Sailing the Iron Gates

Photos

According to today's Daily Cruiser, we've got to sail 238 miles to get from Vidin (yesterday's port) and Belgrade (tomorrow's port). We passed the Iron Gates dam/lock 2 at about 3 am. It woke Clay. I missed it. I got us up a little after 6 am. What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was our hottest day and today we woke to black clouds, high winds and dropping temps. I was sorry I didn't bring any kind of sweater or jacket today, but they had lots of blankets available outside so I used that. We stayed outside on the outside deck in front of the lounge after breakfast for Iron Gates 1. It was a 2-lock set up. I believe Sebastian said each segment had an 18-meter rise. The lower was twice as long as the upper. We went in behind and pair of barges and then we pulled up beside their starboard side for the 2nd segment. The Danube was really rough with white caps and water sloshing over the top of the dam and the lock gates! We got run out of our spot behind a glass windbreak when water splashed over the bow and the glass windbreak! AmaCerto had a lunch BBQ on the sun deck planned but that was moved indoors when they had to put down everything on the sundeck.

About an hour past the dam, we passed the Tabula Trajan, the head of Decebalus and Mraconia monastery. Several of the things we passed even though ancient, had been moved to where we saw them before the completion of the dam otherwise they'd have been lost underwater. The head of Decebalus is contemporary though.

At 2:15 pm we are signed up in group 2 to visit the wheelhouse. Now we're back. Bob drove the boat. Not really, but the Captain caught him posing by the controls for a photo and was happy surprised. AmaCerto has no rudder by 360 degree propellers with side thrusters. While we were in the wheelhouse, Lepenski Vir came into view and we missed Sebastian's talk about it.

Today we learned about the Danube's Km markers which I don't remember from other sections of the river. The markers are on our starboard side (we are on port) and started at 0 at the mouth of the river at the Black Sea. We first heard about them today at 943 & 944 when we enter the 2nd gate of the Iron Gates power plant. I guess we didn't see them yesterday because they are on the other side. I don't know why we didn't remember them from previous sailings on the Danube.

We are free from now to approximately 6:15 when we pass the Golubac Fortress at the end of the Iron Gates stretch. Then a Chaine des Rotisseurs Dinner is served at 7 pm. I don't know exactly what that will be, but it doesn't sound good for me.

We expect an early morning tomorrow to enter Serbia. We are required to pick up our passports and go through a face-to-face entry process. We are reminded to pack our patience. We will enter (the all-important!) Schengen in Hungary where we evidently have to do the same procedure with less required patience again and for the last time. We will make certain we get our Schengen entry stamps in our passports! Anyway, we have 2 tours booked tomorrow, in Belgrade in the morning and in the Avala Mountain in the afternoon for a brandy tasting.

Photos