The river Main infos and river cruising experiences

[CastleCritic]

1 minute ago, greydog said:

I suppose ships can add water to ballast tanks to raise draft.  Any one know how much controlling ballast can change draft?  Curious 

I have a picture of that same ship docking in Mainz about 3 days prior with the draft marker at about 1.6M

 

the picture while I was waiting on her to tie up right after that bridge she's right below 2.0

[Canal archive]

Well they empty ballast and water tanks to float higher through shallow stretches so I suspect the opposite would apply.

[twototravel]

Our ship monarch Queen is docked in Wurtzburg unable to continue to Frankfurt. We are tied up next to an Avalon boat. We will be bussed to Frankfurt today for our tour then bussed back. The trip to the Frankfurt airport the following day will not be fun.

[notamermaid]

On 12/16/2023 at 6:04 AM, twototravel said:

Our ship monarch Queen is docked in Wurtzburg unable to continue to Frankfurt.

Sorry to read about the problems with your river cruise. Hope you had a relatively pleasant flight home.

 

The Main is really high, higher than it had been when you were there. The tributaries are flooding and filling the large river. The last four weeks at Würzburg:

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Much of the high level of the Rhine in the Middle Rhine valley is due to the Main having to take the water from its tributaries in really large amounts right now and discharging it into the Rhine when that river is already high from what had come in the past 48 hours from the Upper Rhine. The Lahn river near Koblenz which you can see coming from the right in the map is also high. The flooding in colours:

The red dot at Bamberg is the Upper Main which you cannot sail, you take the right fork when sailing upstream into the Main Danube Canal to get to Nuremberg.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

One can see the volume of water of the Main rushing through Würzburg right now. It is very high. In the menu you can choose the archived short videos of previous days. The difference becomes clear:

https://www.feratel.com/webcams/deutschland/wuerzburg-hotel-alter-kranen.html

 

The highest level for river traffic is 340cm:

 

The level now is 455cm.

 

notamermaid

 

[rcaruso]

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

One can see the volume of water of the Main rushing through Würzburg right now. It is very high. In the menu you can choose the archived short videos of previous days. The difference becomes clear:

https://www.feratel.com/webcams/deutschland/wuerzburg-hotel-alter-kranen.html

 

The highest level for river traffic is 340cm:

 

The level now is 455cm.

 

notamermaid

 

My friend sent pictures from Karlstadt yesterday.  I love the webcam from the Alter Kranen, that is our favorite hotel in Wurzburg, we stay there all the time.

[notamermaid]

A tanker got stuck on the weir at Mainz-Kostheim last night. That is the lock on the Main close to the confluence which has the ingenious design of a weir that allows ships to use it in flooding, i.e. when the river is high they can use it in addition to the lock. Do not ask me how that works... Something went wrong and the tanker got caught at a construction at the weir. River traffic was halted overnight: https://www.hessenschau.de/panorama/schiff-auf-main-verkeilt---schleuse-kostheim-bis-mittag-gesperrt--v1,schleuse-kostheim-gesperrt-100.html

River traffic is now flowing again.

 

Würzburg is still on level two flood warning, 421cm now, but going down well. It should get to level one during the evening.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Short respite for the Main. Its tributaries are rising again, the Tauber is flooding. The upper Main itself is also carrying a lot of water. This is the situation right now, left on the map is the confluence near Mainz:

Not all those dots near Worms and Forchheim are contributing to the Main river waters but you get the picture.

 

The problem: this water will get to the Rhine and cause major problems in the Rhine Gorge.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

Würzburg level is again far too high:

The traditional organized swim in the Main on Epiphany has had to be cancelled.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

The Main has "burst its banks" in Frankfurt. Includes photos from all over Hesse state:

https://www.hessenschau.de/panorama/hochwasser-in-hessen-main-in-frankfurt-ueber-ufer-getreten-v20,hochwasser-hessen-116.html

 

The colour map:

 

It means continued strain for the Middle Rhine valley levels.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

The situation on the Main has much improved now and the river is well returning to normal winter levels. Würzburg:

 

A quiet time on this river for river cruising, but busy with commercial traffic always.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The water levels are improving but now the next unfortunate incident has happened. At Mühlheim lock, that is between Frankfurt and Hanau, a barge had part of its anchor broken (cause unknown) and some of the steel was pushed through the hull into the ship, water leaked in. The ship needs to be made safe so that it can leave the lock and sail to the harbour of Hanau, this means repair work underneath the water line is necessary. A difficult task in near freezing conditions and with almost no visibility due to the flooding. The lock only has one chamber so river traffic needs to wait at this bottleneck. The authorities hope that the lock will be usable again tomorrow. In this German news video you can see three (!) river cruise ships waiting: https://www.hessenschau.de/tv-sendung/schiff-blockiert-mainschleuse-bei-muehlheim,video-192142.html

The stricken ship "Modena" is a Koppelverband, this means it is a barge with an attachment at the front. Towards the end of the video you can see how the parts are connected.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Looks like not an easy fix! I have so much appreciation for these guys, water-cold-dark and they get the job done fingers crossed it all works well. 🤔

[notamermaid]

Late this morning the regional online newspaper reported that the underwater repairs are going okay. But some work still needs to be done. The ship will now be towed to Aschaffenburg (the engine room got flooded). 30 ships are now waiting at the lock. The authorities do think that the lock will be usable again during the course of today.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The barge has been pulled to Aschaffenburg to a shipyard that can do the necessary repairs to the hull and the lock is free again.

