Rhine water levels 2022 and similar topics

[notamermaid]

River cruise ships are definitely sailing in the Rhine Gorge right now. Here is proof, I spotted one at Oberwesel:

Notice the temperature. That is hot for this time of evening.

 

For even better ship spotting use this website:

https://heimatzeithotels.panomax.com/bingen?cu=de-DE

 

Tonight, one of my favourite ships is in Rüdesheim :

 

notamermaid

 

[SometimesCruiser]

@Poulsbo Cruisers We are scheduled to be on the Avalon Visionary from Basel to Amsterdam, starting Jul 31st.  I was trying to see what ship(s) on the reverse itinerary would possibly be available for a ship swap, should it be needed.  The Imagery II was the only ship I found that was on the reverse itinerary overlapping, our cruise.

 

So we might be swapping ships if needed!

[notamermaid]

The low water area now extends, which is slightly worrying, further up the Rhine having reached Mainz and Worms and I dare say not looking too good right up to Maxau. Those three towns have deeper navigation channels than the Kaub area but the river is now so low that I expect river cruise ships to be slowed down there. Mainz is close to the "GlW", Worms and Maxau are under. This is the figure down from which the desired depth of the navigation channel is not maintained. In essence: more shallows, more bumps, less space for ships passing each other.

 

This does not mean ships cannot sail, it means navigation is more difficult, etc. Basically what I have explained in a previous post about Kaub.

 

It was definitely hot yesterday. Highest temperature recorded in Rhineland-Palatinate yesterday was 39.1 Celsius in Koblenz.

 

My flat heated up to 30 Celsius yesterday. It was still 28.5 Celsius in the living room when I got up.

 

Excursion boats in the Rhine Gorge now skip ports' landing stages as it is too dangerous to try and dock there.

 

Kaub gauge is at 68cm, 10 cm below the GlW line:

 

Rain is forecast, the big question is whether that will help the river. Forecast suggest we will see an effect at Kaub and gives 73cm on Friday. Not a lot but we are grateful for every centimetre.

 

Looking towards the end of the month, a recovery to 100cm is ruled out, but the probability still suggests 90cm as possible.

 

Something with an IMO emotionally cruel twist has happened. Just over one year ago the Ahr valley was a disaster area due to flooding, now the small Ahr river is so low that it dries up before it reaches the Rhine at its mouth (the Ahr has a natural meander there, i.e. is not canalized). It just kind of disappears in the gravel beds.

https://www.imago-images.com/st/0163072239

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

You can see the river being low at Koblenz and it perhaps it explains what I mean with the excursion boats skipping docking. The landing stages reach out far into the water but the boats often need to leave the navigation channel to get there and need to manoeuvre there. With the river so low they can reach but are closer to the river bed, the gravel and sometimes the rocks at the river embankment. See the embankment, also behind the Viking river cruise ship:

 

 

The image is a bit small, here is the webcam:

https://www.feratel.com/en/webcams/germany/koblenz.html

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Canal archive]

Notamermaid it shows what the water table must be like, fingers crossed for lots of overnight rain and starting gently.

[notamermaid]

We have had rain coming into the country from the Southwest and West. Showers and localized thunderstorms are coming down in the Upper Danube valley and around the Neckar river mostly and on a lesser scale in hilly regions west of the Rhine and also along the Lower Rhine valley. It will more feed the Danube than the Rhine, also due to the showers East of Lake Constance. The Moselle is being feed by the showers in France (see bottom left of the map) but that does not help in Rhine Gorge. It will be interesting to see how this further develops during the afternoon and evening.

 

 

notamermaid

 

[CPT Trips]

I saw this today and flashed back about 50 years when “VolksMarchs” were a big thing with the US Military in Europe. Granted it’s the Waal, but it is a part of many Rhein cruises and Nijmegen a stop for some.

 

[RDVIK2016]

13 hours ago, notamermaid said:

The low water area now extends, which is slightly worrying, further up the Rhine having reached Mainz and Worms and I dare say not looking too good right up to Maxau. Those three towns have deeper navigation channels than the Kaub area but the river is now so low that I expect river cruise ships to be slowed down there. Mainz is close to the "GlW", Worms and Maxau are under. This is the figure down from which the desired depth of the navigation channel is not maintained. In essence: more shallows, more bumps, less space for ships passing each other.

 

This does not mean ships cannot sail, it means navigation is more difficult, etc. Basically what I have explained in a previous post about Kaub.

 

It was definitely hot yesterday. Highest temperature recorded in Rhineland-Palatinate yesterday was 39.1 Celsius in Koblenz.

 

My flat heated up to 30 Celsius yesterday. It was still 28.5 Celsius in the living room when I got up.

 

Excursion boats in the Rhine Gorge now skip ports' landing stages as it is too dangerous to try and dock there.

