notamermaid

The BBC said today that there are lots of Scots in Munich and the footage from the main square showed a few kilts wandering about. And the beer consumption in the city has gone up. Reporter said the vibe is good. I am willing to believe it as we have no real rivalry with the Scottish. Will see how long this lasts... I think in the city centre the Germans were outnumbered today, definitely out-chanted. Skysport footage: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8KCIRtNVrI/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D Need to work on Saturday, so unfortunately an early night for me tomorrow. notamermaid

The month of May on the Rhine. Part 2. By the time the river gets to the Middle Rhine valley, here meaning the Rhine Gorge with Kaub gauge, it has received water from two major tributaries, these are the Neckar and the Main. Flooding of either or both of them can make the situation worse at Kaub. In May we had the interesting constellation that the Neckar was flooding as it drains the hills that were at the West end of the circulating rain cloud weather front that brought so much trouble to the areas of the Upper Danube. The Main saw little of that weather mostly only bringing high volumes of water from right up its navigable course. These weather phenomenon almost completely broke off North of Mainz, bringing very little rain to the Middle Rhine valley itself. The Lower Rhine "only" needed to cope with what was brought to it from the Upper reaches with no higher volume of itself or its tributaries North of Koblenz. By the time the high volume of water came from Maxau, all the flooding had already drained from the Moselle. An incredibly lucky situation for Koblenz. So this is what Kaub gauge looked like: Just like at Maxau we see the reaction to the rain around the 16th and 17th of May. The graph then makes the jump like we see it at Maxau just after the end of the month, but exacerbated by the flooding of the Neckar. It lead to the short river traffic ban at the beginning of this month. notamermaid

Before we get to a look back at May, let us check quickly on the Danube in Hungary. Here for reference is the situation at Mohács now, the last but second gauge on the river's journey out of Hungary: I cannot relate this to what is actually happening on the river but compared to Germany and Austria this looks less severe for sure. notamermaid

The month of May on the Rhine. Part 1. Note that I have made screenshots of May a bit late so that the first days are missing. As the graph shows 31 days this has then brought the days of heavy rain and rise from 31 May to 4 June into view. Let us start for a change with Lake Constance: May started normally and there was a gradual rise which happens due to snow melt if I have understood it correctly. Snow melt is still happening now to a small extent in the Alps, i.e. the Alpine Rhine is getting the water that then feeds the Lake. At the end of May we see that fast rise due to the rain that hit the South of Germany. Most of the water went to the Danube catchment area as we know, but the two catchment areas are so close together not far from Lake Constance that some clouds made it to the tributaries Northeast of the Lake and to the Lake itself. Subsequently that volume of water had to drain into the High Rhine and past Basel to Maxau where by then more water had been supplied to the Rhine via the forest tributaries from the East. This is the reaction at Maxau gauge: It had been on a relatively high level due to a wet winter but April had brought the level back to almost the long-term mean. So May started well. Then there were a few rainy days. Most of the second half of the month the river was on navigational flood mark I. Then the rain came from the East/Northeast. With the river already being high, the fast rise brought it to mark II and the river traffic ban just after the end of the month. Continued in part 2. notamermaid

Let us assess the situation as it is right now and then have a look back at May. Lake Constance gauge is indeed going down now, very slowly. The High Rhine is partly still on flood alert and so is the river around Maxau gauge simply because it is high. This is flood vigilance but the gauge at Maxau is showing favourable figures going forward, meaning the situation will further ease but the river will stay high simply because Lake Constance and Switzerland are still draining at a high volume. Downstream roughly from Mannheim there is no flood vigilance. All good. With some gauges being above navigational flood mark I there will be adjusted sailing but there should not be much impact on itineraries. River cruise companies are still likely to make adjustments to itineraries to get the ones coming up back on track, i.e.ships in their correct ports. notamermaid

Ah right, so it is too tight time wise or under the railway bridge. That is a standard deviation procedure with river cruise companies and should go without any problems. Have a good trip. notamermaid

It is good that things are going back to normal as we certainly do not want flooding to interfere with the European Football Cup. Germany is the host this year and will play the first match tomorrow in Munich. If you happen to be in the city tomorrow or fly into Munich airport (or away) you may meet some rather merry people. https://www.uefa.com/euro2024/match/2036161--germany-vs-scotland/ notamermaid

Fußbaaallll! Only 24 hours to go till the start of the European Football Cup. First match will be Germany versus Scotland. If you are interested in the teams competing for the Cup: https://www.uefa.com/euro2024/ notamermaid

This has made the regional news along the Rhine. An accident at Boppard. Yesterday morning a river cruise ship tried to sail away from the dock which was a tight manoeuvre seeing that another ship was docked close by. It did not quite work and resulted in heavy damage. I do not know which ship it was as I cannot find a photo or footage that confirms the vessel. Here is a video of the local internet channel of Boppard, excursion boat landing stage destroyed, embankment wall damaged: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huJGLvsQC58 One online news article suggests it was a "very new" ship. No one was injured. notamermaid

It has been a nice afternoon, a bit on the cool side for June but good for photos with clouds in the sky for backdrop of the castles I think. Hope you have had a splendid day. notamermaid

