The Circumnavigation of the South-Eastern Europe:
an emotionating trip on board of the sailing boat Palinuro 63 starts descending the Danube from Vienna to Constanţa

by Pietro Montalenti, M.Sc. ^[1]

article presented at the XV International Conference "Danube - River of Cooperation" (October 27 - 31 2004)

The trip, on board of Palinuro 63 a 37 feet sailing boat, took five weeks on the river, starting from Wien on April 5^th and ending the Danube part in, Constanþa on the beginning of May. During the navigation all the most important towns and places along the river were touched as far that a night stop was made approximately every 80 km. A daily book was written reporting the crew's comments on the navigation, including most of the themes that will be discussed during this year Danube conference, as least as we experienced them:

Problems of sailing assistance (for fuel and gas oil refuelling and for berthing) , problems of security, police locks and customs problems, navigation problems, environmental comments.

The trip was fully successful and we developed some ideas on how, with simple solutions most of the difficulties could be eased and a new kind of tourism could be started. Since Constanþa the trip continued on the Black Sea, Turkey, Greece, Malta and Italy, giving a strong sensation of continuity of countries historically connected since 3000 years before Christ.

Foreword

To start a trip from Talamone, a pleasant small Tuscan harbour in the Tyrrhenian Sea, crossing the Alps, reaching Vienna, in the heart of Middle Europe and then slowly descend the river with a ship through far and not-too-far lands was almost a need for the group of ancient navigators who organized this unusual journey. They were strongly interested to visit - in a continuum - most of the new european countries along their itinerary: countries geographically and historically connected since thousands of years, and now on the way of peacefully becoming a single organisation. This, in spite of wars and political events, occurred during the centuries, that have often been remixing, sometimes very hardly and abruptly, their relationship.

The Danube navigators, in particular, were a group of voyagers ranging from 50 to 83 years, having actively lived a large sample of the very complex recent european history. Each of the participants was eager to make himself acknowledged of how the New Europe would be looking, while its integration was proceeding. Descending the Danube (and returning back home through the Black Sea, the Dardanelles, the Aegean Sea, the Corinthian Strait and Gulf), on a strictly individual basis on a small sailing boat, was considered a good way to gather a personal opinion from direct observations, while enjoying a wonderful trip.

With the above interests in mind a group of old friends decided to travel through the country for four months, crossing (ten) borders, stopping in over 80 towns and villages (30 of which in the Danube) substantially willing to discover if, apart from the regional characteristics, Europe might be felt as a unique country in terms of rules, people understanding, police and papers controls and, in general, common behaviour of the people in the different regions. With some remarks so it was.

No cumbersome difficulty was found during all the navigation, even if many problems had to be solved during the trip. The "crew", despite of the advanced age, was indeed formed by skilled sailors, and by people with a good travelling experience, able to get rid by themselves from the most common "adversities".

Navigating the Danube was not particularly difficult, but it is still requiring a reasonable experience and is not yet open to mass tourism. At least until few changes will be made in the direction of giving to the common traveller the sensation of an easier and safer navigation.

The trip

The following map reports the complete journey of Palinuro 63, illustrating the routes followed along the "South Eastern circumnavigation of Europe". In this paper attention will however be concentrated on the Danube part of the trip, that is in theme with the present conference. The journey started on April 5th 2004 from the Marina Wien Resort. This starting place was decided because the Resort was offering a complete first class support (cranes, mechanical assistance, water, fuel berthing space) to the nautic traveller willing to start the Danube adventure. And we had no problems in putting the boat into the water after tying the mast on the deck, to be remounted in Constanţa. The choice to start the trip from Vienna was made either because of the existence of the Marina Resort facility and also following the appreciated suggestions of Mr Heikell, author of a very good guide of the river ( though an updating would be appreciated by the users). In his guide Heikell reports problems of water current speed, water level and berthing capacities that could affect traveling with a yacht like Palinuro 63 when trying to sail in the upper Danube. We also wanted to avoid to make the river descent too long, starting from a higher location. The season, weather wise, was perhaps a little too early, but the guarantee of having sufficient water level and the necessity to return to Italy with a reasonable weather brought to the choice of starting the trip in April, which, finally was not a wrong decision. We confirmed this position when, after few fights with mosquitoes in the lower part of the river, we imagined how could be a mosquito attack in july, where, yet in april, they were already so fierce.