 

Kaub gauge is at 68cm, 10 cm below the GlW line:

 

Rain is forecast, the big question is whether that will help the river. Forecast suggest we will see an effect at Kaub and gives 73cm on Friday. Not a lot but we are grateful for every centimetre.

 

Looking towards the end of the month, a recovery to 100cm is ruled out, but the probability still suggests 90cm as possible.

 

Something with an IMO emotionally cruel twist has happened. Just over one year ago the Ahr valley was a disaster area due to flooding, now the small Ahr river is so low that it dries up before it reaches the Rhine at its mouth (the Ahr has a natural meander there, i.e. is not canalized). It just kind of disappears in the gravel beds.

https://www.imago-images.com/st/0163072239

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

 

 

Wow!  Like the article says an "astonishing contrast".  Such incredible extremes, one year to the next!

[RDVIK2016]

33 minutes ago, CPT Trips said:

I saw this today and flashed back about 50 years when “VolksMarchs” were a big thing with the US Military in Europe. Granted it’s the Waal, but it is a part of many Rhein cruises and Nijmegen a stop for some.

 

Reminds me of about 1970 when I was in Germany in the Army, seeing Dutch soldiers in a multinational parade wearing hairnets to tame the long hair they were permitted to grow.

[RDVIK2016]

10 hours ago, notamermaid said:

We have had rain coming into the country from the Southwest and West. Showers and localized thunderstorms are coming down in the Upper Danube valley and around the Neckar river mostly and on a lesser scale in hilly regions west of the Rhine and also along the Lower Rhine valley. It will more feed the Danube than the Rhine, also due to the showers East of Lake Constance. The Moselle is being feed by the showers in France (see bottom left of the map) but that does not help in Rhine Gorge. It will be interesting to see how this further develops during the afternoon and evening.

 

 

notamermaid

 

I have been tracking Viking ships going upstream and got a position for Viking Hlin at Leutesdorf, several km downstream from Koblenz.  For several hours that did not change on the AIS site, so I thought they maybe had to dock there because of low water in the Rhine Gorge, but finally the boat showed up in Wiesbaden, above the gorge.  I guess there was just a poor signal for that stretch of the river and they could still get through. 

[notamermaid]

8 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

I have been tracking Viking ships going upstream and got a position for Viking Hlin at Leutesdorf, several km downstream from Koblenz.

Unfortunately, the terrestrial signals are poor in the area. All ships used to be clearly trackable up to Braubach in the Rhine Gorge making Koblenz a great place for spotting ships. For several months now the signal pick up has stopped around Leutesdorf and only works again from after Rüdesheim (the latter having been the last port upstream where there is no clear signal as long as I have been tracking ships, which is several years). Much further upstream there is another section where tracing the signals is very limited.

 

Leutesdorf, by the way, is a very pleasant wine village with a landing stage only suitable for excursion boats, or possibly very small river cruise ships:

The boat in the distance is the "MS Namedy", docking at the peninsula "Namedyer Werth". The boat takes visitors to the nature reserve to watch the spectacle of the highest cold water geyser in the world.

 

 

There has been a pleasant uptick in the river level at Maxau, but we see possibly only a minimal effect yet at Kaub that may be attributed to the rain yesterday. Kaub is up from the lowest reading this year so far, which was yesterday 67cm, to 71cm now. Perhaps we will see a couple more centimetres added by this evening.

 

While I have been writing the level at Cologne has gone up a crucial centimetre to put the green dot back on the gauge map of Germany, meaning out of the statistical low. I have not mentioned Cologne for a while so here is some info. Cologne has a deep navigation channel, i.e. substantially deeper than the Rhine Gorge. However there are shallows and ships are notorious for redistributing gravel with the propellers, especially when they turn. A tricky bit there, but a bit more impractical for river cruise ships is the fact that at Cologne as elsewhere landing stages can be out of the deepest part of the navigation channel. This could result in a large river cruise ship not docking in its usual spot so as not to risk scraping the bottom, seeing that often there is not only gravel but also rocks securing the embankment.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Canal archive]

Notamermaid wow I’ve never heard of a cold water geyser let alone the hightest in the world now there’s a reason to change from my usually preferred cruise operator. Thank you.

[notamermaid]

21 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

Notamermaid wow I’ve never heard of a cold water geyser let alone the hightest in the world

You are not alone, believe me, many, many Germans have never heard of it. Tours to the island have been organized for about 12 years now. It is not purely natural, i.e. it is contained by a kind of drilling they did something like a hundred years ago. But the pressure has always been in the ground there, I mean the carbon dioxide, they just funneled it to become the high spouting water it is today. It is fueled by the volcanic activity in the area. The valley nearby is famous for mineral water and companies that supply co2 on an industrial scale.

