Budapest – towards Vienna

July the 26th

The current is very strong, probably around 5 knots. We are only making 1-2 knots over ground with pressing the engine quite a bit. River is narrow and no good places to anchor. As we see a barge just ahead of us I decide to continue during the night. It is also good if we ever going to get to Vienna. It goes very slow during the night. Sometimes it feels like it would be faster to anchor. When daylight breaks we see that the barge in front of us is a Ukrainian one. We can now see it only by the shape of the ship. By afternoon we have caught up with them and they agree to give us a lift.

Note that this is a fixed bouy, not a self-propelled torpedo ;)

Through the lock into Vienna we go alone and they are very impressed by Olga’s behaviour on deck. They say they will send their cooking lady to Ellide Embla for education of how to handle deck lines and knots. On the other hand they send over a pot of Ukrainian soup that Daria and Katja finish in a couple of minutes. Daria says she misses the soups from kindergarden in Harku and from Baba Lena. She thinks we should send Olga on soup-cooking education to Astrakhan, the Ukranian barge.

Onboard of Astrakhan saying thank you for the soup and talkng to tjotja Gala about economic difficulties in Ukraine

We get to Vienna late, but in time to go into the city and have a nice meal before going to sleep and for once not having to go up in the middle of the night.

Bratislava,the exciting part

same day, July th 25th

bad mooring in Bratislava

When ready to sleep (some ice-cream later) we slowly stroll down to the pontoon. When turning round the corner to the pontoon we do not see Ellide Embla, only a huge cruising ship. First thought is that we went to the wrong pontoon, but a second later I realize it is the correct one. How can the cruising ship be so close when Ellide Embla is there? I rush down and see that the cruising ship is actually 5-6m from the pontoon giving some space for Ellide Embla while 3 guys try to move her (to where???). I jump onboard and start the engine. During that time Olga and the kids come down and the guys help them on board. Full speed ahead while Olga take care of the lines with help from the guys. We shout a “thank you” to them and now hope that no one will call.

Budapest – towards Vienna

July the 25th

The Belgian barge, however, do stop for a bit of night sleep at 01:00AM. This we thank them for as when being towed behind you have to steer all the time. They will start again 05:00AM and tell us to be ready. We get a few hours of sleep and at 05:00AM they tell us we can join them to the first lock. As we slow them down almost 1km/h (again this km) we are thereafter on our own. But we are very grateful for those kilometres we got to go with them.

The lock is 20m high and it goes very well. But when coming closer to the top we see waves breaking over the lock ports. That is not supposed to be on the Donau! When they open the ports the waves of almost a meter in height comes into the lock. That is quite a challenge as we have to wait for Dorneck to go out of the lock first. Ellide Embla is jumping up and down alongside the north side of the lock. We bear off and the fenders are doing their job but not for so much longer. Finally Dorneck is out of the way and Olga is left to bear off while I jump down in the cockpit and give full fwd. All goes well, without a scratch, but it was quite exciting. At least it kept your mind from other things.

Coming out of the lock the wind is strong and it is a wide canal “new Donau” that is narrower in the lock end. It builds up quite a bit of sea in that end and we have to secure the mast a bit better on deck as it starts to move. After that we steam on towards Bratislava and Vienna with not so much left after the speedy lift with Dorneck.

In the evening we come in to Bratislava. The current has built up a bit but it is not until really in Bratislava that it really starts getting annoying. The pontoon for customs and police is occupied and we decide to be illegal immigrants as we will only stay one night and then continue to Vienna. We go further and coming downtown the current is stronger and stronger. No place to moor. We finally decide to moor at a pontoon where the passenger boats normally moor. It looks deserted and we try to find someone to ask.

It turns out the guy on the hotel ship on the next pontoon knows the owner of the pontoons and he calls him and asks. He says it is 90% sure no ship will come in during the night and if there is it will come in the morning, around 05:30 -06:00AM. Just to be sure he will check and call me. If he do not call it will be OK to stay there.

