Cochem - from 2nd May to 4th May 2023

 About the marina

• Don't need to book, when you arrive, if there is a spot then it's yours.
• Has no electricity.
• One tap for water and that is on the outside, you will either need a very long hose or take your boat around and if it's busy you may lose your spot.
• No showers or toilets, you can use the ones at the camping ground 1.3 kms away.
• No WiFi.
• No large supermarkets, the closest is Penny 1.1 kms or Rewe 1.7kms, there is a butcher in town and lots of wine merchants.

View of the marina from the castle, just before the bridge on the right of the photo you can just pick out the lonely boat at the marina.

The town has a lot to see, Cochem Castle Reichsburg

Treis-Karden - 30th April to 2nd May 2023

 Left Winningen at 10:40 this morning, arrived at Treis-Karden at 4:00pm, we were not in any hurry. Through 2 locks (for anyone on a boat in this area, the sides are smooth, no need for planks)

About the marina

• Cash only (in 2023!)
• When you get you berth number, note all berth start with Y and does not show anywhere. Y is for Yachthaven and C is for Camping.
• Showers are free, for water you do need to push the button to start the flow, last for about 30 seconds before you need to push again. Or you can go to the showers at the Camping Grounds, free flowing water.
• They have WiFi, 5 Euros for 3 days, 500MB for one device, oh and don't loss the paper with your password, you will need to enter it a lot, times vary.
• There are 2 supermarkets walking distance from the marina, Edeka and Norma and a Rossmann
• No laundry at marina, there is one at the Camping grounds you can use.
• A restaurant at the beginning of arm B, not sure if it's every Sunday night or just because it was a long weekend, but the restaurant changes to a night club after 9:00pm to 2:00am.
• Electricity is a pay as you need, the box will take 10, 20, 50 cents and 1 and 2 euros. 1 Euro per 1 kilowatt hour.
• There is a place for rubbish and recycling, paper and class only.

Arm B takes you straight to the restaurant, you also have to walk through the patrons eating to get to the toilet and shower block behind.

This evening we had 2 shows, a dinner show, a boat coming in at 7:00 looking for his assigned berth K16, once he found it, he aimed for it nearly hitting the boat in the next berth, he then turned around to face bow heading out. The skipper had 3 other people on board and none of them were on the lines. The owners of the boat they nearly hit come out to help.

The second show was on our arm, a family of 4 setting up to stay the night, we receive 2 shows from them. First, they throw a tarp over the boat, they threaded a line through the holes in the tarp but not security to the boat. Second, the oldest daughter's phone fell in the water, dad then dredged the area with his net for about an hour and half before giving up. Not the weekend the dad was hoping for.

Tarp in the morning, they were lucky it was a calm night.

Treis-Karden

2023 Starts

Almost a civilised start time.

Leaving Canberra at 0750, then Melbourne and Singapore today. Overnight in Singapore and then on to Frankfurt via Dubai tomorrow.

2022 Summary

 Late March to end of August. We flew in to Frankfurt, then on to Venice and finally drove up to Monfalcone.

Sailed to Slovenia, train / truck up to Tulln in Austria. Car trip to Bratislava and Budapest and then headed up the Donau (Danube), Main-Donau-Kanal and Main Rivers. Right in to the Rhine and then turned left into the Mosel.

Good bye Europe 2022

Changes and repairs we have done on Sun Chi this season.

• New FM radio.
• Replace a speaker (ok a pair of speakers, only one needed to be replaced but we could only get black so to make it symmetrical, we changed both in the salon area).
• Added an accumulator tank to the fresh water.
• Replace the sensor switch in the grey water tank with a float switch.
• Changed the cook top from gas to electric.
• Configured a Raspberry Pi with a whole bunch of cool stuff 
• Made a step at the helm with extra storage under.
• Made a spice rake (cross your fingers they don't fall).
• Chose a spot for a Washing Machine and started to pull the cupboard apart, (say goodbye to my wardrobe).

What we have learnt along the way to make traveling easier.

 Italy

• For public transport you should get the tpl fvg app 

Austria 

• For the Danube in Austria, a must have is the DoRIS App, has all the up todate information on everything to do with the river and locks, including the contact details for the Lock operators.

Home Page of the DoRIS app

This page shows the lock status, the information a glances shows if they are available, select the lock you are approaching to see more information.  

I have selected the Altenwörth lock, it shows a green and amber status. They explain why a lock has a Partially Available status. 

• For public transport in Vienna you should get the WienMobil App, you purchase your ticket via the app, it also shows you where the stops near you are and what time the next Bus, Tram or Train is.

Germany

• they don't have an app for the waterways, they do have a webpage called Elwis (https://www.elwis.de) not as easy to use an an app but at least it's something.

• A fellow boaty has made a card for the shipping locks on the main. The information on it includes VHF channel for each lock and most importantly if they are concrete walls or what looks like corrugated iron. With the steel walls it's really easy to lose a fender in there and then you have fibreglass on steel:(

• And for public transport RMV there are two to choose from RMV. Deutschland and RMV Rhein-Main-Verehrsverbund GmbH, this one is the new version. Didn't try to buy a ticket on this app, as Germany had a summer deal, 9 euros for the month where we could travel throughout Germany on Local or regional trains, bus or trams and we purchased at the station.