 

To my shame I have never got round to organizing a trip there (you need to book a boat time slot), just stood opposite at Leutesdorf.

 

For the enthusiastic river cruisers who have got lots of spare time in Koblenz: you can take a train to Andernach from Koblenz-Stadtmitte (takes about 9 to 12 minutes I believe), walk to the information centre at the river bank, see the exhibition there and book the connected boat trip (you may want to check all this beforehand). You will need a full afternoon to do this round trip Koblenz-Andernach-geyser-Andernach-Koblenz. The website: https://www.geysir-andernach.de/en/

 

notamermaid

 

[loge23]

Aboard the Hiln.

Yesterday, we sailed up to the port for Speyer, spent the very hot day, and then promptly turned around and high-tailed it back to Strasbourg. The Captain announced that low water in the Rhine, from Speyer to Koblenz was too risky to make the trip. 

We'll be bussed up to Koblenz on Saturday, where we will continue along the Moselle in another Viking vessel.

[RDVIK2016]

1 hour ago, loge23 said:

Aboard the Hiln.

Yesterday, we sailed up to the port for Speyer, spent the very hot day, and then promptly turned around and high-tailed it back to Strasbourg. The Captain announced that low water in the Rhine, from Speyer to Koblenz was too risky to make the trip. 

We'll be bussed up to Koblenz on Saturday, where we will continue along the Moselle in another Viking vessel.

Loge23,

Well that is odd.  MarineTraffic.com and VesselFinder.live both show that Viking Hlin started this  cruise in Amsterdam, making it through the Rhein gorge to Speyer and now headed for Strasbourg and Basel.  So you started your cruise in Basel on Hlin two days ago?  If so the AIS sites are misidentifying the ship, as well the Viking website which said Hlin was sailing from Amsterdam on July 17.    

[notamermaid]

Now that you say it... I had not noticed before but it is also the Hild that sails the Basel to Trier itinerary, the Hlin is given as only deployed on the Rhine Getaway. I am a little confused.

 

 @loge23, sorry to read that. I hope they take you to Koblenz via the Rhine Gorge. I am a bit surprised about this long stretch Speyer to Koblenz. I would have thought they go to Mainz but I suppose playing it safe and having a boat ready at Koblenz is the way to go.

 

If you have a spare minute please tell us what happens at Koblenz. It would be nice to know if an excursion boat takes you to see castles in the Rhine Gorge.

 

Have a great time nevertheless.

 

9 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Kaub is up from the lowest reading this year so far, which was yesterday 67cm, to 71cm now. Perhaps we will see a couple more centimetres added by this evening.

That looks better. Kaub has risen to 78cm.   A further rise at Maxau may translate into a few extra centimetres at Kaub during the evening. Fingers crossed.

 

notamermaid

 

[loge23]

1 hour ago, RDVIK2016 said:

Loge23,

Well that is odd.  MarineTraffic.com and VesselFinder.live both show that Viking Hlin started this  cruise in Amsterdam, making it through the Rhein gorge to Speyer and now headed for Strasbourg and Basel.  So you started your cruise in Basel on Hlin two days ago?  If so the AIS sites are misidentifying the ship, as well the Viking website which said Hlin was sailing from Amsterdam on July 17.    

Yes, we started in Basel on 7/18.

[RDVIK2016]

26 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

Now that you say it... I had not noticed before but it is also the Hild that sails the Basel to Trier itinerary, the Hlin is given as only deployed on the Rhine Getaway. I am a little confused.

 

 @loge23, sorry to read that. I hope they take you to Koblenz via the Rhine Gorge. I am a bit surprised about this long stretch Speyer to Koblenz. I would have thought they go to Mainz but I suppose playing it safe and having a boat ready at Koblenz is the way to go.

 

If you have a spare minute please tell us what happens at Koblenz. It would be nice to know if an excursion boat takes you to see castles in the Rhine Gorge.

 

Have a great time nevertheless.

 

That looks better. Kaub has risen to 78cm.   A further rise at Maxau may translate into a few extra centimetres at Kaub during the evening. Fingers crossed.

