I am really up the creek (Main Donau Canal inj this case) without a laptop. But I have niothing better today today than take the bus and the U-Bahn into downtown Nuernberg to find an internet connection. This is getting spendy since I cannot pre type it on my own laptop. So, the blogs will be shorter until I am healed again. And my emails will also be shortened.

Sunday was the feast of  Mary´s Assumption. I went to the small old village church in Viereth. The custom is to bless all the Herbs that people gather for the winter. The pews were decorated with them and large baskets full were placed  in front of the altar. Afterwards the herbs were being given away. There were about 50 of the men and women of the church all dressed in similar Bavarian costumes who distributed the blessed herbs.

I stayed the afternoon and night in Viereth. I wanted to change one of the injectors. Ever since I left Amsterdam the engine has been burning black smoke. But just before I got on with the nasty job I checked the oil and found it to be much lower than usual, so, I figure I am burning oil rather than passing unburnt fuel through the exhaust. Anyone out there with a suggestion?  The engine runs o.k. but the smell and soot is unpleasant. And oil is expensive here. I am just hoping that the little 30 year old Renault will make it to the Mediterranean.

 Thank God I made it all the way up the Main with its 34 locks and unusual strong current. I did about 65 kms on Monday on the Main Dona Canal. This is a new experience. I went through 6 locks and some of them were as deep as 61 feet…. It is dark down in there. I had one tight call where I almost lost my hold on the boat lines and the bollard in the locks. The water comes cascading in there in the beginning and then it calms down again. From now on the locks will be even deeper, some of them, but they will have floating bollards. So then I can take a couple wraps on them and not hav e to continuously have to adjust them and move from one attachment point to the next. In the 61 feet height there were as many as 20 changes. So I did 6 of the 16 on this canal, yesterday. I have the added advantage that I can now keep up with the slower moving barges. I now do about 8 1/2 k.m. per hour without the nasty current. And the barges usually are scheduled right through without waiting and I can move right in behind them.

It rained all night and most of this morning and it still does not look good so this is a good day to travel into town. Last night I had a drink with Patrick a retired French Physics professor on his motor boat. They are on their way back to Bordeaux from a cruise to Vienna. His daughter Anne and her friend Greg accompanied him on this part of the voyage. Patrick was born in Hanoi. His grandmother was Vietnamese.

Besides my gate crashing, bicycle dumping and the usual arm and hand injuries in the locks I am also inflicted one again with an infection in the same right eye. The reinflammation of the usual dormant herpes virus. It makes it difficult to read and see in the distance because the eye is draining and it hurts. The last couple of times it went away without medication. I believe the last time was in Cebu in the Philippines.

The article in the Main Post can be found at : https://cometosea.us/albums/MainPost.pdf spread the word to the German readers. I have asked the Friese Courant for a similar copy of their recent article about my visit to de Lemmer.

I figure that I´ll be on the Danube by this weekend. Only 105 k.m. to go. And probably stay the weekend in Regensburg.

I have asked John to help me purchase a new lap top for me but I have not heard back. Any other volunteers? I just do not have the way any longer to write a lot of emails to others or to surf the internet for a replacement. I have an

address in Vienna where it can be sent.