We eat dinner in vicinity of Ellide Embla in case something should turn up. Nothing does and no one calls. We therefore take a little stroll through the city. The city of Bratislava has a lot of charm. It is Saturday night and a lot of people are out. There is some pride festival or similar going on. Katja is very amused by a guy with moustache, dressed as a girl, who tries to play the flute for her. He cannot play the flute is her comment. Otherwise there are not many children out at 23:30PM in Bratislava.

Budapest – towards Vienna

July the 24th

After a bit of running here and there, filling fuel and water and paying the marina (not the cheapest one) we are on our way at about noon. It is about 280km (km on water!!!) to Vienna and we would make it in about 3 days, being able to stop also in Bratislava.

We are doing quite well during the day, keeping our 4 knots (we shall not talk kilometres per hour aboard) average and head for a stop at what looks like an interesting place. Even marked on our map. Esztergom Dom built 1250, at km 1719.

In the afternoon we spot a Belgian barge and although they seem to be going quite fast we ask for a lift. They agree to take us on tow behind them. They are doing about 7 knots over ground which is about 9 knots through water. That is over, or at the very limit of displacement speed for Ellide Embla and we are creating big waves after us. Katja wants to surf in them. The propeller shaft is making the same noise as when we are sailing and surfing in big waves.

the Belgian barge

Olga shouts that with this speed we will be drinking beer at Stephansplatz in Vienna by tomorrow afternoon. That is we look at Esztergom from the boat instead.

Budapest

July the 23rd

When we wake up, Mercur has already left for bunkering diesel. Thomas has been talking to them and it will take them a few hours before they are back and will head for Vienna. We’ll use that time to drop the Andersson family off and set off to a pontoon in the city on the Pest side. We find one close to the hotel they will stay at. Two Hungarians come looking at Ellide Embla. One just asking if we have any Swedish beer aboard and the other if she is built in Scotland, he has seen the CQR anchor that is made there. While Olga and Daria go searching for ice-cream I decide we shall stay one day in Budapest and we sail for the marina that Hans found for us.
Passing through Budapest on the river, although it is still early hours, is like a traffic jam. There are cruising ships, small ferries, jet ferries crisscrossing and one has to be quite alert not to run in to any of them, or let any of them run into you from the aft.






We found the marina were Hans said it should be. They showed us a place to moor and after some formalities and a shower we took a taxi to the city. In Budapest the first thing we bought was ice-cream. It turned out 4 small ice-creams cost as much as taxi from the marina to centre. Taxi is cheap, ice-cream is expensive in Budapest. The city is very beautiful but it is quite a bit of a tourist trap. There are tourists everywhere and sightseeing tours etc…



The marina is excellent with a service department for Volvo Penta. I borrow some tools to try to fix the hard-to-turn steering wheel but it turns out it need more than that. I also find a little oil leakage on the connection to the pressure gage. Something easily fixed when at a marina with service department.

Bezdan to Monach

July the 21st

We leave Mercur after the morning coffee; Mercur is waiting for another boat that shall arrive during the day. We want to go through the customs before Mercur, since we suspect to encounter some problems due to we have changed the crew.

neighbour-boat running around to satisfy border-policemen (this is a photo by hidden camera, since taking pictures was prohibited)

Well, we almost could get away with it – the border police were not at all interested in our passports, but the fact that we checked in 7 persons and are checking out 8 was a big problem – “ne dobre” they said. Well, some hours later the police came to the conclusion that the way to check us out was rather simple – we should destroy the “original” revision and produce a new one. The only question was who can type a new list, since they could now accept a handwritten one. But then the officer in charge wanted to go home, it was the end of his shift, so he found a river agent who had a computer and could type the list. The officer suggested we should give the agent a bottle of beer as a gesture to thank him. We so did but he said he really would have done it for free and reluctantly accepted the bottle.

Later in the evening we cleared in to Hungary. Basically the same procedure: Harbour master, passport police, water protection officer and doctor (making sure we have no infectious deceases through talking to the skipper). Only difference was that it was done in 15 minutes. Again we met Mercur and hitch-hiked with them during the night, now they are going really fast, ca 11km/h. Distances and speed are calculated in metric system while navigating on the river, which irritates Magnus endlessly.

another meeting with Mercur 205

July the 20th

We meet Mercur 205 on the river as it turns out they did not have to stay as long as expected on the border in Velico Gradiste. They are now at anchor and waiting for orders from their company of how to continue. We get a very warm welcome and stay the night moored alongside and have a bit of a Romanian party.

a drink with captain Jakob first

and crazy dancing :)

Beograd to Novy Sad

July the 18th

We leave Beograd next morning after a fast shopping. Micael waves us good-bye. The day is very hot and we rather stay inside.

