leave Vienna

Astrakhan, the Ukrainian boat had to stay in Vienna overnight to get bunkering next day at noon. So, we got some hours for sightseeing (back by 17:00PM they told us). Scared by so strong stream as it was between Bratislava and Vienna, we did not feel like going ourselves, and Astrakhans crew thought it OK if we go with them to Linz, their destination port.

At 16:00PM however we get a scary call from Astrakhans crew: a water-police have been over to them and ordered us to come over within two hours, there was some problem they said. Well, the only problem we knew about was that we never checked in into EU-Schengen, but it should not be a problem as Ellide Embla has a Swedish flag we thought, being a bit lazy.

We came back to the boat within half an hour and the Ukrainians lent Magnus a bicycle so he would get faster to the police-office which is situated a couple kilometres away. Magnus is back very fast, it took the policemen ca 20 secs to look through the passports and the ship-papers (they more or less lost the interest seeing we actually are EU folks). But the Ukrainians wondered how much Magnus had to pay to get away with it.

Well, the Ukrainians did not get bunkered that day. Instead they got to know that their company had not paid for diesel for quite a while so they will not get bunkered unless the debt is paid. And knowing the economical situation in their country, the crew got very disappointed (well, if we understood it right they are not fully paid for the stop-time, and they did not know how long they will have to stay in Vienna, and moreover, they had so little diesel that even generator motor will have none in two days).

No good news for us, but we decide to stay another night and see if there are any other barges for hitch-hiking in the morning. While kids are playing in a play park ashore, Borja, one of the Ukrainians, comes to Magnus and asks him to buy some vodka for him, a cheap one, since their captain has forbidden the crew to go ashore. As soon as possible, please J, and do not mention this to anyone. It’s ok with us, we will go ashore anyway to find a nice restaurant. But, unexpectedly it’s almost 9:00PM and the local shops look very much closed. Some hour later we find a gas station which is almost closed (they were just closed but opened the door for us).

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.