Southampton to Madiera

AROUND AFRICA CRUISE

MS BOUDICCA 5^TH JANUARY – 21^ST MARCH 2016

. Southampton to the Canary Islands.

The potential tedium of waiting all day in Southampton until boarding at 1430 was relieved by meeting our old friends from Bath and Dartmouth, Jane and Peter Tapley, for breakfast – they arrived that morning from a Christmas cruise to the Canaries on Boudicca’s sister ship Balmoral. They told horrendous stories of the foul weather encountered on that voyage including severe storm force 11 winds which prevented a visit to Madeira, confined guests to their cabins when all the furniture had to be tied down, and caused numerous injuries to passengers from falls and flying tables and chairs. So we are hoping for a quieter time though we still expect a serious swell and full gale winds in the notorious Bay of Biscay.

After a rather tedious boarding procedure we got a very pleasant surprise on entering our cabin – not only was it both bigger and smarter than expected but there was on the dressing table a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Anne Cameron, a great friend from Comrie. Only 3 of our 4 cases were there but we quickly located the missing luggage at the reception area – a label had become detached. So we unpacked essentials and then headed for the upper deck to witness our departure from Southampton.
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Leaving Southampton

It was quite exciting for John to sail down the Solent and Spithead for the first time on a passenger ship – we were the only people on the upper deck in the dark and with quite a wind getting up.  He remembered seeing the old Queen Elizabeth and Mauretania in these waters from the beach at Stokes Bay as a 4-year-old boy in 1947. Although dark the illuminated sail tower at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour and the clock tower at Ryde could easily be picked out. Very soon though the thought of our first dinner felt even more attractive – we had not eaten since breakfast.

Our cabin, midships on one of the lower decks hardly moved at all in spite of the very rough seas causing pitching and rolling and we slept the sleep of the just – hopefully “Mens Sana in Corpore Sano”!

A packed programme of lectures and entertainment included excellent talks on the forthcoming destinations, firstly Oporto where we shall stay for a few hours on the 8^th of January.

On passage the guest speakers have included the porcelain expert from the Antiques Road Show who told the story of the most valuable finds in the 29 year history of the programme, but the main interest was the stormy sea and the excellent dinners, just as good as any we have eaten anywhere including Gleneagles.

Friday 8^th January

Our first port of call – Oporto. We docked at 0800 and got the ship’s tour bus into town. No sooner had we got off the bus in the city centre than there was a massive downpour! It didn’t let up for over an hour but we continued undaunted though pretty wet. We eventually found the railway station with its attractive tiled walls and tried to phone Madeira to confirm our tour there. No joy, but a very helpful girl in a travel agent made the necessary call for us. We then went across the road to an internet café, and as well as picking up our emails we had a welcome cup of coffee. We made our way down to the River Douro – in parts the streets resembled rivers too with the amount of water! We were glad we reached the river and saw the panaroma through the rain – the steel bridge, the port companies like Sandemans and Taylors, the river boats. We walked back up towards the pick up point, and on the way went in to a lovely old fashioned drapers – like stepping back in time. When we got back to Boudicca we were able to dry off, followed by a talk on Tenerife, a delicious Thai buffet and a very impressive show put on by the resident singers and dancers. All in all quite a day!

Round Africa

Watch this space. We set off on Fred Olsen's Boudicca from Southampton on 5th January 2016 for a 76 night voyage round Africa, including even St. Helena. So in response to numerous requests we shall resume our blog, and his time there should be no publisher telling us we have to remove it. Here is hoping we can make it interesting!
John.and Jan

Kindle ebook now available

After a delay due to formatting errors you can now view our ebook "From the Baltic to the Aegean" on Amazon, Enter

"yacht" and "danube" in the search box and the book will appear, together with a preview. The book has 148 pages and many photos. It can be borrowed free if you are on Amazon prime. I hope you will enjoy it and even perhaps buy a copy! You do not need a kindle to read this version. Amazon offer a free ebook reader that will work on almost any apple, windows or android computer or phone.
The hardback can be ordered direct from blurb.co.uk.The price will be about £35 plus postage - and there is nothing at all for me in that deal! I shall get a small royalty from the ebook. If you are considering publishing a book think hard. It has been a lot of work and the main reward is to see your account in print, also perhaps to encourage other people to make this fabulous journey.

ebook "From the Baltic to the Aegean

Hi -
This blog is to be published in ebook form by Amazon for use on Kindle and Android devices. The published edition has a greatly expanded text and many more photos.
I hope this does not cause inconvenience; we are not allowed to make any content of the book freely available once it is digitally published by Amazon.
There is also a hardback available from blurb.co.uk at about £40 including UK P&P. Sorry about the price - this is the main reason we have chosen to make the book available for purchase from Amazon- and I shall get nothing at all from Blurbthough the book looks very nice.

The ebook expanded version of our blog hit technical difficulties with Amazon - all the formatting was lost so what remained was just a jumble of pictures. This has now been resolved.

CONTENTS

	Introduction		Page
2011	July- August	Barth to Berlin	8
	August- September	Berlin to Minden	14
2012	June- July	Minden to the River Main	17
	July- August	The Main to the Danube	41
2013	May- June	Saal to Vienna	55
	July	Vienna and Budapest	68
		Budapest to the Iron Gates	82
		The Iron Gates	93
		The Black Sea	107
		The Bosporus and Istanbul	117
		Istanbul	127
		Marmara and the Dardanelles	131
	August	The Aegean	141

 INTRODUCTION

This is a book about our trip on board our motor yacht Brillig from the Baltic through the Ardennes and down the Danube to the Black Sea, then onward through the Bosporus and Dardanelles to

c;e me in Turkey, where we plan to keep Brillig for the foreseeable future. Brillig is a Linssen 12.5 metre Dutch steel motor yacht built in 1995. The photographs below are of Jan and John in the Ardennes. We expected the Danube to be more challenging!

