Treibgut

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.

Today started almost perfect. Iron Gate II was very thursdy overnight skulling fresh Danube water till we woke up half on rocks – again – We payed a little visit so Serbia without any of the paperwork waiting games propably the last for the keks. Ilie and Radu had never visited their nabouring county and were very sceptic about the idea of pulling up on the right riverside. A big mistake as it turned out as serbia seems to be full of attractive shopkeepers. Serbia was declared as not to bad. We found our way through a joungle of riversalat back downstream straight into a storm. We were very happy again to see the watergait opining its hudge iron mouth and swollowed the raft, to then be spitten out again in an even more rainy world. As the rain got more and more we decided to step just after this last watergate. What seemed like an allright spot to stay for the night <except the mosquitos> in the morning turned out to be different…

Everybody was tired, it rained and stormed a lot and so we spent the evening reading out some Douglas Adams. A lazy and wet one

Seems this is the first day without the motor needing special care.

You cant stay here. You got to leave and what the hell are you doing here anyway? Thats the words ever rivernomade likes to get taken out of dreamtime into the rough windy grey steel reality achoring on the side wall of the watergate. As the motor was still broken and we were to weak to paddle we ordered a boat and about 15 men from the locol watergate crew to drag us to the other side. Well at least it wasnt night anymore and the rain had stopped. So they emptied a few mil. liters of water and got parked on the other side. Ilie and Rene went for a round of motor morning yoga with some realy friendly locol industrial diver and carsalesmen to his mechanic of trust where as out of nowhere he made our new little black motor elektronic box appear. All up and running again. Ready to steam.

Trees, as it turns out, are in generally and especialy  in our case floating on the danube, are a lot more dangerous for boats than icebergs can ever be. Radu shows of some wicked surviver tricks catching a fish with his bare hands to be then fried with garlic and honey. Deluxe

Orsova 954

We are ready to roll. This afternoon we should be floating our first few km torwards the black sea. Heaps to pa ck and buy. So hopefully we are going to pass Portile de Fier also called the Iron Gate tomorrow. Raft phone number is 0049 one, seven, six, seven, eight, four, six, six, seven, zero, zero

After a 3 day workshop on boat engine mechanics we finaly got an very energy efficient mercury pushing us downstream. Most of the crew is pritty landsick by now, even though the rumanian hospitality, with fresh cheese and homegrown food, is overwehlming. So we  are getting ready to steam again. The winds are good and the cotton is high. The whole country smells like fresh watermelons. Woh woh and a bottle of rakisa