Within the above decisions, with a crew of five people, the yacht Palinuro 63 (the name of the yacht recalls the famous Ulises's pilot and the italian location where the actual Pilot met his wife, half a century ago) after a careful preparation, started her 3700 miles trip, 1000 of which by river. Palinuro 63 is a Sun Odyssey 37 yacht from Jeanneau, with a maximum draught of 1.5 meters, less than 11 meters of lenght and up to 8 beds on board. The ship, propelled by a 40 Hp Volvo Penta diesel engine was able to make the whole trip at a mean water speed of 6 knots, without any single problem. During the 30 days of journey down the Danube she crossed Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, before sailing to Turkey, Greece and Malta and returning to Italy through Pantelleria. The trip, started under a light snow, just after Bratislava and finished in Talamone under the July burning sun. A good heating system was used until Greece, at the end of may, to keep our bones dry and warm.

It was a fantastic journey, as those of the nineteen's century classic travelling novels. Despite the invasion of the television and the world globalisation our near world is surprisingly rich of situations, human relations, unexpected news.

The following table shows briefly the Danube itinerary and stopovers.

At the end of the journey I would make only few marginal changes to the itinerary or to the schedule of a new trip. For anybody willing to feel the spirit of the different countries I undertake that the times and stopovers of our itinerary were almost optimal.

Navigating the Danube: positive feelings and experiences

I believe that plainly reporting the words of the ship's logbook, extracting those making reference to the purpose of this Congress, will be the best way to illustrate feelings and experiences lived during the Danube navigation. In the following some comments will underline which measures will mostly help to increase the individual tourism along the river, that, at least from the interest raised in Italy by our experience seems to be ready to take place.

Vienna April 5^th
Everything is damned desert, no boat is showing on the water, it rains and the stream runs between 6 to 8 knots, but we are all very excited. Marina Wien is not having the Danube navigation charts, but they kindly indicate to us a specialised library that might have them: Mr. Bern Wieser, Kienmayergasse 9, A 1140, Wien. Tel 985 51 66 is the owner, and he is so kind that, by telephone he agrees in bringing the charts just at our berthing place......
Unluckily all the documentation is only in german, so we add a german dictionary to our shopping list.

April 7^th (To Bratislava)
Wake up at 5.45. A quick look outside to see the river, the weather is better, the life starts to smile to us. The engine starts, batteries Ok, we go ! The stream is very strong, with the propeller at 1800 rpm we run at 12 knots, and the landscape precipitates, in few hours we get to the Freudenau lock, an impressive construction, a long dam on our left and the bulkheads on the right. On top is the control cabin. We call the Controller on channel 18, following the manual, he does not speak any foreign language, only German, "links, links links..." he repeats. We take the left way, good choice...........finally the front iron door of the lock opens and we are back in the river, eight meters lower and continuing the journey.....
........we reach Hainburg, delighting town where we shall stop for the papers control. After asking instructions by radio, channel 16, where a kind policeman answers in clear english, we easily find the police pontoon, moore, and quickly go through the controls. But is 6 o'clock and in the meanwhile the Slovakian control closes, there is no way to stop anywhere, we are therefore compelled to continue to Bratislava. And so we do, with the stream pushing us fast, suddenly Bratislava appears, in a sweet sunset light. Everybody is ready to land at the 1868 Km custom pontoon, just after the old bridge...., but the current turns very strong, perhaps 8 to 10 knots, Fernando tries to launch a rope, while somebody cries: "careful" the rope is lost in the water, and also the custom pontoon that passes through, no way of returning back, the stream is too strong for our boat and the mooring to customs too difficult.
Almost at night we finally enter and berth in the Bratislava Yacht Club (!), in a calm arm of the River.

