notamermaid

Thank you. Kelheim still looks really bad. The situation will continue to be anything but normal for several days along the German Danube: notamermaid

Sorry. Unfortunately Mother Nature decided to give us a hard time this spring. As you start in the Netherlands I am confident that you will be able to sail through the canal upstream on the Rhine into Germany. That should be okay and likely you will get as far as Cologne. It is just more the question of where your ship will be. I am sure your cruise line will do its best to get the ship to you and inform you if something does not work out, but should you have any logistical concerns, I suggest you phone them. For those who would like to track their ship this week, marinetraffic.com can be of service: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:7.4/centery:50.7/zoom:9 I happen to have this on that zoom setting right now and have just spotted the MS Treasures sailing upstream to Koblenz. Her signal says Budapest. It may sound odd, but I think she could make it there without problems, her timing may work out. notamermaid

Sorry to have no better news for you. I am afraid you will need to be flexible. If you have any concerns, do phone the cruise company. I expect you have the ship's special phone number or the cruise director's contact details in your personal info for the cruise. Again, if you have any concerns... Things could go okay depending on where your ship is now and where it is supposed to pick you up. A general note to all: as of now it really looks to be calming down as regards the weather a bit, but there is just far too much water that is heading in the general direction to the North Sea. With little rain having fallen North and West of Cologne, things are looking much better there right now and I am confident the rivers up there on the map will cope. Today it is raining from the more standard directions, so we have a more normal weather pattern again. But it is not heavy rain. Should be okay. notamermaid

I think I will not even start to get my head round any of the itinerary problems the companies are facing. I had forgotten about the lock maintenance on the Moselle! I was saying to someone yesterday at home that the Moselle is fine... Accessible on land perfectly but very few ships the river will see. In theory you are allowed to sail but not much point just between two locks and if the first lock at Koblenz is closed then all you can do is sail up the Moselle for about 800m... Oh, and on the Rhine there is still only one chamber at Iffezheim lock available. To the ships at Koblenz. The Johann Strauss (a smaller, older vessel) had quite a nice stop in Koblenz overnight. There is a possibility that this the original itinerary, but it would be an unusual one - she is on the return lap down river now (a bit difficult to make out): The Viking Alruna is still at Koblenz. It is a mystery to me why they went to Osterspai and back, I mean attempting to get close to Bingen would have been a silly idea. Docking at Oberwesel or Braubach perhaps possible. But all a bit iffy which will become clear when I post a video of Boppard. Remember that I said that ships can dock in the Rhine Gorge at the landing stages that the excursion boats do not need at the moment? Well, when the spare ones are not under water. And the Emerald Dawn? This was her "journey" yesterday: The 24 hour track shows her changing position from one landing stage to another. According to SWR news the river peaked at Kaub this morning at 6.51m. St. Goar village stayed dry and people there are naturally relieved. But they have to cancel a festival that was supposed to take place at the weekend. It is an interesting, make-shift-looking solution, in the photo of St.Goar, but apparently effective up to 6.70m: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/koblenz/hochwasser-mittelrhein-sankt-goar-innenstadt-schutz-ueberflutung-schnelldamm-aufgebaut-100.html The crest of the wave has just gone through Koblenz it seems, in about an hour's time we can clearly see if the river is falling there. The level for a river traffic ban has not been reached and we can safely say that all gauges up to and including Cologne will be fine as regards that as well. Maxau gauge is going down well and we can assume that river traffic will resume on Friday. But as I have hinted at yesterday, the high level will stay with us so the situation will stay "interesting". Sorry. notamermaid

Maxau gauge is still following that forecast suggested earlier today. No change for the better, the river traffic ban will still be likely lifted on Friday. But the river is likely to remain high after that, so a normal state of affairs is unlikely to return this week, just relief and river traffic hopefully. I said yesterday that I would explain a bit more about Basel and why the river remains so high. We are still seeing some rivers and lakes in Switzerland giving a higher than normal volume of water to the Rhine and the discharge at Basel had increased again after that first peak. Excursion boat trips at the Rhine Falls have been suspended by the way, it is too dangerous. We are talking about this area: Basel is back on green on this map but the Higher Rhine between Konstanz and Basel is still showing yellow. From Ravensburg a small river flows into Lake Constance and that brought a lot of water two to three days ago. The long line above Pfullendorf by the way is the Danube (two yellow and one orange dot, which shows that even the young Danube is still affected). The rivers and lakes will all drain off enough soon if the dryer weather forecast is anything to go by, but Lake Constance will keep supplying plenty of water. Right now the Lake is actually on mild flooding status: The advantage of this is that should we get warm and dry weather soon, this natural reservoir of the Rhine will keep the level of the river at a good height for longer. But that is for another week to look at - hopefully several weeks into the future. Time to say goodnight and check on the ships at Koblenz tomorrow. notamermaid

