Entering the Main from the Rhine is a bit like turning off a busy motorway onto a leisurely country road: There's no more hustle and bustle from your colleagues in the commercial shipping industry. Their wake and waves are correspondingly moderate.
But the natural conditions are also more moderate: the Main only has a weak current and hardly causes any problems for the skipper when manoeuvring.
All in all, sailing is much more relaxed than on the Rhine. However, those who find locks stressful will find it difficult to make friends with the Main. The chambers of the first seven boat locks Kostheim to Kleinostheim are at least 3. Fortunately, the inland waterway regulations do not stipulate that pleasure craft that are smaller than these dimensions must actually use the pleasure craft locks. With our 2. But after the first lock in the Kostheim boat lock, we are already fed up with this.
The chamber, which is littered with rubbish, moves upwards at a corrosively slow pace and we decide not to sample any more: From now on, we will only lock with commercial shipping. In other words, we can always a commercial vessel at any time.
Secondly, if that doesn't work out, the lock keeper can be notified in good time by radio that we're going upstream. If the entrance has already been cleared for the cargo ship ahead, the only thing you hear from the lock keeper is the friendly request "Then step on the gas a bit. A little later, we pass through the lock together. Praise for the lock keepers The friendliness of the lock keepers on the Main, especially when dealing with us pleasure boat skippers, deserves special praise!