 

notamermaid

 

OK, I was tracking the Hlin.  Loge23 typed that they are on the Hiln doing a Rhine Getaway so I figured they just transposed teh "i" and the "l".  So they are on the Hild on the Paris to Swiss Alps itinerary.  Gotta keep our Norse gods and valkyries straight.  :-)

[notamermaid]

Update: the level at Maxau peaked during the night, the peak is just going past Kaub which is at 81cm. During the afternoon we can expect the peak to have gone through Koblenz and the wave from the Moselle will go through its confluence to reach the Rhine soon. If it does not rain we will see levels going down a bit again probably, with only the Lower Rhine profiting from this wave still. We need more rain around Lake Constance, in the East of the Vosges mountains and in the Black Forest for the Rhine to sustain a level that is high enough for large river cruise ships. Prediction suggests 74cm on Monday morning.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

I have been talking quite a bit about the depth of the navigation channel but this year have not posted this in context yet, i.e. a graph or a table, I have cut out a section of the graphics, here it is:

 

Down at the bottom, the thick black line shows you the kilometres of the Rhine as you sail downstream, together with important towns that mark the sections. From Iffezheim the river is free flowing (freier Abfluss). The blue shade shows you the depth of the navigation channel, not the river. See on the left that there is much more blue where the river is under influence of the lock. Then the depth reduces to 2.10m than to 1.90m from kilometre 508 to kilometre 557. Kaub lies in that section at kilometre 546.2. From 592 (figure not visible here), that is Koblenz, the depth is 2.50m. I will leave out the downstream sections. Now, important to note is that the reference point is the GlW (gleichwertiger Wasserstand). Now the problem in the Rhine Gorge becomes clearer: the GlW line at Kaub is 78cm. What have we at Kaub today? As I write, now at 17:30 hours, 78cm! Depth of navigation channel now? 1.90m! Very tight when you consider the draft of the ship and the clearance you need under the hull, etc. Too tight perhaps for one, close for another, fine for another.

 

That's it from me with the basics, the more complicated stuff and mathematics is for the captains.

 

The website with link to the full image: https://www.wsa-rhein.wsv.de/Webs/WSA/Rhein/DE/Wasserstrassen/Fahrrinne/Fahrrinne_node.html

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

On 7/21/2022 at 3:09 AM, RDVIK2016 said:

I have been tracking Viking ships going upstream and got a position for Viking Hlin at Leutesdorf, several km downstream from Koblenz.  For several hours that did not change on the AIS site, so I thought they maybe had to dock there because of low water in the Rhine Gorge, but finally the boat showed up in Wiesbaden, above the gorge.  I guess there was just a poor signal for that stretch of the river and they could still get through. 

 

On 7/21/2022 at 12:07 PM, notamermaid said:

Unfortunately, the terrestrial signals are poor in the area.

So I have tried and succeeded to track a ship. A bit complicated but it worked out. One could of course just what till the ship turns up again on the radar, I tried a different way to find it faster. Here is the start (vesselfinder), the Viking Hermod at Leutesdorf, signal lost 18 hours ago:

 

The Viking Hermod shows up on the Koblenz port signalling list early this morning on marinetraffic. Now she is at Rüdesheim, where she only signals via satellite on marinetraffic, but she appears as docked in the Rüdesheim vessel list:

 

 

Her data file page says right now:

 

"Where is this vessel going to?

 

The vessel is currently at port RUDESHEIM, DE after a voyage of 5 hours, 43 minutes originating from port BRAUBACH, DE."

 

So she sailed at a reasonable speed in reasonable time through the Rhine Gorge and should appear with a terrestrial signal again close to Mainz.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

Wow!  We have a new nickname for you:  Sherlock Notamermaid

[notamermaid]

Data! Data! Data! she cried impatiently...

 

...and forgot to put the dishwasher on. Oops.

 

I will be at work tomorrow so not sure when I can have a look at the water levels. Have a good evening.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[RDVIK2016]

On the Viking Getaway itinerary Viking Egdir and Viking Gymir must not have transited the Rhine Gorge and have transferred their passengers one to another.  Gymir left Amsterdam on 18 July and Egdir was scheduled on the Viking website to leave Basel that same day.  Egdir does not seem to have a functioning AIS transponder so I have not been able to track her.  However Gymir has definitely headed back towards Amsterdam having only made it as far as Koblenz on the upstream run.  Gymir was to have arrived in Basel early on 7/25 and Viking website has her starting on the run north from there late that same day - that will obviously not happen. Egdir would have started back to Basel from Amsterdam at the same time, but the the two boats must be switching. All other Viking longships have kept their original itinerary so far and made it through the gorge.  As far as Egdir I'll have to use notamermaid's suggestion to check the "in port" listings for Strasbourg and Breisach these next two days and see if I can find her heading back to Basel. 

 

This whole exercise is fun for me as I am learning a lot about the river and the relative positions of the towns along it. I had no idea previously that Mannheim and Ludwigshafen are opposite one another on the river and that Mainz and Wiesbaden are also and downstream of the former pair.  Next I have to tackle exactly what Pegel is and how it relates or doesn't relate to GIW, NNW, Fehltiefe, etc.

 

[steamboats]

Although it´s not exactly the Rhine river but... Holland America Line announced that they have to reroute their ship MS Rotterdam from Amsterdam to Rotterdam for embarkation. Given reason: due to the low water situation the lock at IJmuiden has limited capacity.

 

steamboats