Rhine water levels 2021 and similar topics

[beardedshark]

Thanks notamermaid, the cruise line is Crystal. Good news the water levels are improving. I hope the Debussy can get down to Basel to pick us up.

[CILCIANRQTS]

27 minutes ago, beardedshark said:

Thanks notamermaid, the cruise line is Crystal. Good news the water levels are improving. I hope the Debussy can get down to Basel to pick us up.

Viking announced yesterday no ship swaps anticipated on the Rhine.

[asya999]

10 hours ago, beardedshark said:

Thanks notamermaid, the cruise line is Crystal. Good news the water levels are improving. I hope the Debussy can get down to Basel to pick us up.

We are on the same cruise and the email said they will *not* be coming down to Basel as the current Amsterdam to Basel cruise took a detour on the Moselle and is expected to end up in Mannhaim tomorrow. 
 

They are going to bus us up to the ship from Basel (about a three hour drive) and then we’ll have some “adjusted” itinerary 😞

 

Asya (and Ben) 

[notamermaid]

26 minutes ago, asya999 said:

We are on the same cruise and the email said they will *not* be coming down to Basel

Thank you for that info. Crystal has done such changes in the past, i.e. going a little on the Moselle instead, which is actually very nice - unless you had set your heart on seeing something specific on the Rhine. Perhaps Crystal played it safe with the water level - I can only speculate - and also adjusted that itinerary seeing that the bottle neck at Karlsruhe seriously slowed things down for a week - that spot continuous to be a slowed down area till this weekend. I hope Crystal makes adjustments in such a way that you can see Strasbourg and that your river cruise will otherwise be delightful. Crystal knows how to pamper their passengers, but I would be really disappointed if they could not fit in Strasbourg for you.

 

Have a safe trip and a great time on "my" river.

 

notamermaid

 

[asya999]

20 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

I hope Crystal makes adjustments in such a way that you can see Strasbourg

I’ll be sad to miss Strasbourg (though I’m not sure i would want to spend a few extra hours on a bus if that’s the only way they can get us there) but I’d be extra super happy if the Moselle detour gets us to Luxembourg - I’ve never been there and would love to visit. 
 

Asya

 

[CILCIANRQTS]

Rhine River level apparently may affect our docking location in Cologne, due to low water, per our CD tonight. We’re used to docking near the chocolate museum - yum! Recent rains may help.

[notamermaid]

12 minutes ago, CILCIANRQTS said:

Rhine River level apparently may affect our docking location in Cologne, due to low water, per our CD tonight. We’re used to docking near the chocolate museum - yum! Recent rains may help.

Ah, yes, I thought about that yesterday, it has been mentioned in past years that the Viking landing stage has a problem in low water. So that affected one is the Viking no. 0 at the Chocolate Museum? There is another Viking one not too far away, but Viking also uses one in Deutz on the other side of the river. Here is a comprehensive list and map of the docking places along the river, for those interested, courtesy of nicko cruises: https://www.nicko-cruises.de/service/anlegestellen/anlegestellen-koeln/

 

Kaub is now at 92cm. That is already much better than it had been. The lowest was on 1 November in the afternoon with 70cm.

 

notamermaid

 

[asya999]

Latest from Crystal is we will board in Speyer today.  Tomorrow we will visit Strasbourg via coaches. 

[CILCIANRQTS]

7 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Ah, yes, I thought about that yesterday, it has been mentioned in past years that the Viking landing stage has a problem in low water. So that affected one is the Viking no. 0 at the Chocolate Museum? There is another Viking one not too far away, but Viking also uses one in Deutz on the other side of the river. Here is a comprehensive list and map of the docking places along the river, for those interested, courtesy of nicko cruises: https://www.nicko-cruises.de/service/anlegestellen/anlegestellen-koeln/

 

Kaub is now at 92cm. That is already much better than it had been. The lowest was on 1 November in the afternoon with 70cm.

 

notamermaid

 

Thank you!
CD said we may be using Deutz.

Edited November 4, 2021 by CILCIANRQTS

[asya999]

5 hours ago, asya999 said:

Latest from Crystal is we will board in Speyer today.  Tomorrow we will visit Strasbourg via coaches. 

Reading the details we only embark in Speyer tonight.  Tomorrow early morning we move to Mannheim where we stay for two days the first bussing to Strasbourg and the second back to original schedule which has us in Mannheim then. 
 