April 8^th (Bratislava)
.......we wake up happily, the owners of the pontoon, Dodo and Elli, have been very friendly to us, yesterday, as soon as we arrived, they prepared a wonderful supper in their floating kitchen-restaurant and promised water refuelling, that is very important to us......But we are in a place abandoned by god and the humans, in the middle of an industrial zone where nobody shows up for kilometers. Luckily Dodo and Elli help us again and call by telephone a friend that makes taxi service, at 10 o'clock we can leave for the "Starè Mesto", faithful that Dodo will make good guard to our Palinuro 63............

April 9^th
The idea is to make a night stop in Komarno.
The river gets interesting, many villages and "Yacht clubs" every few kilometers, but they are too small to have the possibility to moore, they look mostly like fishermen sites than equipped places where to spend the night, or to berth........The landscape changes, the stream turns weaker while we slowly approach Budapest. Aquatic bird, herons follow the boat as we get to the huge dam of Gabcikovo: 17 meters of jump that makes you feel very little when you stop at its bottom, and care must be taken, as well as many floating obscure entities menace Palinuro's thin plastic skull.
Again, the lock Controller speaks only german and we have troubles in understanding some instructions, but finally, we are over....
From the guides we understood that Komarno was a pleasant place, but the arrival is terrible, in a paleo-industrial context we look for the custom's pontoon.
The scene of the fast stream repeats and we miss again the pontoon. We have to try three times before succeeding to dock, Fernando, just coming out from a heart attack, is red like a turkey, but the Slovakians are not interested in our passports, for some reasons we must make the custom on the othe side of the river: by the hungarian side........On the other side another usual mooring scene is repeated.........and when finally we find that the police station is closed..... we decide to leave this inhospitable place and, although is almost dark, to continue to Esztergom........

April 10^th
Wonderful warm morning, a guardian is taking care of Palinuro as we visit this magnificent town, make water, buy food, make some shopping..... It is one o' clock, we are ready to leave, the river is desert: Easter holidays. At Nagymaros the Danube splits : on the right side the Big Danube, on the left the Small......We take it, wonderful, the landscape is untouched.

April 11^th, Easter
Early wake up at the Budapest Yacht club, probably the club is more confortable in season, now is somehow frightening, only few people around with an inhospitable face......so we decide to leave somebody in guard while going to visit the town,.......there is no public authority to whom making reference for information........

April 12^th
Nice sleep, after filling the water tanks we leave and slowly observe Budapest passing through from the boat...., the downtown is however horrible...., old abandoned factories, cement sites, iron and steel shops....., industrial harbours..... Our guide indicates some "Yacht Club", but most of them are closed because of the "out of season" time and, in any case would be too little to receive our yacht. We reach the Dunaföldvár Club, in a nice farmer's town with many churches. Finally, in the early afternoon, we easily moore and jump down in this pleasant and neat town, having the chance of buying the first ice cream of the season, served in a nice confectioner's shop where a gentle waitress speaks fluent English . At five o clock we leave, looking for a quiet river's bent to rest. We enter slowly, the place in magic, we are navigating carefully when, all of a sudden, the engine stops abruptly ! Dead fishes emerge from the water! "Achtqwxzzzz....it is a fishing net! No sign was indicating its position transversally set in the river arm!". "And now?" "It is almost night! The temperature is no more than 4 to 6 °C! Nobody is around". Alvar, the younger undresses and, with the knife amidst the teeth jumps into the brown water to cut the net and clean the propeller: two, three, four times... and finally the engine restarts.., coughing with much rope still in the propeller but it runs..., the night comes bright, full of stars.

April 13^th
....It rains,the sky plunges into the water through a grey line....but the fruit trees are rose and white with flowers...........We will stop at Baja, the Danube Venice... is raining, raining and raining....

