Danube River to the Danube Delta June 13, 2004 Odessa, Ukraine June 13, 2004 Hi Folks, Here is my log on our trip down the Danube to the Danube Delta. This may be sent from Kiev, as we are going there for a few days, and I have this log saved on a floppy disc, ready to send if I see a handy internet café there. At a local computer shop here in Odessa we were equipped with an infrared adaptor to which we can link our mobile phone. However, we did not have a Ukranian local access number to call. Today we got a couple of numbers, neither of which worked. We subsequently got our Bluetooth to talk to our laptop, but could not get the AOL local access numbers to work. We think that the problem all along was that the damn AOL system here in the Ukraine is screwed up, and does not permit use of any of the local access numbers. Aaarrgghhh! We probably did not need to buy the infrared adaptor, as the problem was not with Bluetooth, but AOL!! Oh well, the joys of cruising. Enjoy the log. All the best, Aubrey Log #32l Danube River to the Danube Delta Odessa, Ukraine June 13, 2004 We spent the night on the barge, checked out by friendly officials who spoke some English. We listened to the 3 knot current sloshing down our hull, and watched barge tows angling into or out of the canal. The barge tows were not as large as we saw on the Mississippi. I think the largest we saw was a six barge tow, two wide and three long. Their barges are as big as those on the Mississippi, about 10 metres wide and 30 metres long, and more of them are motorized barges with their own propulsion and bridge construction aft. These motorized barges are sometimes operated independently, but more frequently are just placed into the tow as any other barge, and pushed along without any crew, relying on the tow boat’s crew to get the barges to their desired destinations. At one time these barges were mom and pop type family operations, but very few operate that way today. The business on the Black Sea-Danube Canal and the Danube itself was drastically curtailed by the conflict in Bosnia, and the NATO bombing of Serbia, and has not recovered. The lower Danube is economically depressed because of that conflict, and is unlikely to regain the original importance as shippers have probably found alternative routes and will be reluctant to change back. However if or when Bulgaria, and Romania join the EU, things may change. There is a good infrastructure on the lower Danube in both Bulgaria and Romania for ports, shipyards, and repair facilities for expanded river traffic, but right now such are woefully underused. The Danube is the second longest river in Europe and the only major one that runs west to east, with a navigable length of over 1600 miles from the Black Forest in Germany, through Bavaria, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. It has over 300 tributaries and is linked by canals to the Black Sea (at Constanta), the Main, Rhine and Oder Rivers in northern and western Europe. Since 1995 it has been possible to go from the North Sea and Baltic to the Black Sea via these rivers, emptying out at the Black Sea – Danube Canal at Constanta, Romania, or through the Danube Delta in Romania or Ukraine. The Swedish trawler we met in Constanta came down from Stockholm to Constanta and was headed towards Istanbul. We had thought of this route at one time, but Judy was “chicken”, because of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. So, we are doing just the last 300 kilometres of the Danube, down to the Delta and back into the Black Sea on our way to Odessa. We met a friendly sailor on the barge who spoke some English and had a pleasant evening with him on board Veleda. He was a barge sailor who had a master’s certificate, but work was limited. He lived in Galati, downstream, and had a wife and daughter of whom he seemed quite proud and hopeful. We gave him a couple of Canada pins for him and his daughter. He excused himself to go on his vessel, and came back to present us with a watch and fob as a gift. Again it was too much and quite useless to us, but we couldn’t refuse. To try to even up the gift, I presented him with my HMCS York ball cap, a real sacrifice for me as a former York officer. Maybe sometime when I’m back in Canada I might be able to get another one. Judy has been at me to get rid of my many ball caps from various ships and organizations to which I have belonged. Next day we tried to call customs and immigration to check out and go down river. No response. However Rocquette responded and made contact for us. A friendly official of the Frontier Police then came over and said no additional forms were necessary, but to clear out with the local harbourmaster, which meant pay for staying on the barge overnight. It was a hefty (for Romania) 25€ ($30.00 US), probably industrial rates. The official who presented us with the bill was quite pleasant, and interested in our travels, and wished us “Bon Voyage” as he helped us let go our lines to head out downstream on the Danube