This route was chosen because our boat is designed to slow down and take our leisure seriously. This means that we should have difficulty in taking the direct route up the Rhine gorge where the current against us would be too strong. Hence the journey to the Netherlands, the Ardennes and through Northern France to Strasbourg. Then down the Rhine to Mainz, the Rhein-Main-Donau Kanal and the Danube itself which we joined in 2013 at Saal-am-Donau, where Brillig had been kept through the winter of 2012-13

We shall miss this lovely cruising ground - Rugen, Hiddensee, Stralsund and the challenge of staying afloat in the shallows immediately adjacent to the well marked channels between the many lakes. Also our route, past Peenemunde to Stettin then up the Oder to the Oder-Havel Kanal will not allow us to revisit Lake Muritz or Schwerin or many of the other places we have so much enjoyed in Mecklenburg. That is another story but we include a few photographs from earlier years to remind us of those times.

Our route to Berlin takes us first to the pretty town of Zingst, which has everything from music recitals to an enormous 10Km beach. The channels in the whole of this region are narrow and often very close to water shallow enough for wading birds to walk about on the sand just below the surface. The water is opaque because of the sandy terrain - you cannot normally see the bottom even if the depth is only half a metre. Frequently what appears to be wide open water is in fact more suited to canoes than boats. In May and June the area is a birdwatcher's paradise, home to huge flocks of many types of birds including swans, ducks and geese. Even when windy the water is seldom uncomfortably rough. We are soon in the channel for Stralsund, an ancient city once pivotal in the Hanseatic League and now home to the German sail training ship Gorch Foch and to a modern aquarium. There are many superb 16th century brick buildings, and the principal church, St. Mary's, which originated in the 13th century, was from 1549 until 164 7 the tallest building in the world. It contains wonderful 15th century carvings and the internal stonework is currently being painted in the  authentic original colours.

The Main is turning out to be one of the most pleasing rivers we have ever cruised. The scenery is both attractive and interesting, there are many interesting places along the way and there is not too much traffic. The only problem is that what little traffic there is is huge - big hotel ships and 185 metre barges which set up a wash which prevents us from mooring by the river bank. We have to find properly designated moorings which at least seem to be available at reasonable intervals. We are able to stop at one such place, an old lock at Mainkur and the associated channels around what must at one time have been a weir. The 25th of July brings us to Aschaffenburg and the former summer

palace of the archbishop of Mainz. There is a welcoming marina here with electricity so we can have the air conditioning on in our cabin, which is a real treat as there is a heat wave now with day temperatures of 30 degrees and more.

Boat details: Linssen 40Se built 1995

12.35m Length 3.85m Beam 1.2M Draught 4.6m Air draught 11 tonnes

1000 litres Diesel 800 litres fresh water

Volvo Tamd41 Diesel 147Kw Cruising speed 6knots [8Kph in River]

Max 8Knots

Fuel consumption at 1650 rpm, 8Kph in River 0.4 - 0.5 litres per Kilometre. At 2200 rpm, 6 knots in Sea 1.2 - 1.5 litres per Nautical mile

Essential Equipment Calibrated Echo Sounder, Good quality Binoculars - Leica/Swarowski or equivalent is desirable - in Bulgaria Port & Starboard buoys are similar shape and it can be difficult to distinguish the colours

At least 2 stout ropes 1.5 times boat length or longer, and ample balloon fenders

Highly desirable Equipment

DSC radio with AIS, or separate AIS system. It is very useful to know when approaching locks or blind bends whether there are other barges within a couple of miles. Note that it is illegal to use non DSC VHF in Germany or Austria, and that there is no point in upgrading an old non-DSC operator qualification as the RYA upgrade exam is not recognised in Europe. The older Certificate of Authority to Operate is OK

A Danforth or other anchor designed for sand/gravel with 50 metres cable. The bottom is often rock with no good holding. If the visibility deteriorates rapidly, e.g. during a rain squall, it is desirable though not always possible to stop.

GPS with anchor drag alarm.

A ships date stamp showing the word CAPTAIN and the boat name is very useful at border crossings. We also found a printer/photocopier highly desirable.

Other useful equipment

Typical small boat radar is of limited value for blind pilotage as the horizontal beamwidth of ~5 degrees gives insufficient bearing discrimination for navigation until the river is at least a kilometre wide, and even then is only adequate. Higher bearing discrimination normally implies a longer antenna than is practical on a small yacht though modern colour radars may be better in this respect.

Internet Connection I used a Mi-Fi [Huawei] with locally sourced data only sim cards to provide Wi-Fi throughout the boat. 3G coverage is sporadic especially after Budapest where the Danube is the border between different countries. It is desirable to have both windows PC and GPS enabled Android devices. Windows is needed for the Donau.Duna (Danube) chart programme, and Android enables storage of up to 6 Google maps which can be useful to verify one's position as the charts do not display Lat or Long. Google Earth is also useful to identify suitable harbours on the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara. We found the Imray guide to cruising Bulgaria and Romania very unreliable. Note that only internet dongles or Mifi purchased in Turkey will work in that country. Other devices will cut out after 15 days. We got a good deal from Vodafone for a dongle and renewable Data sim initially valid...........