Rhine water levels 2022 and similar topics

[2inSETexas]

About 1430 German time today (8/8/22), two cruise passenger ships, the Geoffrey Chaucer and the Crucevita, passed by the Loreley heading downstream.

 

 

[notamermaid]

@CastleCritic

That is correct. I had mentioned briefly that the APT logo is on the hull. Which confirmed to me that it is the Amareina. APT uses that ship for the splendid Grand European journey Australian version.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by notamermaid

[notamermaid]

1 minute ago, 2inSETexas said:

About 1430 German time today (8/8/22), two cruise passenger ships, the Geoffrey Chaucer and the Crucevita, passed by the Loreley heading downstream.

Hang on, you were in the car park opposite the Lorelei??

 

How lovely! Land trip? Enjoy.

 

And thank you for posting. I was wondering if the Geoffrey Chaucer would manage the passage today.

 

notamermaid

 

[2inSETexas]

1 minute ago, notamermaid said:

Hang on, you were in the car park opposite the Lorelei??

 

How lovely! Land trip? Enjoy.

 

And thank you for posting. I was wondering if the Geoffrey Chaucer would manage the passage today.

 

notamermaid

 

Yes. A few days on the Mosel and few more days on the Rhine. Staying in small towns we saw from  previous river ship cruises. Lunch today was at the Panorama Loreley, right across the river from the rock.

 

Thanks 😊

[CastleCritic]

38 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

@CastleCritic

That is correct. I had mentioned briefly that the APT logo is on the hull. Which confirmed to me that it is the Amareina. APT uses that ship for the splendid Grand European journey Australian version.

 

notamermaid

 

My thought there was I wonder if ama is as willing or in a position to provide ship swaps for those ships as easily as they would the rest of the fleet. 

[notamermaid]

31 minutes ago, CastleCritic said:

My thought there was I wonder if ama is as willing or in a position to provide ship swaps for those ships as easily as they would the rest of the fleet. 

That is a very good point. I have never looked into swapping between the APT and Amawaterways ships. The swap with the Amareina may work for the Rhine Gorge but then what will they do on the Danube? Hmm, intriguing...

 

notamermaid

 

[momofthre3]

On 8/6/2022 at 10:04 PM, Farang said:

Anyone on the upper Rhine at the moment?  Looking at ship spotting websites, it appears no one is sailing the Rhine Gorge section.  I am following the Uniworld River Queen which seems stuck in Boppard.  Anyone following this board that is on the Uniworld Rhein-Moselle that is supposed to embark tomorrow from Strasbourg?  What are you hearing from Uniworld?

Following.  I have also noticed the S.S. Antoniette not going down the scheduled itinerary.  We leave to do the "Castles on the Rhine" tour starting August 21.

[notamermaid]

A last look at Kaub gauge tonight from me. 53cm. I have made a screenshot of the (shortened) graph to highlight the situation. I reduced the days to from where the river level dropped below the GlW line:

It looks a bit bleak, I know. We need a good amount of rain over several days to get rid of these low figures.

 

You can have a look and play around with the graph yourself of course. Shown in this format are always 31 days so if you want to keep a record take screenshots. The website: https://www.pegelonline.wsv.de/webservices/zeitreihe/visualisierung?parameter=WASSERSTAND ROHDATEN&pegelnummer=25700100&ansicht=einzeln

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Yesterday afternoon - I checked the archived photographs - the Amareina left Rüdesheim and has since appeared on the radar on the Main. So she did not go through the Rhine Gorge. The Amasiena, spotted by @2inSETexas in Koblenz yesterday, is now back in Cologne. She did not go through the Gorge either. A ship swap for the passengers? Despite Ms. Karst's claim in a recent interview that Amawaterways can sail the Rhine when the level is this low there, the captains of those two ships decided not to. She was interviewed in Rüdesheim. I am not saying she was wrong... The level at Kaub was between 48 and 52 yesterday. In the end it is always the responsibility of those steering the ship. I heard it again in a recent German interview, as answer to the question if the authorities suspend shipping in low water. They do not.