April 14^th
In the early morning we are out for refueling, the gas station is far away, no way to get water, and we can find no taxis, so we all descend with canisters to bring at least some oil, we are using much heating and we don't want to risk to remain dry...
At one o'clock we arrive to the Serbian border in Bezdan. The mooring pier is occupied by a passenger ship and it is necessary to dock in second row, which is again not so easy......... After three hours we have finally cleared with the documentation and we can proceed, in the meanwhile the fog comes out, just when we are mooring at the Apatin Club, in the middle of an open plain. The club looks totally abandoned, but just after ending with the mooring operations a guy with untrustworthy face comes out to offer porno material, while investigating how much money we had, how many cameras etc......... We retire in the boat, but during the night we see a rowing boat making rounds near to us.....there are no authorities around, not a telephone number, not a radio channel open........, so we decide to start the engine and to move out in the river, with the lights off.

April 15^th
Long navigation today, we must get to Vukovar and cross the bridges by night, otherwise it will be necessary to wait two more days since the boat bridge will open again.....And again we have problems with the language: we start to talk to the bridge Commander with a mixture of Serb-Anglo-German, until the pilot of a large boat, hearing the problems by radio, comes to help us.
And we make new friends on the river, after half an hour we are on board of Deniz, a bulgarian barge transporting agricultural hardware down the river, we exchange sliwovitza and grappa and italian food......At 10.00 pm we are towed by Deniz through the collapsed bridge.......

April 16^th
The sun wakes us up with warm rays...., after berthing just after Novi Sad's main bridge, we leave Walter in guard and we go exploring Novi Sad and Petrovaradin...............The attempt of making a water refilling goes lost and we decide to try to do the operation in Belgrade..........
At five pm we see the Belgrade Yacht Club pontoon, the water is very dirty, the rain of the last days has been bringing every floating possible item: animals, trees, gas tanks. Palinuro sails very carefully, avoiding any possible contact with the floating garbage. We finally approach a the pontoon, equipped with potable water hose and, perhaps, gasoil. A mature man calls us from the boat: "Aperitif, aperitiv, we are waiting for you....". The idea of a good drink makes everybody very happy : "Komm, Komm" they insist...... In the kitchen pontoon there are fires cooking:

• a giant pot with sauerkrauts, potatoes and pork meat,
• an entire lamb on the charcoal,
• a huge grill of salami and pork meat

• big bottles of beer,
• huge salad pots
• a whole tray of regional special cheese
• etc., etc., etc..

April 17^th
Wake up under the rain in the early morning. Our friend Dino is already on the pontoon-bar, he invites us to have breakfast with him. "Ok, but this time you shall be our guest!" But paying is not possible, the serbian hospitality does not allow it. "You will pay when we shall come to visit you in Italy, now is no way". And also for the early sunday supper we are guests of our new friends. At the end we all sing serbian and montenegro songs!

April 18^th
The barometer has lowered of 10 mm,.... the landscape changes as we approach Smederevo, roofs are less inclined, the austro-hungarian influence is slowly fading out. Water is clearly very high and many houses have the lower floor wet......, not helping to find the way to land. The descent continues in a sleepy way, on the water everything floats, driven by the current.... while we are at the anchor a non official fishing guard launch comes for a control, no way to understand each other, but everything is Ok. At Ostrovo the fumes of a steel shop are so dense that we hardly see more than 50 meters.......The wind reinforces, the mast, fixed over the boat starts to oscillate and we have to tighten the ropes under a tempest with a wind of over 35 knots. We are still faithful to end the day having a good beer when landing in Ram. But is not possible, there is no way to moore for the only dock is occupied by whistling ferries, so the anchor is given in the high water, and we have to remain in the boat. For two days, until the tempest is gone, because there is no way to disembark.