Which is unfortunate as Speyer has some cool things to see and instead we’ll get Mannheim for an extra day 😞 

 

Asya 

Edited November 4, 2021 by asya999

[notamermaid]

@asya999 Good to read that Crystal will deliver the service I expected - a trip to Strasbourg. I agree, Mannheim as a base is a bit much perhaps. But I have never been to Mannheim and find it an interesting place I would like to visit, kind of appeals to me. The main attraction is the palace of course. Did you know that it is the second largest Baroque palace in Europe, second only to Versailles? For those interested: https://www.schloss-mannheim.de/en/home

 

Speyer is of course much older so has historically a greater appeal.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

It has been a drab day in the Rhine valley, rain almost everywhere according to the weather map. A typical November day. Thankfully, this has been good for the water levels. Kaub is now at 101cm and although far less rain is forecast for the coming days it should be enough to keep the level over 90cm for some days, if the prediction is right.

 

@CILCIANRQTS not sure where you are right now but not in Cologne yet I presume. Here is something to impress the crew with 😀. Ask them if there has been any digging with buckets at the "Deutzer Platte" this year. Or better not, I do not want to get into trouble... Anyway, this "Deutz Plate" is a famous gravel deposits at Deutz harbour, kilometre 687cm. It needs seeing to every few years. That is usually done with a special dredging ship that uses a continuous chain bucket system to get the gravel out. This is the German Wikipedia page where you can see in the photo the spot (video of the ship that got stuck there in 2013) https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutzer_Platte

 

This is the thing, I have heard it in action, loud, it is quite the groaning reptile: 

 

 

My, that video will seriously change my YouTube feed suggestions...

 

notamermaid

 

[CILCIANRQTS]

2 hours ago, notamermaid said:

It has been a drab day in the Rhine valley, rain almost everywhere according to the weather map. A typical November day. Thankfully, this has been good for the water levels. Kaub is now at 101cm and although far less rain is forecast for the coming days it should be enough to keep the level over 90cm for some days, if the prediction is right.

 

@CILCIANRQTS not sure where you are right now but not in Cologne yet I presume. Here is something to impress the crew with 😀. Ask them if there has been any digging with buckets at the "Deutzer Platte" this year. Or better not, I do not want to get into trouble... Anyway, this "Deutz Plate" is a famous gravel deposits at Deutz harbour, kilometre 687cm. It needs seeing to every few years. That is usually done with a special dredging ship that uses a continuous chain bucket system to get the gravel out. This is the German Wikipedia page where you can see in the photo the spot (video of the ship that got stuck there in 2013) https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutzer_Platte

 

This is the thing, I have heard it in action, loud, it is quite the groaning reptile: 

 

 

My, that video will seriously change my YouTube feed suggestions...

 

notamermaid

 

Not to Cologne yet.

Tomorrow is Speyer/Rudesheim.

Cologne is Sunday. Nothing will be open, but we have friends from Wegberg coming to visit and play tour guide!😁

Clear sailing so far.

That’s quite the dredger!!

[mhb1757]

We just passed Kaub on the Hermod about 5 minutes ago. Water level was at 103. Docked yesterday in Cologne not far from the Chocolate Museum. Beautiful afternoon cruising the middle Rhine. So glad we could make this segment. 

[notamermaid]

Thanks for saying hello from your cruise.

8 hours ago, mhb1757 said:

Beautiful afternoon cruising the middle Rhine.

Good to read that the weather was nice, it has been raining quite a bit in parts of the valley today. Virtually no rain forecast for tomorrow, light rain in some areas on Sunday.

 

notamermaid

 

[Coral]

I sailed on Crystal during low water conditions on the Danube. We did not miss any of the ports. They did bus us to them but we did get to do all of our tours in the ports.

[notamermaid]

@Coral I would expect no less from Crystal.   I would say that most companies will try and do it with coaches. On the Rhine there happens to the beautiful Moselle just round the corner, literally round the "German Corner" at Koblenz for a convenient detour so I understand Crystal doing this. Talking of German Corner. For those new to the location, here is a screenshot of the webcam, about 15 minutes after sunset today:

 

 

The Viking ships - two again this afternoon - dock on the Rhine while most others dock on the Moselle round the corner.

 

https://www.feratel.com/en/webcams/germany/koblenz.html

 

notamermaid

 

 

[sjde]

I loved Cochem and Bernkastel on the Moselle. 

[Coral]

1 minute ago, notamermaid said:

@Coral I would expect no less from Crystal.   I would say that most companies will try and do it with coaches. On the Rhine there happens to the beautiful Moselle just round the corner, literally round the "German Corner" at Koblenz for a convenient detour so I understand Crystal doing this. Talking of German Corner. For those new to the location, here is a screenshot of the webcam, about 15 minutes after sunset today:

 

 

The Viking ships - two again this afternoon - dock on the Rhine while most others dock on the Moselle round the corner.