 

Kaub gauge at 53cm, forecast shows a downward trend. 50, 48, 46, even 44 may be possible. But we will see what tomorrow brings.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[tfred]

[notamermaid]

@tfred Thanks for the graph. Have you got a link to the article in which this appears? It would help me to comment on it. Thanks.

 

Effectively closed is a nice choice of words that does not get one into trouble... As we know, the river is never closed, for me it is more than semantics, it is personal, emotional - and important to clarify. For business it is business and economy and finance.

 

notamermaid

 

[travellingprof]

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

@tfred Thanks for the graph. Have you got a link to the article in which this appears? It would help me to comment on it. Thanks.

 

Effectively closed is a nice choice of words that does not get one into trouble... As we know, the river is never closed, for me it is more than semantics, it is personal, emotional - and important to clarify. For business it is business and economy and finance.

 

notamermaid

 

I think this is the link to the article. Bloomberg is known for blowing things out of proportion, though we can all see the situation is serious this summer. We are on Viking departing Amsterdam to Budapest on August 29 and know that the levels likely won’t increase enough between now and then for us to cruise the Rhine gorge, but 🤞🏻.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-02/europe-s-vital-rhine-river-is-on-brink-of-effectively-closing

[CPT Trips]

I just saw this article -  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/italy-drought-ww2-bomb-water-river-po-rcna41965 . It made me wonder if this year’s low water on the Rhein and Danube has revealed similar “surprises.”

 

If a ship on the Rhein runs aground and stops or impedes river traffic does the owner face fines or other penalties?

[2inSETexas]

AmaStella just sail past Sankt Goar (1825 on 9/Aug) on her Basel to Amsterdam sailing.
 

Edited August 9, 2022 by 2inSETexas

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, CPT Trips said:

I just saw this article -  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/italy-drought-ww2-bomb-water-river-po-rcna41965 . It made me wonder if this year’s low water on the Rhein and Danube has revealed similar “surprises.”

 

If a ship on the Rhein runs aground and stops or impedes river traffic does the owner face fines or other penalties?

Unpleasant finds happen, you are right, low water can reveal the odd surprise. I think this year so far once on the Rhine. I did not follow up on the headline that I read. May have been on the Danube as well but I think generally it happens more on the Rhine.

 

There is a detailed catalogue of fines for river traffic mishaps. The police on the water will assess the situation and react, working together with the colleagues on land.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

3 hours ago, travellingprof said:

I think this is the link to the article. Bloomberg is known for blowing things out of proportion, though we can all see the situation is serious this summer. We are on Viking departing Amsterdam to Budapest on August 29 and know that the levels likely won’t increase enough between now and then for us to cruise the Rhine gorge, but 🤞🏻.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-02/europe-s-vital-rhine-river-is-on-brink-of-effectively-closing

 

Bloomberg says I have read enough free articles and now need to subscribe. Oh well. Let me see. The graph seems to give 40cm as the line at which the Rhine "effectively closes". Let me work on that basis. When I add "for commercial traffic" that line is not quite correct as ships can still sail. When I also add "no more profitable or  economically viable" then this may be correct. As I mentioned earlier - last week that is - German captains and crew on the internet have stated that they sailed in 2018 with a few centimetres less at Kaub. Yes, it does affect supply chains and we felt it in 2018. We will feel it again soon.

 

For your river cruise Amsterdam to Budapest I see the Danube still more as the problem but you are right about the Rhine Gorge. You may indeed be on three ships. Or two and in a hotel, or one and two hotels, or - heaven forbid - on no ship. Viking is known for not cancelling river cruises due to low water per se, so anyone now who does not want to be on a coach will need to think hard about cancelling themselves, or insurance they may have, etc. Just saying...