April 19^th
Early wake up, during the night the wind has been blowing strongly, barometer is low and we can see, in the middle of the river the white of the waves. There are only 20 km to Golubac, where we expect to find water and gas oil, we try an exit. Just after leaving the zone protected to the wind several waves cover us, and we decide at least to try to cross the river. The wind is 40 knots and the waves over two meters......... We finally get to the other side but the wind is still strong, then all of a sudden a hard shock with the keel on the river's bottom. Again nobody is around ...no telephone, no radio, no possibility to get any help.
"All the crew aft, starboard! engine backward!" After a long (to us) time the ship moves,and moves again, then slowly, slithering on the keel it comes out.......And we return to Ram, without being able to land for the second day.

Aprile 20^th
The barometer is still down, but the wind is lower, it is early in the morning, but we decide to leave immediately. We sail fast because the stream is strong, the ship enters now in a strict valley and we almost fly on the earth, then slowly everything returns normal and we land at Veliko Gradište, last custom in Serbia.
Veliko Gradište is a nice river town, partially dedicated to agriculture, partially touristic.
After filling tanks with distilled water and combustible we visit the town and make the necessary food shopping in a nice peasant market. Finally we walk to the police station for the inspection. A gentle policeman helps us in making all the passages ........ and we are able to reembark.
The idea is to stop at Golubac, but is just a hope. There are no possible moorings in Golubac and the wind is again getting stronger. So we continue until we reach the Porec opening, just few kilometers after the Tabula Traiana, and the archaeological site of Lepenski Vir (with the a village of 8000 years old), but there is no good anchorage and we must proceed until Donji Milanovac, Km 991. For the first time a nice landing place, with everything necessary to have a nice rest. "Stop the engine, we landed." Donji Milanovac is a very pleasant town, placed on a warm river bent, very nice for a relaxing walk.
Approaching to the big Ðerdap dam we are again with language problems, fortunately for a second time the pilot of a serbian ship comes in help of us inviting us to moore our ship along his side and cross together the first of the iron doors and the Romanian inspection.. After the second door the landscape is totally different, gentle hills drop slowly down in a large plain ......, also the sun is hotter, because now the elevation of the Balkan-Carpathian block closes the way to the cold.

April 22^nd
Wake up in a sunny morning.... many birds in the sky, fishermen working and occasionally otters crossing the river. We are very satisfied by our boat, she is practically perfect, kitchen and internal distribution are optimally calibrated, the engine exceptional, working up to 12-18 hours per day it also heats the water to wash ourselves, dishes, etc..
The Prahovo lock is left behind easily, we are already experts of the procedures and the number of words exchanged by radio is minimum.....We travel on the plain at the same level of the grass, almost passing trough the cows that are bathing into the water. We have just hoisted the bulgarian flag when the river police stops us for a control, they speak English, very professionally they quickly control the boat papers and kindly greet us. And we arrive at Vidin, another nice town on the river, the papers are done quickly in a cooperation and courtesy climate......At night the day ends in a good restaurant with abundant beer on the table.

April 23^rd
In the morning we divide, somebody stays on guard to the ship, and the others leave for a visit to the town and the surroundings..................During my guard shift I easily fill water and oil tanks and give a necessary cleaning to the boat. At the Internet café it is possible to send mails to friends and families...
The taxi driver (who does not speak anything but Bulgarian), contracted to make a visit to Belogradcik looks very suspicious, he is not acquainted with tourists and he does not understand why somebody would take a taxi only for tourism.

April 24^th
We leave satisfied of having accomplished most of the programmed duties: food purchasing, oil and water refilling, hot showers........Along the river banks carts of gypsies like those of the drawings of my childhood books......
At night a mosquito assault, we have to hermetically close the boat and use the heating system, that works by forcing the external air into the cabins through a heat exchanger, that works as a mosquito burner and filter.

April 25^th
Nikopol, where we stop in the early evening was having his nice fluvial station, but is now completely abandoned as ? of his original 6000 inhabitants have emigrated. On the heights an old roman fortress.