Morning shower

In Novy Sad we check in with the local border police. They find out that we have not registered the change of crew in Beograd, which is “ne dobre”, but they decide to do nothing about it and wish us a pleasant stay in Novy Sad (but we promise them to leave the city at 6:00PM). We do some shopping in Novy Sad – a COLD beer and a local wine and have a lunch at a pizzeria.

Novy Sad (Ellide Embla looks so small on this river)

arrive to Beograd

Friday, July the 17th




We go all night and arrive to Beograd next morning. We shall change the crew here, Per and Hans want to take train to Budapest and Micael will fly home.

New crew arrves to take the voyagefrom Beograd to Budapest - the Andersson family.

Vice-president of the marina greets the captain welcome and offers us stay and all the facilities at his marina free of charge, the only condition is that we should spread a good word of Serbia in the EU, which we are glad to do, as long as it concerns Beograd or Engel Marina.

Old and new crews at lunch in Beograd.

Serbian border

Thursday, July the 16th

Thursday morning we are waked by the Mercur 205 crew. We are at Veliko Gradiste, a small town on Serbian side of the river, ca 15 km before we shall enter Serbia on both sides. Mercur will anchor the barges and we will go together to the border police.

We moor and the skipper leaves with all the papers. It is ca 8:00 AM, but already hot. Olga wakes the kids to play in the playground which lies just 30 m from the boat. She herself goes through nearby streets in hope to find an ATM and get some local cash to buy ice-cream for the crew, but there are none and the café would not accept a credit card.

An hour later two female police arrive with our passports. They compare us to the photos in the passports and tell us to stay inside the boat until we get our passports back, some ten or fifteen minutes later.

Magnus comes back and tells how many papers he had to fill in. Now he should wait until he gets a paper that we paid the tax for passing through Serbian part of Donau, ca 60 EUR. A guy comes with the paper an hour later, but still no pass-polices. Olga and the kids want to go ashore (so they do), and Magnus goes and asks for their passports. He gets them back, just the three of them. Then Olga decides to go into the town to get some local cash and ice-cream.

We wait and wait, but the control – they call it “revision” here – is not ready. It goes even worse for Mercur, during the revision the border police finds some flies in the cargo on barges. So they will have to stay until Monday, threaten the police.

Girls take a bath in the river whil waiting.

Magnus decides that we shall not wait for Mercur, he finishes our revision. We want to have a dinner inland and then leave for Beograd. A police comes by (we bet we were watched all the time) and informs us that it is ok to go inland, but first we have to go through the passport control again since we are checked-out at the moment. To go into the town at the moment is a “big offence”. Magnus cannot hear of more paperwork and we leave at once.

no restaurant's dinner this time, but nevertheless very tasty


and a good view.

boatlife

Wednesday 15th of July.

Passing the lock, “Iron Gate I” will be a little later than planned, as it is closed. Convoy anchors very close to land in 4m depth. At ca 4.30 am things start to happen and me and Hans stay on deck. We slowly move into the lock. Length and width is the same as the previous but the height is 30m. I don’t want to miss this. It turn out however that it is in two steps so it is not really as impressive as expected, although still very impressive. Passing the lock goes well although when Mercur reverses full with her engines our aft lines get very tense. But as they say as long as the line is noisy it won’t break, worry when it gets quiet again.

After the lock the landscape changes and we feel more like in the Alps, with the hills around us. Just waiting to hear the bells from the cows. I go to sleep.

Waking up at 11 am I hear the agitated conversation from the crew. “I have taken a hundred pictures”, I hear Micael say. Coming out in the cockpit the scenery is amazing. Not something I imagined I would see from the deck of Ellide Embla. It is a Fiord like landscape where the river has cut its way through the mountain. A fantastic scenery.