 

The way things are going this week I am skeptical even about the 110m ships all running in the next 10 days. The River Queen already appearing to be stationary in Boppard (I do wonder what is happening there) is unusual though. In 2018 it got so bad that some of those could not sail the Rhine Gorge. Most 135m ships coming from Amsterdam did not even sail up to Koblenz and stopped in Engers, Andernach, Bonn or Cologne.

 

I am seriously getting close to a feeling of dejá vu. In 2018 I was bombarded with questions about the Rhine Gorge and low water in general. I really thought we would not see such a low water situation again any time soon. Now we do and it is even earlier in the year. I have not been bombarded with questions yet (and river cruisers appear to be better informed generally) but the news headlines, videos and personal photos are beginning to be similar to 2018. Surreal.

 

I mentioned the deeper navigation channel at Cologne and further downstream a while ago, so will come back to that very soon. Tonight or in the next couple of days.

 

Kaub gauge at 50cm.

 

notamermaid

 

[gayles]

I see rain in the forecast in Basel, Switzerland beginning August 15 until August 18.  Will rain cause the river to rise enough that the Rhine river will be passable? Some people in my party are anxious to cancel our cruise that begins August 30.

[notamermaid]

9 hours ago, gayles said:

Some people in my party are anxious to cancel our cruise that begins August 30.

I would not want to lean myself out of the window and give you advice on that. We have only a vague idea what will be at the end of August. Let us look at that in more detail when I have time for a long answer.

 

Questions: Which company is it? Which ship (if you want to disclose that)?

 

Pfelling gauge at 46cm.

 

notamermaid

 

[cruisinlawn]

Have been following this thread as I find very interesting. Pardon my ignorance but the "cm" being used for measurements, is that for centimeters or some other navigational/weather abbreviation?  Again, my apologies for lack of knowledge. Was just curious, thank you in advance. 🙂

[gentlemancruiser]

45 minutes ago, cruisinlawn said:

Have been following this thread as I find very interesting. Pardon my ignorance but the "cm" being used for measurements, is that for centimeters or some other navigational/weather abbreviation?  Again, my apologies for lack of knowledge. Was just curious, thank you in advance. 🙂

1 cm is about .39inches

Edited August 10, 2022 by gentlemancruiser
spelling error

[Canal archive]

Yup the dreaded decimal instead of - oops - Imperial, I still work in both.

[gentlemancruiser]

How are the water levels of the Rhine from Rudesheim/Mainz to Basel????   We are scheduled to be sailing with AMA from Luxembroug to Basel.   I can see a swap required once we reach Koblenz/Lahnstein, but to where for the next ship is what I am worried about.       

[sharkster77]

1 hour ago, gentlemancruiser said:

1 cm is about .39inches

Or, 2.5 cm equal an inch, roughly.

100 cm, or 1 meter is 39 inches, just a bit longer than a yard.

A kilometer is .6 miles, or a little more than a half mile.

 

Rough ballpark comparisons that I find make life easier.

 

(Though on April Fools Day I would tease my chemistry students by telling them about the "new SI units of time, where a metric day would contain 10 metric hours, and 1 SI hour would contain 100 SI minutes, and 1 SI minute would contain 100 SI seconds.   After waiting sufficiently long enough for their heads to explode, I would shout  "APRIL FOOL!!!!"  and revel in all their groaning!)

[gayles]

 

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

 

Questions: Which company is it? Which ship (if you want to disclose that)?

We are on the Viking Sigyn leaving from Basel on August 30. 

[krintc]

13 hours ago, gayles said:

I see rain in the forecast in Basel, Switzerland beginning August 15 until August 18.  Will rain cause the river to rise enough that the Rhine river will be passable? Some people in my party are anxious to cancel our cruise that begins August 30.

We are on the same cruise (Viking Sigyn departing Basel on August 30). Some in my group are considering cancelling, but me and my husband are going regardless. Too many things aligned to enable taking this trip to reverse course at this time. I have my expectations aligned that part of the trip may be on land at worst, or ship swap at best.