the dam, in the city called Lipno, there is one of the most modern marina in the country with great facility and perfect slip.

Marina Lipno

boat slip

view from the near by hills on the marina and small part of the lake

Even though the water level was almost 2 meters below the normal we were able to launch the boat without any issue. The bright side of this lower water is that you can see where is the sand or rocks on the shores which is usually impossible during normal levels, because the shore is usually covered by a grass.

preparing the boat and raising the mast in the staging area

There are also a plenty of play fields for the kids so they don't get so much bored during the boat preparation and launching.

The next day we headed upwards the lake to explore the other places and we set some first sails.

Simon on the watch

Lenka keeping the course

Look over there, the pirates!

...aim the cannon...

Dad, it's over, the pirates' boat sunk and we don't take prisoners.

We know that long sailing is not that real water life for our kids so we had to stop on the beach pretty often and let the kid play - with the water.

lifting rudder and the centerboard are nice

improvised bimini top

There are also plenty of the club marinas, but due to low water level, some of the keel sailboats had to stay on the ground.

YC Černá v Pošumaví

only 0.9m of depth on the entry of the marina
(blue Phobos 24 on the right)

YC Azura Frymburk

Sailing was truly amazing and I must say that the boat handles the wind very well and there is no problem to her get to the hull speed.

dead wind sailing in the evening

The national park has beautiful nature, so we often took some land trips to the nearby rocky mountains.

Devil's heel

family selfie on the top of the mountain

Devil's wall

Mozart's waterfall in the forests

Statue of Lipno's fairy

Treetop walkway

Mom, where is our Phobos?

Weather on the lake can change in a minute, because the lake is around 800m above the sea and there are plenty of the mountains. You can see the clouds are forming just above your head so the rains and storms can come very fast.

you can see rain is coming...

The second day we were on the lake one of this quick storm just passed over us while we were on the beach. One moment there is a blue sky and sunny weather, kids are playing with in the water and a few minutes later we saw big dark clouds and lightning coming from both sides pretty fast. So I decided to pull out the anchor, leave the beach and stay motoring against the wind. When the storm hit us I saw one small sailboat with the instructor and some kids without the outboard and teared jib heading to the shore and one big cruise ship in their course. There were not much time for thinking, my kids and wife were safe in the cabin and I was the nearest boat so I motored for them, threw them a line and towed them to the marina.

... and now there is a storm

All finished in about 30 minutes and when we returned to the marina we saw one more larger sailboat with teared main sail. Then the owner told me that it was very fast and had some technical problems with dropping the mail sail.

This two weeks of vacation passed fast and we had to take our "home" back.

on the way back home