The kids start to talk about a small animal they have been offered by a lady on one of the barges. The lady herself is a “pro”, rented for the voyage by one of the Skippers. After a coffe at another barge we pick up a rabbit and the kids are allowed to bring it aboard for a little while.

The kids also get a present from the previous Captain of Mercur – a bunch of chocolate, and Fanta, and other things. It is handed over to us by the present Captain. And this after all the stories we have heard about how much they charge for towing yachts!

Looks like we are following the time-plan, which is a good news.

Iron Gate locks

Tuesday, 14th of July.

Approaching Iron Gate II

We are getting close to the lock “Iron Gate II”. The captain of the convoys asks me to call the lock on the VHF, to ask if we can pass together with the convoy, alongside Mercur 205, but they won’t answer me. When they call from Mercur 205 in Roman it is no problem and we go through. The lock measures: Length 310m, Width 34m, Height 8m. The convoy just about fits in.





Today the weather has improved, it is hot. Ca 30 degrees and we have to fill buckets from the river and pour over us to cool down and get shower as well. We are not spoiled with hot showers and clean clothes.
We steam on towards Turnu-Severin and there we stop as Mercur is changing the crew and as well as changing some barges. We take the opportunity to fill up our supplies as they are more or less run out.
The new captain, who speaks German – the only one speaking something but Rumanian in the new crew on Mecur allows us to continue with them and as soon as they get going we moor alongside them again.

Lifting with Mercur

Sunday, July the 12th



Some of us get invited to a little party on one of the barges. A few of the other skippers are having a little “disco” with home-made liquor. One or two of them are drinking quite a lot. We communicate in a number of languages, German, Spanish, French, English, Russian and the body language. The message is still not always clear.









It is a very comfortable way to travel on a river like us, lying alongside a pushing tug, not using any diesel, having 220V, possibility to stretch your legs on a convoy of 300m and get local information from the crew.

meeting with Mercur 205

Saturday, July the 11th

We start off up the river. Run aground (AGAIN!), well, they say you shouldn’t trust the charts on Donau, since the river keeps changing. A little slower this time though.

We start looking around and find a barge of 10 ships, it goes slower than we, but the skipper decides to hang on to them – they will move slowly but stable. We can hang on in ca 3 days, until 931 km, which should be somewhere just before Rumania ends.

The skipper of Merur 205 does not run aground although handling 10 ships (plus us) altogether 300m long.

The weather gets cold and rainy. Luckily, we do not have to stand outside steering in the night. We drink and sing inside.

Bulgaian coast

Crew from Sv. Vlas to Belgrad

Friday, July the 10th (we think)

We have problem with dates – no-one aboard can say what day it is without checking one’s phone or watch. The weather is hot and in the evening a thunderstorm comes by. We wanted to moor on the Rumanian side, but found no good place. We cross the river just in time to moor by the side of Tsar Kaloyan when the storm starts.

The crew of the barge welcome us and offer a drink of homemade slivovitz (Olga loves it when it smells of ripen plums, even if she feels drunk at just a smell of it). We plan to stay the night and move on as soon as we shop for more food.

Tsar Kaloyan, the crew winking us a good-bye

Unfortunately the Bulgarian authorities have learnt that a yacht has moored on the Bulgarian side and they come on board. We have to go through the immigration and all the paper work with the Bulgarians again. This time we get some help from the crew on Tsar Kaloyan.

Just before leaving we ask if we can get some fresh water as we are running out of it. To supply it we have to turn Ellide Embla around. First time to moor with the current (ca 3-4 knots), which turns out to be a real challenge. Finally we do it successfully with only a ‘small’ bump.

first emergency stop

Wednesday, July the 8th

We are going up the stream which is not very strong, ca 2 knots. It is hot.

In the afternoon one of the motor’s cylinders stop working. It turnes out it is one of the pipes going from the injection pump to one of the injectors, very very uncommon. Actually never heard of by skipper or nobody else onboard. Malte Månsson will hear of this when getting back. The captain decides to look for a place to repair. We turn from Donau into a little channel – Micael sees a town there on his GPS. The first turn is not very lucky – we run aground and the mast rocks giving a bad feeling to the captain and Micael, don't trust the charts too much.

