notamermaid

Sometimes it is better not to know I think... Must remember that about the pilot. I have only read about it three times so far. On my river cruise on the Danube I actually asked about the sound that was near the door in our cabin. It sounded like a shower running for hours. She assured me it was not some technical fault in the bathroom next door or so, just the sound travelling up from under the ship. It varies depending on depth and nature of the river bed. Not having been on a ship overnight before I just did not know. notamermaid

The extraordinary grand European journey of the MS Alisa hull part 3 While the news of the blockage occupied the local headlines and even made it into international news (the Rhine as a major transport artery being in focus already due to the low water) the MS Alisa was waiting in Bingen. By early evening the barge had passed and the river around Rüdesheim filled with ships. The backlog was mostly cleared within a few fours hours and just before 19.50 the Johanna with hull attached sailed away in the light of the evening sun, downstream into the Rhine Gore. This is her just before she left: So would she actually sail all the way, or stop at a nearby dock? I could not be sure so waited to see where she may pop up again with a terrestrial signal. The following morning I had backtracked the signal but could not be sure the Johanna still had the MS Alisa attached. Again, ship spotters came to the rescue. They informed the community on the Danube transport from where I was able to follow her path. This time it was downstream from Cologne that the info came from. Yes, the MS Alisa was still there. On the Lower Rhine it must have been a relatively fast run to the Netherlands as she is reported to have arrived at Gendt on 19 August. Much of the info I have given here comes from the „Binnenschifferforum“ where they track hulls, Kaskotransport is the word. This is the page of the MS Alisa: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?111874-Alisa-–-FGKS-Kasko When the hull has been turned into a fully functioning ship she will be given a naming ceremony and deployed on the Rhine and Moselle. But who knows, she may return to Serbia for a brief visit on an itinerary some time. If you are interested, you can look up her sailing dates for next year already: https://www.phoenixreisen.com/?pm=uebersicht&source=widget&searchShipIds=1000252 When she is an official river cruise ship she will be given her own page within the section of passenger ships under A, the link to the full list: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/forumdisplay.php?1059-Passagierschiffe-Fahrgastschiffe So to conclude: a river cruise ship of 135m length made it through two shallows in extremely low water, one on the Danube and one on the Rhine, despite the size, when other ships needed to wait for the rivers to rise. She was sailed with much reduced draught, i.e .less than we know from other river cruise ships as she is only a hull at this time. The logistics are standard for this kind of transport but in a weird twist in this low water the hull stayed the same but the ship swap happened with the helper ships twice while you as a passenger needed to swap your „real“ ship twice on the Grand European. What she has not got compared to a fully functioning river cruise ship made the MS Alisa able to sail and have her extraordinary grand European journey. notamermaid

I tend not to look at weather forecasts further than four days out, they become tentative. But there are several weather sites that give relatively good info, like accuweather. I use German ones. I do not see much rain forecast for next week for the areas that matter. From Wednesday onwards it looks like drizzle to me. If we got widespread rain for two days all over the High Rhine, Lake Constance, Basel, the Upper Rhine and the Middle Rhine, as well as the Neckar and the Main rivers, that would be very useful. The main thing that needs to happen is moderate amounts over a long time, i.e. not a downpour of two hours. Downpours fill the rivers, widespread rain feeds the ground and raises the water table. We need moisture. That is the problem in autumn and this year it is extreme due to lack of rainfall in Spring. There does not seem to be much hope built into the computer modelling at Maxau gauge for rain raising the level substantially going into the weekend and next week: Computer modelling at Kaub shows a similar picture, so neither Neckar nor Main have much additional water to give the Rhine. Both rivers join between Maxau and Kaub from the East, i.e. are right tributaries. The only good news is that 60cm and lower at Kaub (which we had in August) is still highly unlikely. While the Danube at Pfelling is a nerve-wrecking scenario, the Rhine is for the time being a little more stable, albeit on a slightly worrying low level. I think we need to see if the weather forecast changes by Sunday and then basically wait how much rain actually comes down next week. River level modelling on Monday should give us better ideas what to expect but it still needs to be read with caution. Note that the river level forecast is updated every morning. Maxau that is, Kaub is done time stamp midnight, but I read it the next morning. notamermaid

