Ep. 21: Maiden Voyage, solo Survival challenge on the Danube

Before starting work on the rigging, I decided to take my home-built sailing dinghy out on the water. Her very first sail took place on the wild Danube during the second week of September 2021, without water or food but with plenty of gear.
I have filtered and boiled river water for drinking and only ate fish once a day.
I could not find worms because the river banks were completely covered with sand so i had to chose the spinning gear and was very lucky that asp liked my lure.
The entire week I had strong headwind, making rowing really difficult. In order to get to the first extraction point I had to row ~12h per day or 20km. Evenings I was cooking fish for the next day.
The river was low and relatively clear. This unveiled many nice sand banks and made asp fishing possible.
The boat handled remarkably well! very stable, comfortable and managed the currents and waves pretty good. No leaks :)
The Dinghy is the Kingfisher 14 designed by Selway Fisher: www.selway-fis...

[@Za-CAMNEM]

Река.. Костёр ... Лодка.. Удочки.. Автору.. Милейший, Вы по настоящему счастливый человек, если в вашей жизни всё ещё сохраняется сама подобного рода возможность периодически лицезреть всё выше указанное..

[@MrSkeeter18]

Nice job on that boat.

[@MrWilko58]

Well done Captain. You must be very satisfied with your achievement. I'm looking forward to seeing her sailing. Thanks again for posting.

[@Nextbigdeal]

Amazing adventure and work well done. Looks super fun. Thanks for the videos and showing us.

[@onlycezar6056]

Felicitări! Foarte fain videoclipul, admir ceea ce faci și ține-o tot asa!👍

[@michielderuyter6011]

nice to see her perfom well and having the adventure

[@jean-philippeherel8485]

Nice video. Thanks

[@СергейТ-з5м]

Прекрасное видео. Отличная лодка! Спасибо капитан👍

[@CercaTrovaNow]

I like how you let the wind, water, and imagery do the talking.

[@BensWorkshop]

Looks like you had a relaxing trip.

[@nilosantos4862]

The Viking Capitain searching for vine

[@samgoldwise3233]

i would sugest getting some longer oars would make rowing and sculling a a lot a lot easier. i looked at the design and i would sugest 91 inches outboard of the boat in board 32 inches so in total 123 inches aka 10 feet 3 inches.i got this number from a oar length calculator depending on the beam of the boat. i know you probably will not use it but i thought i would coment it encase.

[@wulkie]

Thanks, appreciated!!

[@wernerpfeifer]

It would be interesting to find out where on the Danube that beautiful piece of land is located.

[@wulkie]

It is between Giurgiu and Calarasi towns, on the Romanian part of the Danube

[@wernerpfeifer]

@@wulkie Thank you for Info. Greetings from Styria.

[@wulkie]

Liebe Gruesse! 🙂

[@briangingerich7632]

Beautiful boat! Just curious why the ends of the oars are so narrow instead of wider blades like on a normal row boat?

[@wulkie]

These are traditional fishermen oars from Romania. Depending how deep you row, you can easily ballance effort vs. Speed and power. In most of the footage i am rowing at water surface

[@SmallSailboatCruising]

That’s a lot of rowing. I can see why you needed gloves. A really nice set of oats would increase your efficiency quite a lot. I’m looking forward to the rigging and sailing bit. What kind of rig are you considering?

[@wulkie]

Hi Chris, it is a gunter rig. You can have a look at it here facebook.com/100057285205105/posts/485811673338335/?app=fbl. I plan to test the sails this weekend

[@SmallSailboatCruising]

Perfect. My choice too on Moonlight.

[@onclebrfbrf]

Please who has designed this boat and what is the name of this design? Beautiful!

[@wulkie]

It is designed by Paul Fisher: www.selway-fisher.com/GPDinghyover13.htm#GFI

[@Jon2.2.0]

What kind of sunset was that? 🌅

[@peterjohnson6273]

Nice boat. What design is it?

[@wulkie]

Thank you! It is the Kingfisher 14 from Selway-fisher.com

[@olddog6658]

Hands on oars closer. 10cm or 4 in. better pull power.

[@pkinopk]

Do you have a video of making those oars?

[@wulkie]

Hi Paulo, no. I have bought them ready made. I just painted them

[@dont-want-no-wrench]

make yourself some better oars