Holland to the Black Sea

[TendringGran]

Hello everyone, i am new to the forum and am looking for advice about a journey from Holland to the Black Sea via the Rhine, the Main canal and the Danube. We have a Pedro Bora motor boat which is already in Holland although we are British.I understand that the Rhine is a bit scary for non commercial vessels, but we had a look at the Danube on a trip to Vienna and it was empty!!! Another issue is whether our boat would manage against the current on the Rhine which will be working against us. As you can gather the panning is at a very early stage! any advice thoughts welcome. Thank You.

[Tellus]

No problem at all...180hp..10kn Vm from NL to Frankfurt/M, than your are on plain water, river Main.

[Draikhyan]

Keep in mind that the Rhine has its own set of rules and regulations. The current can be problematic in outer bends and is strong when the snow in the Alps starts to melt or after heavy rainfall in the Alps. And the Rhine is pretty crowded with commercial traffic between Arnhem and the Ruhr area.

But it's doable. Stay right. Tune the VHF to the proper channels and communicate with commercial traffic where necessary. That's usually in bends where they want to cross over or near locks. Mind the dead angle a lot of these commercial vessels have.

[Dauntlessny]

The Rhine is the least of your worries. With the fall of the iron curtain, what little structure on the Danube has disappeared.
I have heard in a number of places that the Danube is virtually impassable with shallow water, unmarked channels and now pirates.

The lower delta in particular.




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[Tellus]

Originally Posted by Dauntlessny

The Rhine is the least of your worries. With the fall of the iron curtain, what little structure on the Danube has disappeared.
I have heard in a number of places that the Danube is virtually impassable with shallow water, unmarked channels and now pirates.

The lower delta in particular

The delta is beautyful, huge and nature pure..but also a labyrinth, world heritage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danube_Delta
Danube pirates are in Miami too, right now Die Donaupiraten

But primarily Danube is lifeline for big parts of Europe - the only pirates there are Police, Customs etc..

[valhalla360]

I don't know the dimensions of your boat but if you can get thru the French canal system, there is a connection to the rhine just north of Basel Switzerland. From there it's a downhill run to the Frankfurt and the Main river.

[DoubleWhisky]

Hello!

Nothing to do with the falling of Iron Courtain, of course, (You know, somehow going from being a communist country to European Union member state is rarely devastating for infrastructure) but they are some problems on Danube really. Down to Prahovo in Serbia You will go without trouble. Dams and locks on the river provide for good level of water. Last one thousand miles (Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania) can give You more difficulties. The rates of rain falls are extremely low for some years in the area. Dams keep the water upriver (it is used by agriculture there) and low part of Danube is shallow now. With Your draft You should be O.K. - the river is declared as fully navigable for vessels of less than 1.9 meters draft for this year.
But... Apart of tens of WW II wrecks (during th retreat Germans sunk whole the fleet, some 200 ships, there) which are now not covered by water (not a bad thing) some call the lower Danube the biggest traffic jam in Europe
Tens (or may be even hundreds) of vessels were stranded on shoals. The river is well marked, but it does not mean much when most of the traffic there are the barges of much more than real today limit...
So You will have a thousand mile slalom there, but with well manoeuverable boat it can be interesting adventure.
The best thing You can do is to pray for a lot of rain and snowfall along Danube before You go
Oh, regarding pirates... Most You will find in Vienna and Budapest. They tend to cover themselves here as restaurant owners, and will not release You without huge ransom (they call it "bill" for some reason).

Cheers,

Tomasz

[barnakiel]

Talk to Jan Jaap. Boat Fleetwood. Blog come to sea. He may share some insights with you.

b.

[DoubleWhisky]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Talk to Jan Jaap. Boat Fleetwood. Blog come to sea. He may share some insights with you.

b.

Fleetwoods Circumnavigation » 2010 » August

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, TendringGran.

[KASHMIR]

Grab the book "The unlikely voyage of Jack de Crow" by A J MacKinnon. He sailed and rowed a Mirror Dinghy from North Wales in the UK to the Black sea. It will give you a bit of an insight and is also a great read. I recently purchased a copy on Amazon.

[melleman]

Here are some Swedes that`s done the trip this year.

web page in swedish,moonskater

[heathernsteve]

Hi all

is there any news on this adventure or updates.

sound similar to what we are planning very soon on our pearl motor boat

have many made this journey
be great to know time scales, marinas to stop at, costs, regulations at borders etc

hope they have done this trip and look forward to knowing if anyone is planning doing it as a cruise in company would be good.

if you are planning doing this in the next year or 2 please email me
stevecov46@hotmail.com