April 26^th
The night and the morning are cold, the river looks very wide because the plain is largely flooded..., an island is covered by birds, while clapping hands they all lift flying in the sky... At Km 560 the cold town of Svishtov appears. High smoking chimneys and huge coke hills show with barges waiting for charging and discharging operations. The Danube is mostly lived by his inhabitants as a huge industrial zone...: with fumes and pollution they go down heavily. But slowly we return to navigate among farms and islands. A nice lunch is spent anchored near to a green island, then we quickly arrive at Ruse. The yacht club is friendly, but somehow inadequate for 22 euros a night!
The river police station is brand new, and there is no problem in making the entrance papers.

April 27^th
Ruse is a touristic river town, with nice squares and old buildings, we enjoy visiting it. The ship Deniz, the barge that helped us to cross the Novi Sad bridges is moored to a pontoon, when we pay a visit to its crew we are friendly received as old companions. Ivan, the pilot, invites us at home, where he refills us with fantastic conserves made by his wife, the he comes to visit us, but he is too large for our boat!

April 28^th
Nice morning, but fatiguing. Dedicated to food, water and gasoil refilling, and to some small repairs. As soon as the main duties are finished we leave Bulgaria and proceed to the Romanian revisazia at Giurgiu, just on the opposite side of the river.... Here is where some unusual events occur. It is not possible to moore to the Police dock and we are sent to a pontoon just few meters ahead....We disembark to make the papers and when returning back we discover that we are moored on a private pontoon and that a fee must be payed before leaving (the conversation is not easy as it is held in Anglo-Franco-Italo-Romanian language). It surprises us the amount of the fee: 120 euros for approximately one hour of parking...... Great discussions, attempts to call the police...., we finally leave after paying with a bottle of italian wine. At twelve o'clock dejouner sur l'erbe that is, we lunch anchored at two meters from the riverside, just under a shadowy tree, eating a delicious plate prepared by Ivan's wife... At night we anchor at Km 399, yet breathing the marine water perfume.

April 29^th
A long day is waiting us: on a warm morning, in a full spring day we descend the river. At ten o clock, for the first time we miss the river signals and loose two hours navigating along small islands in a sort of immense lagoon. We pass through herds of sheep , herons flying and gypsies camps.....at 2.00 pm we are at the Cernavoda bridge, where we stop to pay an amazing transit tax to be allowed to reach Constanţa with the 70 kilometer desert channel... Again the Capitan of a ship comes in help of us to solve price and language problems ...
At nine o' clock, tied to the "Rovinia 17" tug we finally reach the last lock of our trip, before exiting to the sea. A last cognac is drunk during the warm salutations with the barge crew, while we feel happy and touched for the intense emotions that the river has been giving to us along these four weeks.

April 30^th
We wake up in the large Romanian river port, there is still some way to Constanţa as we stem to the "Tomis" touristic harbour. This is the only structured Marina in operation since Esztergom.
Here we find guardianship for the boat, mechanical and electrical service, water supply, toilets, a pleasant restaurant on the dock. An organisation prepared to give the usual necessary assistance to the yachts travelling. At the Tomis harbour everything is prepared to become the Black Sea Montecarlo. And we take advantage of it. The mast is lifted with the help of the necessary crane, the radio antenna installed on his top, navigation lights repaired, engine maintenance performed.
We feel happy and satisfied when we walk for a city tour, visiting its nice old styled Casino, hotels, museums and a magic skyline from the sea. The last operation, few days later, is to pass without problems through the police and customs, before leaving to to the Black Sea and Turkey, while starting our long return trip.