 

https://www.feratel.com/en/webcams/germany/koblenz.html

 

notamermaid

 

 

Thanks for the gorgeous picture! I think my agent will be on a Viking ship on the Rhine in a few weeks.

 

Yes - my Crystal trip was one of those that during low levels of water - things could go horribly wrong. If they did - Crystal compensated in such a way, I had no idea that things were not normal. Yes - we couldn't dock in Bratislava or Vilshofen but it didn't affect what I was my tours went on as usual.

[notamermaid]

Kaub is at 103cm right now, that is a sufficient level but it means that in a scenario of intermittent rain that is not then not falling in abundance, a risk of really low water levels continues to be there. We see that this week where we have relatively dry days. It has put the forecast for Kaub gauge on a slow but steady downward trend. We can expect the level to fall to 90cm and probably a bit under that by Wednesday evening.

 

Remember my post that includes the Salzbachtalbrücke connecting Wiesbaden with Frankfurt? The 60-year-old bridge near the Rhine but not spanning it, it crosses the Salzbach valley, was in danger of collapsing. It was demolished on Saturday. A whole bridge of 310 metres gone in seconds! It was quite a spectacle for the locals and of course shown live on television. Here is a recap by regional broadcaster SWR: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/mainz/sprengung-salzbachtalbruecke-wiesbaden-livestream-infos-100.html

 

The demolition team leader says it was perfect and thanks his team for outstanding work on this difficult object. Now diggers are at work to get rid of 15,000 tons of rubble. It is planned to reopen the railway line in time for Christmas which means that finally Wiesbaden railway station will not look as deserted as it looks in the video right now.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Fog is in the valley again this morning, on some days it can be quite persistent. It may not be as thick as in the film settings of thriller stories in London but it certainly can make castle viewing difficult. Having said that - I would love to see my river from the water on such a morning some time, somewhere in the Upper Rhine valley.

 

It is cool but not raining so the river is loosing water slowly. Kaub gauge stands at 92cm and is forecast to fall below 90cm on Friday morning. Question is, what happens after that? The slow decline will continue but naturally a forecast becomes less accurate and turns from a good prediction into a computer generated estimated range of figures. So, after the weekend, that ominous figure of 78cm when the navigation channel is only 190cm at Kaub becomes a probability, a very high probability in fact. We will look at this again latest at the weekend.

 

In the next post I plan to take you back to my day trip to a castle 🏰, a not so well-known one in name, but if you have been through the Rhine Gorge you will have seen it.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

It is certainly staying interesting on the Rhine and not in a good way. During the early hours of today a Dutch barge sailed on the wrong side of a red buoy and got stuck. You may have guessed it, it was very foggy. The kilometre is 373, that is in the Upper Rhine valley somewhere North of Karlsruhe, where there is already a "no passing" regulation in place. The accident reduced the navigation channel width to 20 metres. That necessitated an immediate ban on traffic. Thankfully, the barge was freed after a few hours and traffic has resumed.

 

The bottle neck further up the river, you know, where the Viking Sigrun had got stuck, will remain until 18 November now.

 

The river has decided to beat the forecast and fall faster. Kaub is now already steadily under 90cm, currently at 88cm. It has made the forecast show a figure of 82cm on Friday with the potential for a further decline. Rain on Saturday may halt this trend but it is highly unlikely to lead to a recovery of the figures.

 

It is again rather foggy today, landscape visibility is still quite reduced in my area although it is noon already.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Kaub gauge went down a little further, but the wet weather is helping now, so that we see a figure of 85cm right now. The downward trend halted - for the time being.

 

notamermaid

 

[brekat1]

Due to sail Crystal Debussy on the Rhine on Thursday the 18th out of Basel so I am following the water level posts intently - Crystal sent an email today warning of possible itinerary modifications.... not sure what that will mean

[notamermaid]

14 hours ago, brekat1 said:

Due to sail Crystal Debussy on the Rhine on Thursday the 18th out of Basel so I am following the water level posts intently - Crystal sent an email today warning of possible itinerary modifications.... not sure what that will mean

Thanks for reading and saying hello. While such e-mails undoubtedly make for unpleasant reading, I think it is good to give advance warning. Especially as a few people may not go straight to the cruise ship from the airport, i.e. have pre-cruise plans outside of the tour operator. Of course, everything may go according to plan but we have low water and the bottle neck at Karlsruhe. May Crystal bus you from Basel to the ship further downstream? A possibility. Or just a tiny amendment to the port times? Whatever it will be, I am sure Crystal will take good care of you. Have a great cruise.

 

Kaub gauge at 86cm. New forecast says 88cm during the evening, with 90cm in the prediction for Monday. Some rain today in Switzerland and the Southwest of Germany, no rain Monday and Tuesday.

 

notamermaid