Treibgut

Thanks to Ilie we are able to fill up our water tanks in the morning from the ground pump. For some water is not all you need ad we end up having a fishing net {big one}

As we float along Flo gets more and more used to the funny steering of our raft with wind and currents. Painting playing cards, reading, and a nice salad n omelet round up the floating another day on big mama Danube…

At night a big, big fire gets started by mat and Flo while Radu keeps trying to get the non vegetable part of the BBQ (a snake) The shopping trolley turns out to be quite useful for the fire kitchen and serves as a roast even though Ilie is sad to see the wheels burning. But a couple of glasses later we are happily discussing the differences of Romanian and German ways of doing business and the playing silent post with easy words like DonauDampfschifffahrtsgesellschaft or friendship which turns out to soft porn …

We are in the news. FRONTPAGE

We are famous! Mat and Radu will even get some groupies if they are lucky because they are on the picture in the newspaper of Ruse. Unfortunatly we cant read the article but we belive its full of praise for us pirates haha…

Having ^done^ the capitania and added Flo as official crew member while others took care of the stocking up fresh veggies we leave in the early afternoon. With the great materials from Mr. Bricolage Ilie is able to build a fridge

Keks parked at the Yacht Club Ruse

Sleep in after a long night out on the square and elsewhere. Almost everyone enjoys the first proper shower after 2 weeks but one stinker remained. neverthelesswe decide to take him along anyway and rumble torwards the city stock up supplies at the local Mr. Bricolage. Afterwards Kebap for everyone. Juhu.

Boyko, the owner of Ruse Yacht Club tells us about a couple that was shipwracked here about a week earlier. Their raft got towed by an empty cargoship and they couldnt keep up surfing the wave. They went tipside and sank in Mama Dunav. We havent parked up propably we can hear that joyfull scottish accent inviting us for a Otterkringer. Neil and Sue and their self build boat the  Roama are one of the happiest crews we met so far.

In the well organised Yacht Club Log we find a lot of river adventures rolling up and down the Danube from all ends of the world. Especially, a munich based traveler we met last september on a bike tour was joyfully inspired by the treib-gut projekt, caught our attension.

Sun is shining, the wind is blowing, waves smoothly passing through and we make our way to the first big city this year. Smashed potatos and paprika tomato bean sauce in our bellies the city s tv tower and [termite] communist skyskrapers slowly come to view. The city of Ruse to our feet.

In the morning we set over to mainland on a water and petrol mission, on a little Bus zick-zack through town. Its noon till we manage to keep going welcomed back with delicios breakfast by Radu and Steffi. Back in Bulgaria for the night. Parked on the feet of some chalkstone cliffs. Yellow green smoke rising from the other border.

Today we started early again, cause of our little friends waking us. So Mat sets sail. Heat n Speed. 40C and 90 km. Lots of records. We anker on an island of sand near Corabia. The heat of the night and a little fire on this all sandy land.

We met the master of pupets of Bulgaria, that is pulling strings in theates all across europe. State Pupet Theatre – Vidin. Very friendly crew, producing plays for children. They ve toured all across europe and always happy to find some cooperation partners.

Today we woke on the sidewall of the ancient fortress of Baba Vida. Having a lazy morning strolling around. A perfect summer day. Time for town business. Where are the papers? Andrea, only seems to be a part time pirate. As the local border police  only accept original passports and IDs. A couple of hours later having spent seemingly endless time at the police headquarters we are allowed to return to the *Keks* but without Andrea. She remains in custody to be rendered to Romania police the next day. The remaining crew is happy all paper&police tigers are fought off.

Slowly floating with almost all petrol gone we are not beeing able to pass the beach cocktailbar a few km before calafat. The local DJ shows a great sence of humor as the blasts a house version of the pirates of the Carribian soundtrack out as we land on the beach. Two rounds of celebrating the liberty of cuba we meet a table of musicians. We just missed a week of folk festival, so we keep jaming on the beach. Didg Arcordion …

We are taking Andrea and Marius as hostages with the plans to swap them for some more rum with some gypsys. It turns out that the local boys find great fun in slack lining. On of them would like to buy Andrea of us but his horse doesnt fit on board anymore, so we decide to keep her. Marius isnt pirate enough to join us but helps us stocking up. After another round of engine yoga we find out that Mr. Mercury was spinning the wrong way since we last took him appart. In an dramatic emergency procedure Dr. Mech. Ilie and his team manage to get the hear of this 2-Stroke interior pumping again. With sunset we leave for Bulgaria.

Are we stupid? Yes we are, because we like parking on rocks apparently. Mat made the effort to get up with the radio alarm and the sun just to find out it was *low tide* again and the keks straded on rock …. A couple of hours later everybody awoke, the water even lower and with the help of everybody ad a big log we manovered the boat back to tis element….

Some kilometers later after breakfast and a quick Rollenchange on the stering we passed by tho sheperds who were guarding sheep, goat and a donkey supported by two dogs. After a brief shouting conversation in Romanian between the shepherd and Ilie we decided to buy a lamb. Said and done. Now a little black/white sheep living on the roof though most probably its floating time will end with the end of this day.