Friday July 29. Danube done. Black Sea next.

Written by Jack van Ommen on July 29th, 2011

I tied up along the river board walk at 6 p.m. The wind was fairly strong against me the whole way. This branch of the Danube is fairly narrow and deep. Freighters passed only a couple boat widths from me. I saw quite a few more Storks, Egrets, a couple Hawks and even a few Crowned Plovers (Kiewiet) which I have never seen out side of Holland.  No white Pelicans. Many of the traditional houses have reed thatched roofs and bright painted walls.

Last night the proprietor of the “Republica”, George, showed me the engine room of this old steam paddle wheeler. It was built in Austria in 1887 and was captured by the Romanians at the beginning of the 1 st world war, in 1914. And it was then made into a navy frigate. The equipment was in great shape and immaculate. I show the pictures for some of my steam engine buff friends.

From Braila on the prices in the restaurants and bars are a lot dearer. In Zimnicea I paid 2 Lei ( 66 cents) for a draft beer and 3 Lei for a bottle. Here it is 5 or 6 Lei.

But I eat little in restaurants. I like my , noodles and stir fry, which just is not served here. There was one Chinese restaurant in Galati. But I have noty seen an Asian person since the few Koreans and Chinese that stayed at the hotel in Zimnicea. Turkey will probably not have much of an Asian presence either.

I plan leave tomorrow for Constanza the Main Romanian sea port on the Black Sea and a city which was an important port in the Greek and Roman times.. The wind is from the right direction NNE and about 11 knots. It is  about 80 nautical miles or about 20 to 24 hour sail. I will not get much sleep during the night because I am close to the coast. I’ll do my best to get a good night sleep this night. Just like the Europeans used to drive like idiots on the Autobahn, after they bought their first car, so do the Romanians drive their new power boats. I had often wondered why I even bothered in the “Our Father” with and “forgive those who trespass against us” because I could not think of any one. But here I have a couple Romanian stink potters to forgive and the Cruise Boat captains. They throw huge wakes. There ought to be a law that they have rear few mirrors and record the havoc they create along the shore line and in the Danube locks.

 

 

 

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