Danube water levels 2022 and similar topics - plus tips and info

[Biggravelwv]

We are leaving Budapest on July 2, Vienna July 4, Krems July 5, Passau July 6 and ending in Regensburg on July 7. Will the water levels be ok for passage on those days? 
thanks

 

[notamermaid]

Time for me to briefly jump in I think.

 

The situation between Budapest and Bucharest is different from the stretches upstream so I cannot due to lack of experience can say what the situation will likely be like.

 

A 110m ship is good to be on as it will give you extra centimetres "to play with".

 

I have not heard of the situation being dire in Budapest. We are generally speaking not in a bad situation. It is just a bit too low for comfort. Any rain that falls is good for the river of course, be it in Bavaria or in Vienna. Rain along the tributaries from Budapest onwards is better, or let us say aids the situation further.

 

In short: I am relatively confident for your cruise but cannot give any details for the river situation during your itinerary.

 

For finding figures, I need a bit more time.

 

Would be happy to hear from current cruisers in Budapest or thereabouts.

 

Whether your ship will sail, in the end depends on your captain (and perhaps the authorities) there is no way we on this board can give a definitive answer.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

1 minute ago, Biggravelwv said:

We are leaving Budapest on July 2, Vienna July 4, Krems July 5, Passau July 6 and ending in Regensburg on July 7. Will the water levels be ok for passage on those days? 
thanks

 

We posted simultaneously, please note that I replied to the previous query. Will be back later in the day.

 

notamermaid

 

[blag]

2 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

In short: I am relatively confident for your cruise but cannot give any details for the river situation during your itinerary

Thank you. That sounds much more encouraging. Much appreciated.

I have taken note of all the caveats. 

[notamermaid]

Brief news: Pfelling up to 352cm! Levelling off soon. Likely to stay above 300cm for a bit as temperatures and weather conditions are now more favourable for this.

 

Looking promising for levels in Austria then, of course.

 

Slowakia and Hungary will see higher temperatures with less rain during the coming week than Germany.

 

Outlook for next week I will post on again when the forecast has been adjusted (plan to post around lunchtime tomorrow).

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[trtog7]

Will be travelling on Amaverde in October. How do I find the draft of the boat?

[CastleCritic]

assuming links work this site shows it

 

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:330348/mmsi:269057357/imo:0/vessel:AMAVERDE

 

current shown draft 1.6M headed into Budapest from the south.

 

The Ama ships tends to be pretty shallow draft amaverde is a 135M ship.

 

Event the doublewide amamagna is only showing 1.8M right now approaching Budapest from the north.

 

Just for fun the viking Kadlin moored in Budapest is showing 1.7M).

[notamermaid]

6 minutes ago, trtog7 said:

Will be travelling on Amaverde in October. How do I find the draft of the boat?

It is here: https://www.kamphuisen.nl/#!?q=ajax_portfolio&nid=8

 

Note that there is a difference between empty and full and other websites may give various drafts. I reckon the designer's website knows best, sounds the draft when empty to me, but not sure. No idea how deep she lies in the water "when full". A passenger and all his food intake by the way, does not add as much as one may think...

 

Anyone who's interested could ask the crew of their particular ship what the draft is and how much it can vary. All 135m ships are of course similar but not the same.

 

The 110m ships do have a lower draft but by how much will vary again. The designer of the Amawaterways ships gives a clue: https://www.kamphuisen.nl/#!?q=ajax_portfolio&nid=10

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

@CastleCritic Thank you, marinetraffic is a good tool I find, especially when one cannot find the shipyard's info. I am not always convinced that it is perfectly accurate, but I am not going to argue with them .

 

It is correct as far as I know (have seen the shipyard's info) that Viking ships tend to lie a bit deeper in the water than Amawaterways ships.

 

notamermaid

 

[CastleCritic]

@notamermaid I don't know how much you can really trust the data on that site its just "what it says" I guess.  It also does seem to vary day to day and in what situation the ship was in.

 

I was looking at pictures of the AmaPrima from last November (on a cruise where the ship had a habit of leaving and then coming back to us at the next port on the Rhine AND Main this was the week after the viking ship and tanker had their little diversion on the rocks..so not the greatest water)

 

In one shot you can see her underway with the depth marker completely obscured the next docked its below 2.0 and in another day I can see it right at the 1.6 mark

 

(note that the Amaprima is not the same "class" as the Amaverde...same builder and basic dimensions.. though though oddly while looking that up the Amaverde and sister ship AmaBella dont appear in my 2020 (now ragged) Amawaterways brochure must have been a planned upgrade that year before being reintroduced "reimagined" as the site says in 2021 )

Edited June 26, 2022 by CastleCritic

[Canal archive]

Notamermaid you’ve got it in one basically laden and unladen weight, water being one of the heaviest things (if water is a thing?) you can carry. So to get through a shallow section, shed as much water as possible, ensure that the boat is stable and crawl with fingers in ears not to hear the hull scrapping on the bed of the river/canal, best done at night so as not to upset your passengers.

Just a technical note although it may be possible to transverse a shallow section if that section includes a lock then you may have a challenge it depends how it is constructed. Oh these engineers there always fiddling with designs.

[blag]

11 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

Notamermaid you’ve got it in one basically laden and unladen weight, water being one of the heaviest things (if water is a thing?) you can carry. So to get through a shallow section, shed as much water as possible, ensure that the boat is stable and crawl with fingers in ears not to hear the hull scrapping on the bed of the river/canal, best done at night so as not to upset your passengers.

