Max here. Enjoying lazy cruising days travelling with the strong current downstream on the River Danube. It’s fun to watch the huge cruise ships battling their way upstream. We are surprised how many there are and how few people they have onboard. Our anxiety levels only rise when we have to enter a marina to stay overnight, because then it’s our turn to fight the current. Sans Peur is 14 metres, which is not big by yachting standards, but these marinas are really designed to cater for the typical 5 metre power boats so popular here, so we feel huge by comparison and often wonder, “How will we ever fit through that narrow entrance, and how will we find a berth big enough…..and the scariest question, how will we get out tomorrow?” But we have FRED, our Super Skipper, who lives up to this boat’s name…."without fear”. He stands at the wheel and boldly directs his faithful crew, Grete and Max to scramble around the deck, positioning the fenders (which, by the way, we never seem to get quite how he wants them). But he will tell you, his best crew member is the bow thruster…..a propeller in the bow, driven by a powerful electric motor and controlled by a small joystick on the wheel console. I think it would be an easy decision for Fred if he had to choose between his faithful crew and his beloved bow thruster. No contest.

So today we are staying two nights because it’s such a nice town. We’ve been out exploring on the bicycles and shopping at the local market. Everything is so fresh and so cheap ( to us at least )….about 2euros (approx.A$3) for a kilo of beautiful strawberries! We have been eating out most nights because it’s so inexpensive and nice food and local wines. Fred and Grete tell me that as we travel further East, there will be less opportunities to dine out and we will do plenty of cooking for ourselves then. Also, the owners of these small marinas are so friendly and welcoming, we feel obliged to eat at their restaurant when there is one. The freezer on Sans Peur is well stocked for the coming weeks and the bilge is full of wine, beer and gin….all the essentials of life. I think I have put on about 5 kilos already.