To expand a little on the report that all of Austria has apparently suspended river traffic (see post #381). This is the situation at the town of Hainburg, the gauge is called Tebnerstraßl (screenshot): To follow along see: https://www.noel.gv.at/wasserstand/#/de/Messstellen/Details/207407/WasserstandPrognose/48Stunden Sadly, this is no short wave and while a little relief should come soon from Germany, the river cannot return to normal levels on the navigable river any time soon. The map with a town on the upper Danube highlighted: This is what happened there and you can see how high it still is and the volume of water the river still carries there: notamermaid

In the afternoon the Viking Alruna left Koblenz and entered the Rhine Gorge. She only got as far as Osterspai and then turned back. You can make out the track and the return: The Emerald Dawn is still docked in Koblenz. The peak at Kaub gauge is expected for 2am to 3am local time. notamermaid

That is so heartwarming to read. They are very busy in Deggendorf right now with the town mayor addressing the public right now. The peak of the flooding is expected for the early hours of Wednesday. If anyone would like to thank the good people of police, etc. again when things have calmed down a bit, these are the organizers of your evacuation (from an online newspaper): "...Im Kontakt mit der Crew hatte sich der Krisenstab um Einsatzleiter Kreisbrandrat Erwin Wurzer, Landrat Bernd Sibler, ..." The first gentleman is head of the fire brigade. This is the Landrat office: https://www.landkreis-deggendorf.de/landkreis/landrat/bernd-sibler/ notamermaid

According to this article the whole Austrian Danube has a river traffic ban: Quote: "Der gesamte Verlauf der Donau in Österreich ist wegen Hochwassers für die Schifffahrt gesperrt worden." gesamte means whole. https://www.antenne.de/nachrichten/bayern/donau-fuer-schifffahrt-gesperrt notamermaid

Kaub gauge has gone to 647cm, navigational flood mark II is at 640cm. notamermaid

Thank you. Our lady in Romania is very fast. 😊 notamermaid

The challenge on the Main in flooding is of course navigating the low bridges. I am not familiar with details on the bridges but there are a few candidates and the river is partly rising. At Würzburg it looks like this: Würzburg gauge has the HSW (highest water level permitted for river traffic) set at 340cm. notamermaid

As I am not familiar with the river there and there is a language divide I rarely read anything. Our "lady on the ground" in Romania may know more. I know that Budapest level has been rising a lot by now and this will continue: https://www.danubeportal.com/de/waterLevel/detailsTest/HUBUD00001G001516465 I do not know how the authorities will react to this but from what I see Budapest has a HSW line, which is an indicator of an official level for a river traffic ban that authorities can implement. notamermaid

I think Viking need some more office staff - or a better app for smartphones or something. Poor performance. What annoys me about this and other such stories is that Viking manages to shift their large fleet around Europe at ease but cannot keep track of the passengers enough, I mean you do not need to send e-mails every two hours but this is here is not good. And Viking should have learnt more from the 2018 drought communications disaster. All in all I would say they have but who knows, some staff may not have been in the company yet six years ago... notamermaid

The Emerald Dawn - let us follow her a bit - is now in Koblenz and has docked alongside two Viking ships, i.e. another rafting as three ships at that landing stage. There are docking places between Koblenz and Kaub but some have to stay free for the regular excursion boats. So we will likely see Koblenz busy for a while. Rüdesheim is inaccessible as river traffic is suspended according to the news article I posted above. With the crest of the wave now approaching the Rhine Gorge, Maxau gauge must have fallen further, right? Unfortunately not, the area has taken on more water in a small second wave and is back up to 803cm. The end of the ban on river traffic has been pushed to Friday. After 36 hours of falling, Basel gauge went up again yesterday and although that little peak has passed will remain high and another small wave may pass through the city over the weekend. notamermaid