Just a technical note although it may be possible to transverse a shallow section if that section includes a lock then you may have a challenge it depends how it is constructed. Oh these engineers there always fiddling with designs.

I see that the spell-checker is accepting scrapping instead of scraping! I pray that there is no scrapping of my ship when I'm on board. 😉

Plus, I think you mean traverse rather than transverse. 🛳️

[Canal archive]

Ohh predictive texting your absolutely correct no scrapping of a ship going transverse down the river. 
 

So what camera do you drive?

Edited June 27, 2022 by Canal archive

[blag]

5 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

So what camera do you drive?

??? 

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, Canal archive said:

So to get through a shallow section, shed as much water as possible, ensure that the boat is stable and crawl with fingers in ears not to hear the hull scrapping on the bed of the river/canal, best done at night so as not to upset your passengers.

Indeed. Or even take the passengers off the boat for safety when sailing during the day, who even laden with cake and other food are apparently not as heavy as all the water ballast and other things a ship may carry.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Ohh can’t do without superb cakes of the region!

[Canal archive]

Just asking as I have my eye on the new Cannon but I don’t think my existing lenses will fit and it would be such a waste.

[notamermaid]

14 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

I don't know how much you can really trust the data on that site its just "what it says" I guess.  It also does seem to vary day to day and in what situation the ship was in.

 

To be taken with a pinch of salt then.

 

19 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Outlook for next week I will post on again when the forecast has been adjusted (plan to post around lunchtime tomorrow).

 

Probably not clear, but I meant to say forecast of the water levels, not the weather.

 

About Pfelling: Forecast tells us that the decrease will continue with figures of around 310cm tomorrow, but it should not fall under 300cm, at least not going into Wednesday. Pfelling does not have a long forecast, so

On 6/26/2022 at 12:39 PM, Biggravelwv said:

We are leaving Budapest on July 2, Vienna July 4, Krems July 5, Passau July 6 and ending in Regensburg on July 7. Will the water levels be ok for passage on those days? 
thanks

 

those days are too far into the future to predict what will be along the river in Germany.

 

Budapest to Passau is a different matter as the situation should be a bit easier than in Germany, but there is no guarantee.

 

Hungary has hotter weather than the other countries right now. I have no way of knowing if the surge coming from Germany is enough to keep a good water level in shallow sections in between the locks from Austria to Hungary.

 

If you would like to follow along - please do not get overly nervous about it - to see what the river does on a daily basis, here is the table of the Hungarian authorities:

https://www.hydroinfo.hu/en/hidinfo/duna.html

 

You can see that daily variation can be great or small, depending on where rain has fallen in previous days (and the locks have a certain effect, too). Budapest looks a bit on the low side perhaps, but I know for certain that it was a lot lower in 2018. Here is the graph as of today:

 

You can find this on this page: https://www.hydroinfo.hu/en/hidinfo/hidinfo_graf_duna.html

by choosing the word Budapest in the blue frame.

 

Remember, these figures are the depth at the gauge and do not represent the depth in the navigation channel itself.

 

In 2018 ships could indeed not sail in Budapest for safety reasons. That was in October as I recall.

 

This Hungarian photographer recorded the stark difference between low and high here, 40cm compared to 570cm during flooding:

https://hungaryphototours.com/danube-level-low-flooded-budapest/

 

Quick note about the weather: Bavaria will see more thunderstorms with rain, for example in Regensburg, so that will give the Danube a nice amount of water to be sent to Hungary and beyond .

 

notamermaid

 

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by notamermaid
weather

[Canal archive]

Blag small clue photographers gilet and camera!

[blag]

3 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Blag small clue photographers gilet and camera!

I had forgotten the avatar! 

 

Nikon kit. Several bodies, all digital. I hate changing lenses. 

[Canal archive]

Me, Cannon my husband got me a beautiful wide angle before we went to the USA just before covid so I now only change for macro and occasionally paparazzi.

[notamermaid]

Pfelling quite steady today, this is what the last three days look like in the graph:

Pleasant. Varying amounts of rain forecast for today, tomorrow and Friday.

 

notamermaid

 

[vada_9]

Somehow my comment from ladt night didn’t post - so here it is.

 

With today’s rain we will be able to make Deggendorf tomorrow to disembark. Yesterday, captain was unsure if he would proceed past Vilhossen ( sorry about spelling).

[notamermaid]

8 hours ago, vada_9 said:

Somehow my comment from ladt night didn’t post - so here it is.

 

With today’s rain we will be able to make Deggendorf tomorrow to disembark. Yesterday, captain was unsure if he would proceed past Vilhossen ( sorry about spelling).

Close it was indeed. Nice that you can now go to Deggendorf. The graph shows the dip just before the rain, or rather the water the Danube got from the rain around Regensburg and further upstream, reached Pfelling:

To put it into context, here is an excerpt from the official map showing the gauges:

This is the problem stretch, Straubing to Vilshofen. The green marker upstream from Vilshofen is Hofkirchen, then Deggendorf is clear and the marker below the word Bogen is Pfelling.

 

Deggendorf is a more unusual embarkation port. We should have a look at it in a separate post.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Pfelling still on an upward trend, now at 338cm. Nice and makes the outlook for next week better, although the peak will be reached during today.

 

I see that Avalonwaterways uses Deggendorf as a regular embarkation port and Uniworld regularly stops at Deggendorf on a Vienna to Nuremberg itinerary. Interesting. I had not realised that Deggendorf is so popular.

 

By the way, the MS Mozart* was built in the shipyard at Deggendorf.

 

notamermaid

 

*the Crystal in her name is gone