Fuel and Average speed update

 Ok. So previously I had this idea of trying to average 10 kmh. Definitely gone by the way side.

We're now well and truly in the Main River with a tail wind and enjoying that. I didn't keep good records earlier and I'm wishing now that I did, more for other peoples benefit than mine. 

Anyway, here's the short story. We're doing a lot more with electric only and that's definitely going to pay off at the bowser. This season we have done less than 70 engine hours in total for more than 800km of river travel and 40kms in the Mediterranean. 

The average fuel consumption in the Danube (Donau) River and the Main-Donau-Kanal was 3.5 km per litre. 

In the Main River, so far we have averaged 12.2 km per litre. 

The Donau River (that  we have been on) runs from 1937km in Vienna in Austria up to Kelheim in Germany at 2411km. Then the Main-Donau-Kanal runs from Kelheim at 171km to zero at Bamberg.. Then the Main River starts at Bamberg at 384km and goes to zero at Mainz where it meets the Rhine. If it sounds confusing, let me know and I'll try and explain it better.

Now we're in the Main River we have about a 2 to 3 kmh tail wind (current going with us) and this means I can use electric to go at about 5kmh and the current does the rest. We can easily do 30km in the day and arrive with about 50% battery. If we want to have breakfast on the run and do cooking with the new electric induction cooktop, I might turn on the diesel engine and run for the half hour or so while Belinda is cooking. Pretty much, those days where we used about 2 litres of diesel are those days.

To achieve this sort of fuel consumption we're only doing about 6 -7 kmh and by the time you put the time waiting for or going thru the locks we end up only averaging 5kmh for the day. You know what, I'm quite ok with that :-)