• I know this next one has nothing to do with travel, but lets not dwell on that.

If you are in the Franconian region and you see this little booklet, grab one, not sure if other regions have the same. The wineries are only allowed to serve a meal with their self-produced wines for a limited time, usually for two to four weeks a year. Between the wineries they can select what times they would like, there are no overlaps, so the wineries are not competing with each other. They have a basic menu and selected wines made by the winery your are visiting.

We visited Weingut-Hofmann-Herkert, yes it looks like any suburban house.

In this photo, I was trying to show the terrain they grow their grapes on. They grow their grapes on steep hills with no help of tractor or machinery, to catch as much sun as they can. The terraced areas have the advantage that they can still catch enough sunbeams in autumn, when the sun is no longer in full force.

Various Commercial barges and their loads

 We'll start with the yard for when they need repair or painting.

This one is at 63939 Wörth am Main, I couldn't take a photo of the whole yard, it had two ships at the front and there were some at the back. In this photo you can see two workers working on the propellers. 

A factory at Oberhaid, and a barge been emptied, the load is sand (sorry not the best angle). The factory is also near our marina. 

Another one been emptied, this one scrap metal.

Delivering a new barge to the next factory to be fitted out

Wood Chips

Wind Turbine

Tied up to this barge in a lock, Metal balls

Coal

Containers, no not that many, there is a commercial ship at the front been loaded

Fuel 

We did see one with cars while on our morning walk, the cars were 4 deep, 10 long 

Mainz on the Rhine

We've made it to Mainz and we're now on the Rhine. This is my new best mate. Rough calculations, we've done 450 kms on the Danube River, 180 kms on the Main Donau Kanal and 380 kms on the Main River. Still about another 100kms to go before we winter in Winnigen on the Mosel river.

How much solar?

How much energy are we generating? Absolutely nothing.

The panels are arranged as three strings of two. So if any part of one of a pair of panels is in the shade then that string will produce nothing. Lucky we're only here waiting for the lock.

Frankfurt - 1st August to 3rd August 2022 (and a bit of the 4th August 22)

 So Frankfurt, we have finally decided we will need bikes and have organised to have them delivered to the marina in Frankfurt along with some other stuff Martin needed. 

Martin was expecting his parcel after 3:00pm we made it to the marine by 2:30pm. It arrived at around 4:00pm.

The bikes were expected Tuesday 2nd August 2022 between 8:00am to 6:00pm, should not be a problem. We had a walk around the area and got back way before 8:00am, thinking we could be waiting all day for the delivery.

At 8:30am we received an email from Amazon, our parcel is on hold because UPS couldn't find the address, and to contact UPS.

Before we called, we looked on Google maps and OK it showed the marina further down. We call UPS and change the address to the restaurant near us.

The drop pin marks the actual marina location and where we are, waiting for our bikes, further up on the map it shows the marina, which it’s not there. 

We now have the day, what to do, laundry what else.

Wednesday 3rd August, today we are hoping to leave, with bikes, but like yesterday we are expecting a delivery between 8:00am to 6:00pm. This time we are not going for a walk we are going to wait, then at 8:45am again we received an email to say our parcels are on hold.

Time for a walk and we will call UPS and organise the parcels to stay at the depo and we will pick them up.

On our walk we see an UPS van, while waiting for the driver to get back to his van, saw the sidewalk rise.

Driver is back. The marina isn't his area. Damn.

Walking back to the marina to leave and we see another UPS van, start running to catch it, we see where it's going and catch up. The driver did try to deliver but he couldn't give them to us because he has already signed it off. Back to plan B.

So we decided to leave and head to our next stop in Mainz about 35 km down the river.

We have called UPS and organized to pickup at their Customer centre on the 4th August 2022, opening hours from 7:00am to 10:00am then 4:00pm to 7:00pm. The plan is to get there before 10:00am. 

We have confirmation they are there.

Organise tomorrows trip, see below. 

We leave the boat a 7:30am, thinking we will get a croissant and coffee at some point for breakfast.

We make it the the UPS Customer centre at 9:30am, found coffee on the way, still no croissant.

We were told the parcels are not there, while we wait for someone to find them, I receive an email from UPS to say they tried to deliver but no-one was there, they will try again later. 

Showed the email to the lady behind the counter, she rings the driver and we organise a time to meet him at the marina (now that he knows where it is).

We know there is an Italian restaurant near the gate to the marina, we make the time for 12 noon and we will have lunch at the Italian restaurant, in case he is late at least we have wine.

12:15 - we have bikes. The boxes have seen better days, first we will finish lunch.

On first look all looks good, one bike has a bent rack. Quick assembly, now time to go back to Mainz, we had a lucky break, it was bin day for this area, so we binned the boxes early in our trip. We can take the bikes on the train but will need to walk them home as the tyres are flat. (I did take our bike pump but it was very hot 35 and it is a small pump)