A-Rosa Sena gets certification that awards ships for "looking after the environment": https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/cruise/latest-a-rosa-ship-receives-top-green-certification notamermaid

I will throw in a brief update at this point and get back to the MS Alisa later. Kaub gauge, stable, now at 83cm. Forecast suggests minimal change for the worse and then a slight rise for tomorrow, afternoon on Friday reaching 84cm. Saturday minimal change with Sunday potentially falling below 80cm again. Weather forecast: rain coming from France tomorrow, reaching the Upper Rhine valley on Saturday. notamermaid

Brief update. Pfelling gauge is at 272cm. Currently virtually no rain over the Danube basin in Germany. Rain coming into Germany from France tomorrow, probably reaching the Danube going into Saturday. notamermaid

The extraordinary grand European journey of the MS Alisa hull part 2 Having found the great webcam at Bingen a while ago, which is just opposite Rüdesheim on the Rhine, I thought this would give me a good chance to try and spot the barge with the hull of the MS Alisa. The archived shots that you can retrieve are in ten minute intervalls and that means that most ships that sail past there are caught on camera, either small or clearly discernible. I was lucky and the Johanna was photographed in full view in great sunrise pink hue, I just added a bit of zoom to get her closer: Now here comes the „maritime engineering“ bit: the Johanna II is clearly carrying little load herself and much of her hull is exposed. Look at the hull of the MS Asara. She is sitting very high in the water, I mean a high ratio of black against white paint, more than you normally see when river cruise ships are sailing. Delighted, I assumed that it must be possible for her to sail through on that day. I found the time stamped photo around lunchtime and by then knew that double-width and extended length ships are allowed and able to sail the Rhine Gorge. It was on that morning (early hours) that a barge of similar dimension had come upstream and due to a technical failure had had an emergency stop at Oberwesel, blocking the Rhine Gorge passage for all ships! If the MS Alisa wouldn’t be able to sail through the Gorge on that day, it was not due her being too large or having too much draught. No chance of getting further that morning, the Johanna with the MS Alisa docked at Bingen and waited for things to come, i.e. the barge, having been cleared by police launch to proceed, to slowly sail past Bingen and clear the navigation channel. To be continued. notamermaid P.S. In post #909 it should read KV Johanna and Johanna II (not KVB)

Just reading that makes me nervous. Enjoy the rest of your stay in Amsterdam and have a good journey home. notamermaid

Thanks, never heard of them before. Looks interesting. notamermaid

Lovely. Have a wonderful cruise. It was a great experience to wake up in the morning, open the curtains and see the embankment at Bratislava. Never having done a river cruise before I really enjoyed that new special moment. The castle is really nice, with a great view. We rode a little train up the hill. notamermaid

The extraordinary grand European journey of the MS Alisa hull part 1 The MS Alisa has been ordered by Phoenix Reisen. Her hull was built by the Vahali shipyards in Serbia; the Vahali shipyards in Gendt, Netherlands (the original location) will do the outftting. This has been a standard procedure for some years now. The MS Alisa left Serbia in July , pushed by Argo, and got as far Linz. There the journey had to be interrupted as the Argo had developed technical problems. Luckily, the stop was not too long as the Argo was several days later spotted with the hull in Regensburg on 7 August. This already tells us that the MS Alisa went through the low stretch around Pfelling when (most likely) no other 135m river cruise ship did. The level at the gauge there was between 240cm and 250cm when the Argo pushed her through. So the Rhine would be okay, right? We will come to that later. First, the Main Danube Canal and the Main river. As has happended with previous hulls, the MS Alisa got a new push boat, the Zasavica III at Regensburg. The journey along the the canal and river was uneventful as far as I can tell. A few days later, at Gustavsburg, just past the last lock on the Main river, the MS Alisa got a new carrier, a barge that would help her down the Rhine towards Gendt. I have seen this procedure at Gustavsburg with hulls before but do not know why it is a barge instead of a pushboat that is used on the Rhine. So which one would have the responsibility of taking the MS Alisa to Gendt? As we have read, it was the KVB Johanna and Johanna II, meaning a combined barge. By the time pushboat and hull reached Gustavsburg, the Rhine had lost so much water that it was almost as bad as Pfelling. At the time I did not know if the authorities on the Rhine put restrictions on double-width and extended length barges, so I was eager to find out what would happen and not being able to see the changeover at Gustavsburg did not know which barge it would be and when exactly the journey continue. Would they really sail her alongside a barge? The barge should be able to sail with its hull construction but would the MS Alisa really sail/be sailed when the level at Kaub is only 34cm, I mean it is a different river with different shallows and bends? The day turned out to be the 17th of August and things – again – did not go as planned. To be continued. notamermaid

