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Old 10-14-2018, 05:35 PM   #15
wpc691
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City: punta gorda, FL
Vessel Name: Blue Bayou
Vessel Model: Hatteras 43MY
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 149
Quote:
Originally Posted by Henning View Post
Here on the Mosel the problem is ship's wakes. It's not so much a question of the waves they leave behind, because they move at a relatively small fraction of hull speed. However, the water that rushes to fill the void behind a ship sets up a surprisingly strong current, in tight waters seemingly close to the speed of the vessel itself. We were seemingly OK last night, and had a couple of 300' cruise boats pass by without issue, but then a 400' tanker came by at 2:20 in the morning. I woke up from the sound of the anchor dragging rapidly (with an all chain rode, a hawse pipe next to your bunk and a rocky bottom, that's not a quiet process), then the crunch of our keel settling into the riffraff. While far from endangering the vessel, that's a sound that'll kick me right out of my bunk, any time, and we went down to a snug little marina in Winnigen.

The current project is to make our way down the Danube to the Black Sea, which doesn't leave us a lot of options. I could of course give up on the whole free flowing rivers thing and descend to the Med by way of the French canal system, but I'm not *quite* at that stage yet.
We have a harbor planned at Lorelei and another at Bingen before we enter the canalized Main, so the need to figure this out is not quite so urgent any more. Still, we will be doing 2.500 km of Danube where pontoons are reportedly few and far between, so we must figure something out to retain a level of freedom to explore.
Sorry for your mooring problems, but jealous that you’ll be docking (I assume) at Saint Goar, just below die Lorelei, one of our favorite spots in Germany. I recall maybe 6 years ago a large barge grounded on the inside of the turn at die Lorelei and disrupted river traffic for several weeks while the difficult removal was effected. If you’re there for a couple of days, I highly recommend the breakfast buffet (or anything else) at Burg Rheinfels. There’s a Zug to take you up the hill to the castle. Get a window seat for a spectacular river view. Viel Spaß.
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