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.