Full story coming up... I should have been clearer when I posted before. Small river cruise ships have been sailing the Rhine Gorge in these low waters as well as the lightly loaded cargo ships (like the Johanna) but some 110m river cruise ships struggled and stopped as well as all the 135m river cruise ships as far as I can ascertain. notamermaid

That is a pity. With there having been rain in Austria I thought it may hold. Esztergom has got a gauge so let us have a look at it today: Hmm, really looks to have gone done significantly compared to previous days. But the forecast looks promising. On my cruise we left the ship at Esztergom, saw the Basilica, which is a great edifice, toured the countryside, stopped briefly at Szentendre and arrived at Budapest with our coach being late for lunch because we were stuck in traffic somewhere on the outskirts of the city. Highly interesting morning which gave us a great introduction to Hungary. notamermaid

I enjoyed Esztergom. The basilica is fabulous. We had a good guide there. The town was also quite interesting. notamermaid

Brief update on Pfelling gauge: 288cm. Could be getting tight for a few ships. Rain visible on the radar image, sweeping over the southern half of Bavaria. This volume of water should reach the area of the shallow stretch during tomorrow. Perhaps some rain will directly hit Straubing to Vilshofen. But it looks as if it may not be in time to keep the level at Pfelling stable during today. notamermaid

Brief update on Kaub gauge: 84cm. A fast decline and more than the forecast suggested would happen. Amended forecast, which may now be a little off, suggests Kaub will stay around 80cm to 79 cm tomorrow. But with rain already visible on the radar image I am confident in the suggestion of the level going up a little again on Friday. Finally some rain for the Moselle and Middle Rhine valleys. notamermaid

Tatata!!! Correct (and slightly not correct). It is the MS Alisa. She was pushed by the Argo but then on the Rhine made the journey with the help of a different ship. More on the story later. And that is the question I will not be able to fully answer, me not building ships or steering them, but I will try and get close to it. notamermaid

Welcome to Europe, Germany and especially the beautiful Moselle. Sadly, nature is not as lush as it should be at this time of year. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

The 2023 brochure of Amawaterways is out: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/amawaterways-releases-new-brochure-for-2023 Classical Music on the Danube sounds really interesting. notamermaid

Several years ago I came across this website: https://www.toursbylocals.com/Germany-Tours Have only just remembered it again (after considerable time of its sleepy existence among my bookmarks). I do not think it has fully organized tours including organizing air travel, did not see any at first glance, but perhaps it is of some interest, also for others that have not seen it yet. I am sure though that some of you will know it. notamermaid

Sorry, said this wrongly. It is an institute that has a research project (or had) and was supported by the University of Mainz: https://www.igl.uni-mainz.de/institut/institut/ The original project website link no longer works, but these are other links in the topic Auswanderung: https://www.auswanderung-rlp.de/das-projekt/weblinks.html I think that gives you the information in a different format. notamermaid

Ah, you are thinking in the right direction I see. I was wondering that myself. Not sure. So let us say she could not sail herself but was sailed alongside another ship. notamermaid

Oops, apologies to Chuck. notamermaid

Cannot resist - here is a little quiz. Or at least an usual occurrence that perhaps will make you ask yourself: "how did it work"? We know that for several days in August the long, 135m river cruise ships, could not sail the Rhine Gorge. The barges and tankers did sail as they are constructed differently and sail with reduced load. But on 17 August just one river cruise ship sailed through when the level at Kaub gauge was at only 34cm! It is difficult, but if you have been paying a lot of attention within the last 30 posts, you may have spotted a hint... notamermaid

The harbour master rules, that is an important thing to remember. Unfortunately, it was a location further away for you then. I hope you were able to enjoy the short time you had in Cologne. I enjoyed the stroll along the embankment when I was there. notamermaid