Yes, looks to be up to Bingen now. Posted it in the Rhine thread. More water unfortunately coming from Basel again, will keep an eye on that. The Danube now: I see that the Isar is also quite high in Munich still. notamermaid

River traffic issuspended at Mainz and at Bingen. Kaub is on the brink and looks very likely to happen. German report: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/mainz/stadt-ingelheim-warnt-vor-hochwasser-durch-steigende-pegel-am-rhein-100.html notamermaid

I was wondering if this may happen. Thank you for confirming. The Rhine is busy with ships and it looks to be a scramble for a few ships to get where they want to be. Incidentally, if you happen to be on the Main you may not get onto the Rhine, because a) a low bridge on the Main may be in your way and/or b) the Rhine is closed to traffic at Mainz. Both Mainz and Bingen are now also at navigational flood mark II. More info coming in the Rhine thread later. The TUI Isla making it to Frankfurt by Saturday looks less and less likely. While the Main is not flooding right now, the river is nevertheless high and headroom under the low bridges reduced. Could be tight. And the Danube is still bringing much water from the upper reaches. Kelheim is still rising. notamermaid

Time for me to retire after an eventful day. A note though on the Upper Rhine valley. This high water will not pass as fast as we would like as the rivers of Switzerland are still draining much into the Rhine and there are tributaries that have now more or less drained into Lake Constance from the East. Basel gauge has risen again. More on that tomorrow and we will see how things have developed in the Rhine Gorge. notamermaid

The rescue operation for the TUI Isla: https://www.idowa.de/regionen/deggendorf/deggendorf/passagierschiff-auf-der-donau-bei-deggendorf-evakuiert-3773450.html There is a severe weather warning for an area near the Alps, that is more water for the Danube. It will come via the Inn mostly. The Inn is still high but has been falling a bit. Hopefully the rivers in that region will not rise much again as the Inn joins the Danube at Passau. Passau gauge at 906cm and rising: notamermaid

Have a good trip. notamermaid

I went on my river cruise on the Danube in April 2013. Then my ship the Belvedere had an accident in May. Then in June the flooding hit and no ships sailed. Exactly eleven years later the river looks more or less as it did then. And everyone was talking of a hundred year flood then. You saw lovely places in May, nice to read about this. I would like to see the Bavarian Forest again. I was there in 2012. notamermaid

So your brother knows where the ship will be because he was able to talk to a Viking guide on the ground in Germany, but they could not inform you in the US where the ship will be? I do wonder why the communication does not go from ground personnel to office personnel in the US. Besides that, you are already missing part of your cruise by now, i.e. you know you will, and if you had been informed that this massive interruption was going to happen you may have preferred - if it was not for meeting your brother - not to fly to Europe. That is not good communication. I feel sorry for those oblivious to this because they are just not informed by the company. People tend to say here on CC that the crew and staff on Viking ships are great so I am sure they will make up for this. Hope all goes well. notamermaid

So following on from the previous post I would say that they may be right for your cruise. They could do a "fast run" to Basel and make it. But it looks tight to me depending on where the Emerald Dawn meets the crest of the wave. Koblenz is getting flooding but at the moment it looks as if there will be no river traffic ban. If that is the case then things are looking good for gauges after that as the Moselle, as I mentioned before, is not contributing to the situation with a high volume of water. notamermaid

Good question. the wave is coming towards the Emerald Dawn, it is actually already in Koblenz but the crest of the wave will not hit Koblenz yet. Logistically I am not sure that I can get my head round this but this may be a scenario. The Emerald Dawn is in Koblenz in the morning so sails the Rhine Gorge in the afternoon. But the level at Kaub is forecast to rise so much that river traffic may be suspended in the afternoon in the Rhine Gorge. That would keep the Emerald Dawn at Koblenz for at least 6 hours. If she can get through the Gorge tomorrow she may sit out the wave and the high level at Rüdesheim for example. The authorities estimate that river traffic will resume at Maxau on Thursday. I would take this with a pinch of salt as the prediction as of now suggests it could be midnight going into Friday. Continued in next post... notamermaid