Monday the boat will be lifted by the crane to be able to paint the parts that are now under the stanchions. Then Wednesday I am booked foor “Fleetwood” to be dunked in the Danube. The flexible coupling arrived today from Holland. I will be busy tomorrow getting it to fit, then the shaft needs to be shortened. I figure that with a little luck I’ll have the boat cleaned up and provisioned and leave Friday. If the weather cooperates and the coupling goes on without too much fuss then I will try and make a train trip to Calafat to see my old friends there on Saturday/Sunday.

I am still enjoying the Mulberries but now there is a new wild fruit crop growing along the roads. Wild plums. Lots of them. They make great plum brandy, I am told.

This morning the first sailboat passed by my river side spot. A blue hulled, about 32 foot. I could not distinguish the ensign. Most likely Germans. It makes me even more anxious to be on my way as well.

This evening there were two bicycle tourists here at the hotel where I do my internet business. An Englishman, Paddy Byrne (Irish father) and a Breton, Armel. His son is the librarian in Guilvinec, Bretagne, where my cruising friends Klaus and Florence Kroemer live, next to Loctudy where I made my first Continental European landfall, in July 2009.  The Frenchman had put a lot of miles on his bike. He left late May from Marseille, went up to Denmark, to Estonia, Lituania, Poland and down to this area, then he will continue tio Istanbul. Paddy is quite a character, he plays the harmonica well and guitar. The Coincidence is that both the Frenchman and the Brit are married to Dutch women… and know to speak some Dutch. Arlan’s wife from Maastricht, Paddy’s from Groningen. It takes a Dutch wife to know that they have nothing to fear from hanky panky on the road when their men ride a 150 plus k.m.’s a day.