We’ve made it to Constanta- in tact. We need to say thank you to many people, without whom this project wouldn’t have got off the ground. Some who deserve special thanks are: Mike Whipp for donating such a solid Manx ocean rowing boat; all of our new friends at Ulm Rowing club (especially Jörg for his master canal logistics throughout, […]

Day 2 at sea: the pelicans dried up and were first replaced by (mostly nudist!) holidaying Romanians. Now we’re back in relative civilisation anchored in a bay just 15km from Constanta Port within earshot of beach parties. Last night on the boat!

We’ve made it to the end of the Danube Delta. After a couple of hard days, it was a big relief to finally see the river end and the Black Sea begin. However, the fat lady hasn’t quite sung. We’ve still got to get ourselves and Fight &Spirit safely to Constanta. Given current pace, we hope to finish off on […]

We have continued to make good progress on from Bulgaria but have been delayed a little in Romania due to the high winds. Before entering the Black Sea, the Danube snakes north up through Bralia and Galatia (below) before heading east through the delta. When the river headed north, we faced the strongest winds we have had so far on […]

We’ve made it into Romanian territory proper. We’re yet to check in: that’ll happen in Cernovoda tomorrow. Just 360km of Danube remain between us and the Black Sea (NB we shan’t be taking the Danube-Black Sea Canal) short cut to Constanta. We’ve covered 1860km in 19 days since leaving flood ridden Passau in Germany.

The countdown to the Black Sea is on: 558km remain until we get salt water. Then we must row ~130km south to Constanta, to hand over the boat to her new crew. It’s noticeably less built up along the river bank with long, long stretches of tree lined banks. The river’s wide enough that much of the time feels like […]

Eventful day. We had to linger in Vidin to get our passports stamped and boat papers checked before being told strictly to only stop on the Bulgarian side. Then rain all day and by nightfall we couldn’t find anywhere to tie up. The only option was one of the massive freight ships that was moored on the Romanian bank. We […]

We’ve just gone through our final lock! After all the flood/lock related disasters it’s a massive relief. Iron Gates 2 also had by far the jolliest Kapitan who let us through in splendid isolation and chatted about the Falkirk Wheel and Scottish waterways! Now for Bulgaria. We have ~860km of river left, ~ 150km of sea, and 11 days to […]

Up early again and we were rewarded with an unpleasant slog into a strong headwind. We at last arrived at the first of the two Iron Gates and, amazingly, were met with two green lights and went straight on through. This is a massive double lock. After all our previous lock trouble, it was great to knock this one off. […]

After leaving Red Star RC, we planned to do another late night rowing session. However, a massive and spectacular lighting storm forced a change if plan. Oars being great conductors of electricity, we bolted for the shore and found a place to tie up. Thunder was deafening and caused boat to vibrate. Today, up at 4:30am and did a long […]