That sounds really good. As you were there on Monday I have had a look at the webcam to see how low the water is now and I would say it all looks pretty clean, back to normal, busses running along the embankment and you can hardly tell now that the water level is still high if you have nothing to compare it to: https://www.feratel.com/webcams/deutschland/passau.html For those who would like to see what it was like, you can go to Archiv in the menu and choose a date to look at. marinetraffic.com signal confirms the ship in the photo above is the Viking Var. Good to see it all. I have been to Passau three times now, okay twice within eight days as it was the embarkation port of my river cruise as a Passau return trip. I really enjoyed the place and would like to go back. notamermaid

Ship sailing under bridge!! Okay, about to. By complete chance I have just been able to take a screenshot of the feratel webcam that shows a Viking river cruise ship about to sail under the infamous suspension bridge at Passau. notamermaid

There is still one problem on the German Danube - headroom. The two infamous bridges may still keep river cruise ships from getting through today, but that is of course something I can only mention not specify as per individual ship. Let us have a look at Passau gauge: That looks really promising, if not good enough already. 678cm is a bit high as the authorities speak of "difficult passage" from 630cm upwards but that is a guideline, not a rule. It is literally getting better by the hour. notamermaid

I am happy to add to the good news with what should be the massive headline: SHIPS ARE RUNNING BETWEEN STRAUBING AND PASSAU. 😊😊 check on marinetraffic.com Not sure if any river cruise ships are among them, but barges are sailing. notamermaid

Hofkirchen gauge at 483cm, 3cm to go. notamermaid

I am sure that is correct if they say that. And we have seen in the last two days a vast improvement to the situation. Very likely. But the details of what may need to be changed still, you will probably only learn on board, as the people actually on the ground know much better what is happening on a daily or even hourly basis than the office people. I am sure you will have a ship in Regensburg and it will likely be the one you were scheduled to go on. Have you had a look at the info on the website, the special pages for the actual cruisers? Something with "myvikingjourney" I think. Welcome to Cruisecritic. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

That was my thought but I did not want to say it... I think the artist is more of an ocean cruiser. With that ship they may loot Bordeaux but not a Rhine river village far inland. notamermaid

Announcement of name change for new Amawaterways ship: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/AmaWaterways-chooses-new-name-Asia-ship notamermaid

As I said earlier today, it may be that we can now relax a bit about river levels but, more out of curiosity, I have had a look at the probability chart for Kaub gauge where we can check what the computer modelling thinks will happen up to 14 days into the future. It gives steady figures, at a high range, all over 300cm but nothing that looks suspiciously high or indicating a fast rise. Which just leaves the situation in May to be summed up. notamermaid

Wow. I saw from other footage as well, that they took you in the lighter that normally carries the buoys. What a great idea that was. Any small rescue boat would have taken even longer to get you all off the ship. I hear someone say 30 people. I guess that is what they had told you it would take as one "load". I see the police launch in the background. It all looks professional and dare I say it relatively laid back. And that railway bridge does look really low. notamermaid

That leaves one more ship and her story I would like to mention before we return to a kind of normal. First, the approach at Straubing lock , exciting hours, they are all waiting I think: I have marked the river cruise ship MS Amina. She has had a rocky start to her life, she is a real baby among the ships, only christened this spring on a rather rainy day. She had just completed her first runs on the Rhine, and then was scheduled for the itinerary that would transfer her to the Danube. So she did that on the Main river, sailed through the Main Danube Canal and that was it. At Dietfurt on the Altmühl River (remember, the Canal is partly the engineered Altmühl) she was stopped in her tracks and had to wait there for over a week. Then when that first section of the Danube was reopened she moved to Straubing. The passengers left the ship soon after she got stranded, the cruise was cancelled. Story courtesy of the great guys on Binnenschifferforum: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?117680-Amina-KFGS-02340166&p=473349#post473349 notamermaid

Then we should complete your mention of her with a photo of the trusted work boat (and technical details in German). Here it is: https://www.wsa-donau-mdk.wsv.de/Webs/WSA/Donau-MDK/DE/04_Donau_MDK/Unsere_Schiffe/Motorschiff_Schwarzach/Schwarzach_node.html notamermaid

The TUI Isla has moved and is in, errhmmm, Deggenau, next to Deggendorf. She has moved from the excursion boat landing stage to the harbour: Eagerly awaiting the go-ahead for river traffic? Or logistics for the next itinerary? Hofkirchen at 488cm, 8cm to go. notamermaid

There is of course that aspect. News reports sometimes give a let us say narrow perspective but it is correct that there has been structural damage and evaluation in a few places. But apart from a few streets in a few places all evacuated people are back or going back soon to their homes. Clearing up happens as soon as the water recedes so all areas in town centres and important infrastructure will be okay to fine in a few days time. Engineering works are being carried out and will be in the next weeks. That is true. Let us put Regensburg in perspective. This is the Wurstküchl flooded, youtube says the video was taken/uploaded six days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZA2z27Tlz4 On 6 June the level at Regensburg was on flood level 4. It is on flood level, err, nothing now: Note that this is the gauge, not the river where you sail, i.e. this is just to put into perspective what you may read in news outlets or watch in short dramatic videos. notamermaid

So last night I also checked on the Emerald Dawn with @Dwg7127 on board. The ship arrived at Rüdesheim last night, here is the screenshot of the webcam, time stamp 18:50: This morning she left for Koblenz and sailed into the Rhine Gorge. I hope the passengers have all had a splendid time seeing the castles. notamermaid