A dream: expanding the Danube tourism, helping others to enjoy it

The trip was wonderful, one emotion after the other, there was not even one boring moment. Every day brought a new experience. Part of our logbook has been published by the italian newspapers and, coming back to Talamone, we have been honoured by the escort of italian Marine Police and Coast Guard ships, underlying the interest of a large part of the public to the journey.
An editor is proposing to publish an "enriched copy" of the logbook.
This means that the Danube is alive in the heart of many potential voyagers and that tourism on it is ready to explode.
It would be egotistic to show a complete receipt on how to cultivate such explosion, but I think that many valid suggestions are already emerging from the journey's logbook. Let's try to summarise some of them, at least those that could more easily improve the tourist's confidence in repeating an adventure over this European historical river.

Contacts with the authorities
In several countries, mainly Serbia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria, the contact with the authorities (police, lock operators, fishing guards, etc.) is poor. Few public officers on the river speak a second language, mostly russian, and is very difficult to understand instructions, or to explain and answer to questions. The River Police and related administrations are not prepared to have contacts with "little" private yachts, and the communication with them is often very fatiguing. In addition it is a common belief that officers might be corrupted (in one case we even found an official sign at the entrance of the custom office announcing that officers could ask for tips), such conviction was made evident to us in no case, but the problem must be surveyed. The contacts with the public officers are anyway often fatiguing for tourists.

Navigation charts and rules The rules and the charts are very expensive and difficult to be found. In any case they are prepared for larger vessels and the information on clubs and anchoring and service places for smaller boats is often inexact or missing.

Security A network of references covering the various security exigences is missing. Only near to the police stations and locks control points it is possible to get a radio contact, elsewhere you feel like being in the jungle.

Assistance Mechanical or nautical assistance is totally absent. Even a minor problem can grow important when you have no reference on how to solve it. Disembarking in the uninhabited places is impossible. Even when landed there are often no ways to reach villages or towns.

Berthing places Over 1700 Km of river navigation we found only few places where to berth. Most of the places were not having any service, no water nor any system allowing a traveller to safely leave the boat at the pontoon, while disembarking.

Combustible, food supply, and Land Services Almost the same observations as for the berthing and assistance capacity apply.

"Danube" offer

Many of the visited places have already a minimal organisation to receive transit boats.
It seems not so difficult to imagine a tourist company trying to offer some minimum standardised services to the travellers, as it happens on many european touristic rivers: as the Rhine, the Rodano or on many of the French and European channels.
The service could start from the publication of a consistent guide, with telephones, Vhf stations and type of assistance offered and be extended to the creation of a net of small Marinas, able to give minimal services to a group of leisure boats travelling down the river.
I imagine, for example, an organisation able to guarantee berthing places every 100-120 km of river, possibly placed in the most touristic towns, with space for about 10 to 20 small ships.
Able to guarantee a 24 hours telephone service for security, assistance and information problems, and a service of safekeeping, so that the navigator could visit internal places and make the necessary shopping, confident that nothing would occur in his boat while he is out. It could be the start of intense travelling of the river by boat.
A service of boat renting could perhaps integrate the "Danube offer". As for the french channel system I believe that, while there will be only few yachts willing to make a complete tour, many travellers would be interested in having one or two weeks of boat renting along the river. They could be served as for the usual charter service, with or without skipper. Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro already have boats charter organisations on the Adriatic sea, no reason not to extend them on the river with appropriate boats.
Of course it must be understood that only the down river way can be sold, going upriver would be noisy and fatiguing, but perhaps many of the barges going river up could offer a boat return service for a reasonable price.
I do not want to enter too deep in the Danube dream, experts must just consider the positive experience that we are reporting and they will find the best way to develop the tourism. Should any of our experiences be of any help to them in increasing the navigability of the Danube for amateurs I will be happy in having contributed to something that looks to me important to help tourism in such a nice region and, perhaps, in tightening the mutual understanding capacity of the new European people.

[1] Founder and, untill 2004, manager of Tau Controllo Processi, company for development and application of Automation and Information Systems.
After going to retirement, dedicated to consulting activities and to his passion of navigating to hystorical places.
Author of publications on the themes of: Matematical Modelling, Operations Research, Automation and Industrial Information Systems.

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