8th august 2007 - ruse

the sun is back – at least for us. We hear that in parts of romania storms have washed away whole villages. The danube is brown and has risen 4cm. whole trees and lots of rubbish flows past us in the opposite direction. we reach ruse in the late afternoon. darinka, the amazing gadulka player is back on board with us. I have invited her to accompany us to linz. in the evening everyone swarms out, meeting a little later in the internet café. I remain on board and talk double dutch with darinka about the world and his wife.

we had great good fortune today too. this time it concerned our boatswain peter. during the preparation for the docking manoeuvre he went behind the ship in the motorboat in order to relay instructions to the captain by radio. at the same time a ship docked near by from the DDSG (Danube Steamboat Shipping Company), the "Linz", sailing under a German flag, using the same frequency and using the same language that our nautical personnel use, that is Hungarian, gave a radio signal "all clear". to make a long story short the boat was pressed against the helm of our barracks ship and was slashed as if with a sword. peter was able to save himself, pulling himself up onto the ship, before the dinghy was dragged gurgling into the depths from beneath his feet. we were able to rescue it later and thanks to a heap of polyester, it is even usable again.