River. The book of river chartlets we got from the Swedish boat was in German, entitled DONAU 9, covering the lower Danube from kilometre 300 at Cernavoda, through Braila, Galati, Reni, and Tulcea to kilometre 0 at Sulina, the Romanian delta entrance to the Black Sea. It was on a par with the US Army Corps of Engineers charts we had for the Mississippi in that only the dredged channels were shown, with no depths outside them indicated. We were able to interpret much of the German such as “Ankerplatz” for anchorage area, and “Auto-fahre” for car ferry, etc. Our depth sounder seemed to be working reasonably well, and as we motored downstream with the assist of two to four knots current we stayed midstream as that is where the maximum current is located and on the outside of river bends. Incidentally, the Danube River is not blue, in spite of “The Blue Danube Waltz”; it is a muddy brown from the 300 tributaries that drain central and eastern European rivers (and cities) into it. Enjoying the assist of the current, and the pastoral countryside, we went down the wide river, with few barge tows or ships to avoid. In fact, several of the barge tows as they passed not only waved, but gave us a blast of their horns as a friendly and maybe envious greeting. From kilometre 300 at Cernavoda, we went down to Kilometre 216 (approximately 45 miles) in 7 ½ hours to anchor in the Cremenea Branch of the river downstream of Trasura Island (44? 53.7’N, 027? 53.3’E). The idea of anchoring on the downstream end of an island in the river is that if the anchor does not hold, you will drag downstream and into deeper water rather than being swept down and grounding in shallower water if anchored at the upstream end. No problems, as the mud made very good holding and the current kept us in one position rather than being swung around by changing winds as we might be in coastal anchorages. River anchoring is quite nice once the anchor has set, as there is minimal swing, and the pull is always from the upstream direction. The location was idyllic! No civilization around, off the main channel so we could see the occasional barge tow plodding its way upstream or downstream in the main river a half mile away. The current was a quiet two knots or less, with the flat water lazily drifting by, covered by the wispy white cotton-like seeds floating down from all the shore side willow trees. Before supper we quietly paddled Sprite up to a sand bar entrance into a small still lagoon silently listening to all the bird calls and trying to identify them; the cuckoos were easy. We just sat there for over half an hour, drinking in the isolation; gazing up and down the channel of willows, sentinels, standing in the shallows fringing the river and inner sand bar; tracking the various bird calls; and watching a few tall lanky gray herons and delicately slender crystal white egrets as they plucked their way along the shallows slowly and silently stalking in their jerky but syncopated gait the minnows and small fish for food. We even saw several shy storks, one type, a white stork with the usual black markings on its wing tips, and another, the black stork, its glossy green and purple plumage trying to blend in to the browns and greens of the marsh foliage. The echo of the cuckoos was haunting and raucous, not as penetrating as the loons of Ontario, but far more frequent and insistent. It was a lovely still paradise punctuated by the bird calls, the occasional flutter of wings, and the glorious glides of the herons and egrets as they silently, gracefully, drifted just above the water with a brief turn into a wisp of wind to flare their wings and come to rest on a new stretch of shore or foliage. After supper, a lovely sunset completed the satisfaction we absorbed from this gracious natural Danube River setting. Next day in seven hours we glided another 47 miles downstream (averaging over 7 knots!), including a half hour lunch anchorage at kilometre 175 across from Braila (Romania) and the navy yard with more than a dozen military patrol boats tucked into the estuary above it. We enjoyed watching the egrets as they glided from their perches to waft ahead of us, leading us down river. Flights of storks circled overhead motionlessly, effortlessly drifting on the invisible updrafts. As we approached the junction of the Ukrainian - Romanian border we saw the 100 yards that Moldova has of the Danube for its oil terminal, its only water access to the Danube and the sea. We anchored in the river again at Mile 72 (charts had switched to mile designations, and this was 72 miles from Sulina and the Delta entrance to the Black Sea), the port side of the river being Ukrainian near the town of Reni, the starboard side Romanian. It was not as picturesque as the previous night’s anchorage, but provided us a quiet sleep, after we had been checked out by a Romanian Frontier Police boat; a friendly encounter, with the two crew envious of our travels. Next day we were to head to Tulcea, the entrance to the delta proper. Next log