We stay the night in a small town (sorry, still do not know the name), Calabrista or something similar.

In the morning two guys from a local canoe club come by. Micael explains in body language that we are having a stop to fix the motor and they offer help at once - take us to a small workshop there the injection tube can be soldered.

Moreover, we get a chemical that functions in the cooker. So positive!

The skipper comes to the conclusion - no more whistling on board.

After a lunch dinner we will set of and continue during the night. Last night the gypsies at the shore were partying at least until 4 am. As well as the mosquitoes. We've had a few baths in the river, not actually knowing if we are getting cleaner or dirtier. At least a bit cooler.

in the channel to Donau

Tuesday, 7th of July.

We take down the mast in the little Ana Marina south of Constanta and decide to head for the channel to the Donau.

While Olga and Micael go shop for food Ellide Embla arrives at the locks where a Russian-speaking captain of a Rumanians barge offers us a lift. If we hang on to them are we allowed to continue go until 10:00PM, otherwise we must stay just after the locks until the next morning.

in the locks, we go in front of Argos (the barge is 107m long and has ca 90m long barge´pushing in front of itself).

We hang on to the barge. They have a crew of five. Vladimir, the captain comes from a Russian village in Rumania. They are religious people who moved out of Russia in the 18th century. Vladimir has a dream of coming to Russia one day.

Coming out of the locks we start cooking to discover that the lamp oil Magnus hunted around the whole Constanta is a wrong chemical and our cooker is not functioning as it should. We decide to grill.

Micael is grilling under the mast.

Next morning we start early and around 10:00 AM we have gone through the channel. We separate from the barge, and it seems that both sides look at the voyage together as an economically good affair.

Ellide Embla hanging on with Argos, same 5-6 knots.

Constantza

Late on Sunday evening we arrive in Constantza.

Sunset outside Constantza.

Today, on Tuesday 7th of July we are in a small marina south of Constantza, taking off the mast. We met a nice Swedish sailor who just came down Donau river alone. He gladly shares his experiences.

We hope to go into the canal tonight, but nothing happens fast in this little marina...

Balchik to Constantza

July the 5th.





The skipper and Micael wake up early in the Sunday morning to leave for Romania. But they soon conclude that the wind is all too strong, and it's thunderstorm in the sea. But we have agreed with the Bulgarian pass-police to check-out at 6:00 AM, so we leave the marina for the pass and tull pier.


We cannot moor there - the wind is too strong - so Micael jumps to the pier with all the passports, he hopes to solve all the border control by himself.

But th Bulgarian pass police want to follow their rules: they have to see the boat and the crew members and Micael must write a crew-list.

After a long discussion Micael reaches an agreement with the pass-police - Ellide Embla goes back to the marina where it is possible to moor. The police look into the boat and go back to their pier with our passports. then they come back and say we must leave the marina within one hour after the pass control.

By now, somewhat after 7:00 AM guys are tired and the wind is just getting stronger. It rains heavily. So, everybody goes back to sleep.

We wake soon after 9:00 AM when somebody knocks on the boat. It's the pass police who are irritated that we are still in the marina and say that we must do the pass control again. After some discussion we gen max 10 minutes to leave the marina. Now the sun is looking out and there's almost no wind. So, we leave in haste.

Marina Divevi to Balchik

July the 4th.

Crew members - Micael, Per and Hans - arrived on Friday evening.
On Saturday morning we started the voyage - the first stop in Balchik, still Bulgaria.
We planned to move further at 6:00 AM next morning.

Dulphins jumping around Ellide Embla just outside Dinevi Marina.

Arrive in Marina Dineva

Now we have arrived in Marina Dineva in Bulgaria. We arrived late yesterday, luckily some Estonian charter travellers went also to Sunny Beach, so we could share their transfer bus. We have cleaned a little on board and test started the engine. Olga has tried the grinder to grind of some mold (lite, lite mögel). And I had to weld the bathing ladder together as it had a small damage from the winter (then of course it was time for a swim!) Otherwise everything seems to be intact. Tomorrow we hope to head for Constanza.

32 in the air and 24 in the water, very nice!