Danube water levels 2023 and similar topics - plus tips and info

[notamermaid]

Yes, the Komaron "substitute" port was also used last year at some point. A standard procedure when the water is low around the bend and at Budapest these days, it appears.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Forgot to mention: Pfelling gauge has gone up to 311cm. Difficult to say how things will develop but the Regen River is carrying a higher volume of water. This means that at least the level at Regensburg will rise, which may or may not result in a higher level at Pfelling. This will depend on the Danube before Regensburg and a few small tributaries along the way as well as the locks between Regensburg and Pfelling.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Pfelling gauge now at 319cm. Forecast suggests figures will go up until tomorrow and then fall slowly again.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

And now for something completely different. The sister company of "The Economist" has done their annual survey for the "Most liveable cities". Topping the list is (again) Vienna! No, I do not think the Sacher Torte tipped the balance in its favour. 😁 For the criteria check the website of the Economist Intelligence Unit. A nice "batch of honour" to have.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[gers]

Thank you for your informative posts on the water level of the Danube. We are set to leave for Bucharest as our Viking cruise from Bucharest to Budapest on the Vidar is set to leave on June 28.   Hoping our cruise doesn’t turn into a bus trip!  Do you have any idea how the Danube is doing down at that end of the river?

[notamermaid]

16 minutes ago, gers said:

 Do you have any idea how the Danube is doing down at that end of the river?

I am afraid I don't. The figures and graphs are online but I cannot relate them to what is actually happening on the river. You can follow along and keep checking the info on this website, example I have chosen is Giurgiu: https://www.danubeportal.com/de/waterLevel/details/ROGRG00001G001004930

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Have just heard from my eldest daughter a couple of days ago they had a storm 35cms in 20 minutes now we need a few of them across Europe.

[gnome12]

1 hour ago, Canal archive said:

Have just heard from my eldest daughter a couple of days ago they had a storm 35cms in 20 minutes now we need a few of them across Europe.

35cm?? That is over a foot of rain in 20 minutes! Are you sure you don’t mean 35mm?

[Canal archive]

Yup I realised there was something drastically wrong and forgot to sort it when daughter rang. My aged brain still thinks in imperial then the conversions don’t go well. So a huge thank you.

[notamermaid]

Let us stay in Austria - or not - but the river cruise ship I would like to introduce to you is Austrian. That is unusual in itself. On top of that it is a catamaran with extra width! Which puts her into the "league" of the Riverside Mozart and the Amamagna. She sails "bike and boat" cruises.

 

https://www.msprimadonna.at/en/ms_primadonna/ship_information

 

notamermaid

 

[CastleCritic]

2 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Let us stay in Austria - or not - but the river cruise ship I would like to introduce to you is Austrian. That is unusual in itself. On top of that it is a catamaran with extra width! Which puts her into the "league" of the Riverside Mozart and the Amamagna. She sails "bike and boat" cruises.

 

https://www.msprimadonna.at/en/ms_primadonna/ship_information

 

notamermaid

 

that's a big bike and barge...barge. wide ships make it so much easier to have good social spaces (or larger cabins).

Edited June 24, 2023 by CastleCritic

[gnome12]

It's also a lot of people to be (potentially) cycling at once.

 

It seems to travel more like a river cruise, i.e. cruise overnight to get you to somewhere new to cycle, rather than a bike a barge where you are docked overnight since the very small crew also needs to sleep.

 

[CastleCritic]

21 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

It's also a lot of people to be (potentially) cycling at once.

 

It seems to travel more like a river cruise, i.e. cruise overnight to get you to somewhere new to cycle, rather than a bike a barge where you are docked overnight since the very small crew also needs to sleep.

 

Yeah that’s an entire peleton, 200+ people once you add in the guides. 

Edited June 24, 2023 by CastleCritic

[notamermaid]

42 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

It seems to travel more like a river cruise, i.e. cruise overnight to get you to somewhere new to cycle, rather than a bike a barge where you are docked overnight since the very small crew also needs to sleep.

Yes, that is an important difference. I was surprised at the size of this ship. As you imply, the bike and barge tours are usually that, people using bikes and sailing on a (converted) barge. However, some of these tours are actually on river cruise ships, just that they are small ships, hence bike and boat. SE Tours is a large operator for such river cruises, all ships in the fleet for those tours are smaller than the MS Primadonna, however, the MS Prinzessin Katharina comes close in length: https://www.se-tours.de/en/tours/bike-and-boat

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The level at Pfelling peaked this morning. It is now slightly down to 318cm.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Very warm to hot temperatures. Very little to no rain. Tomorrow another hot day but then thunderstorms with rain and cooler on Tuesday.

 

River level at Pfelling has dropped to 297cm.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Another "baby" is coming. This one is the hull of the Amina. She is being pushed by the Argo pushboat and is currently in the Wachau Valley not far from Melk. The 135m river cruise ship will sail for Phoenix Reisen and I have seen the itineraries already on a booking website.

 

If you happen to be on the Danube now or will be soon, in Germany that is, here is the info for tracking the pushboat: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:249951/mmsi:244770089/imo:0/vessel:ARGO

 

Standard procedure is to hand over the hull to Zasavica III in Regensburg, which is already in the harbour there.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Pfelling gauge at 283cm. Running below the forecast which had suggested slightly more favourable figures, i.e. there was a small chance it may have been around 290cm now. Need that rain fast.

 

notamermaid

 

[rcaruso]

6 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Pfelling gauge at 283cm. Running below the forecast which had suggested slightly more favourable figures, i.e. there was a small chance it may have been around 290cm now. Need that rain fast.

 

notamermaid

 

On Cruise Mapper the Viking Gefjon was in Regensburg to be headed to Amsterdam.  But now it is headed back to Passau.  Looks like the low water is catching up with the Viking ships.

[notamermaid]

3 hours ago, rcaruso said:

Looks like the low water is catching up with the Viking ships.

Among the first to be caught up, among. A-Rosa ships, built in the same shipyard, are not far behind, so are other ships. It really is centimetres for the 135m ships. And each ship is a little different, the captain always knows best. The "inbetweeners", that is 127.5 metres, 125m, etc., are difficult to judge. The real benefitters are the 110m ships. The length is not the determining factor but over the years we have seen that it helps to be shorter for a river cruise ship. You will never see me on a 135m ship on a Grand European journey from July till October - and I may through June into that comment from this year. I just do not want the hassle.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Canal archive]

Could be another fact to add to the does and don’ts list for cruiser researchers.

[Canal archive]

Just a snippet to add to the water level discussion an expression used by the old boatmen in England when water levels were a tad low - the bottoms coming up to meet the top - I suspect used by boatmen world wide maybe varied slightly and in different languages but used enough to be mentioned in old writings about the ‘cut’.

[notamermaid]

Never heard that expression. But I would call that normal as I have not been around many canal or river users that speak English. Only ever learnt about narrowboats existing when I was sixteen. On my Danube cruise I think I went through more locks than I had ever been through in my whole life before that. The nature of my river, the Rhine, wild and with few locks.

 

Language - German. We talk about upstream and downstream here, so the German is flussaufwärts and flussabwärts. But the crew on ships, the actual boatmen speak of "zu Berg" and "zu Tal" - literally "to mountain" and "to valley".

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

Pfelling gauge down to 269cm.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Ohh I like that to mountain and to valley your right so very literal.