 

notamermaid

 

[sjde]

I've been on the Main twice and thoroughly enjoyed it. Five years ago with Teeming (Nuremburg, Bamberg, Wurzberg, Wertheim, Miltenberg, Dusseldorf and I can't remember the others!), and last year with Viking on the Main and Mosel, starting in Prague, bussed to Nuremberg, then on to Bamberg, Wurzberg, Heidelberg, Mainz, Cochem, Bernkastel and Trier. That being said , I think of the rivers I've been on (also the Rhine, Danube and the Rhone), the Douro had the most spectacular scenery.

[notamermaid]

20 hours ago, sjde said:

I've been on the Main twice and thoroughly enjoyed it.

That is nice to read. They do say the Moselle and the Douro are similar but from what others have said and what I can tell from photos, the Douro does have the more spectacular scenery. What the Douro and the Main share is the fact that they both flow from East to West. The Main is quite a bit shorter and contrary to the Douro only flows through one country. Navigation on the Main for commercial traffic of note and river cruising is done on many more kilometres than on the Douro. Ships can also be much longer on the Main.

 

notamermaid

 

[sjde]

Why can ships be longer on the Main? Is it because the locks are longer? I think it generally costs more on the Douro because the ships are smaller and hold fewer passengers. 

If the Main is quite a bit shorter than the Douro, why/how is there traffic on many more kilometers? Or did you just mean there is more traffic?

[Canal archive]

Sorry Notamermaid, the Main was built to enable shipping comfortably between countries and rivers so the locks can accommodate the same size ships as can use the Rhine and Danube. The Douro and the Seine use different length locks this is how it was built. I’ve never been aware that the cost of the Douro per company is any more than other per person or metre, out with the calculator. Regardless a Douro cruise is worth every penny if only for the wonderful people of Portugal.

[notamermaid]

10 hours ago, sjde said:

Why can ships be longer on the Main? Is it because the locks are longer?

 

3 hours ago, Canal archive said:

The Douro and the Seine use different length locks this is how it was built.

Indeed. The Main river was turned into what we call a "Großschifffahrtsstraße", that is a waterway with design, depth and dimensions that are suitable for large barges and tankers. Large locks. That as a by-product enables river cruise ships to use the Main with ease. Apart from the low bridges that are a bit of a pain.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

16 hours ago, sjde said:

If the Main is quite a bit shorter than the Douro, why/how is there traffic on many more kilometers?

The Douro is 897km long but navigable for the ships of dimensions up to 83m and 11.4 metres only for 210km says German Wikipedia, other sources give it as 213km.

The Main is 527km long and navigable for 388km (a few kilometres more for very small vessels).

 

Both rivers have been altered to allow modern ships to sail but for whichever reason the Spanish authorities did not go for the lock and dam system to the extent that the Portuguese did.  The geography of the Douro means that it is fast-flowing in its middle section so that may have played a part, who knows. The Romans must have used the Douro for shipping (there is evidence of it) but over the centuries it seems that the wish was not there to constantly expand navigation and maintain it. There is a canal but it lost its importance and was closed down. The Main has always had that importance and with advancing technology was altered to become what it is today, a busy waterway in its own right and with the construction of the Main Danube Canal of vital importance if you want to cross Europe without setting foot on dry land/using lorries to bridge the gap. The idea that you could use the Main to get to the Danube via smaller rivers is 1,200 years old.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

6 hours ago, notamermaid said:

The Douro is 897km long but navigable for the ships of dimensions up to 83m and 11.4 metres only for 210km says German Wikipedia, other sources give it as 213km.

The Main is 527km long and navigable for 388km (a few kilometres more for very small vessels).

 

Both rivers have been altered to allow modern ships to sail but for whichever reason the Spanish authorities did not go for the lock and dam system to the extent that the Portuguese did.  The geography of the Douro means that it is fast-flowing in its middle section so that may have played a part, who knows. The Romans must have used the Douro for shipping (there is evidence of it) but over the centuries it seems that the wish was not there to constantly expand navigation and maintain it.

The Douro is very important to Portugal, because it was historically the only way to ship Port wine from the vineyards to the aging cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia.  Before it was tamed, it was a very dangerous river and the sailors risked their lives bringing the wine down to the sea.

 

In Spain it is called the Duero, and flows through the Ribera del Duero wine region – but since it flows away from the Spanish coast and cities they didn't use it for transportation.

 

The Douro [which, by the way, is pronounced 'dough-roo' against all my instincts!] valley is very narrow and twisty, so even with the taming lock system ships have to be kept short.  [I assume the locks are also shorter than in Germany, because they didn't need to be any bigger than the practical size of a ship.]

 

Here is an example of navigating a narrow, twisty part of the Douro:

 

 

[sjde]

Well, I'd been saying DOURO incorrectly because my computer now tells me it's 

  pronounced  DOOR-oh, or DOUGH-row

 

not DUE-row.

[Host Jazzbeau]

16 minutes ago, sjde said:

Well, I'd been saying DOURO incorrectly because my computer now tells me it's 

  pronounced  DOOR-oh, or DOUGH-row

 

not DUE-row.

I never heard any Portuguese person say DOOR-oh or DUE-row.  I did hear some say DOUGH-row, but most said DOUGH-roo.  [I think there are different pronunciations if you live in northern or southern Portugal, but since the Douro is in the north that is the version I adopted.]