We write the text for our website in English. The multiple language selection feature is an auto-translation by Google. This translation is not perfect; it sometimes uses peculiar words and even expresses things in a very different way than what we actually meant. So, if you’re reading in a language other than English, and you read something strange, switch back to the English version to read what we actually meant to write!
If you’d like a shorter/summarized version of our posts, read only the “Highlights” section below and stop before “The Captain’s Log“, which is much more detailed, more like a logbook / diary and contains information for our reference as well.
Highlights – the overview
After a long (12 hours) and very quiet night of sleep, the first thing we have to do is check in at the marina office and the police office. We pay a small fee which allows us to use the dinghy dock and park our scooters by the office. After the formalities at the office building we sit down at the marina cafe for a Portuguese treat, Pastel de Nata! 😋😋
When we return to Dione IV, it’s mid day and so the sun is at its highest point. That illuminates the white sandy sea bed and the turquoise water. The color of the water exactly matches Dione IV’s hull! 🤩
We take the scooters ashore. Who dares to go first? Thelma or Louise? The girls decide that Thelma is the bravest 😄, so there she goes!
We were having trouble connecting with our SSB and couldn’t download weather while on passage. Now we need to see what’s wrong. While Wim is troubleshooting the shortwave radio, Sher took out her Pfaff and does a sewing project. Later… Let’s try a local beer. Not bad! 🍺
Checking shortwave reception. This is Shannon, Ireland. If we can receive this then we should be able to receive the SailMail station in Belgium???
Meanwhile, Sher has finished her new top! 🤩
We’re making Ottolenghi’s stuffed courgette (zucchini) recipe. These courgettes are huge! Almost as long as your lower arm! An important ingredient for this recipe is fresh oregano. Often very hard to find. But here we found great looking and very tasty fresh oregano!
All fruits and vegetables are great here. Some things come from Madeira and the Canary islands, lot’s of things come from the Azores. Everything grows in the sun and you can see that and you can taste that!
A tanker comes into the little port. It brings HFO (Heavy Fuel Oil) for the island’s power station. The power station is on the shore next to the anchorage. We can hear the pounding of the 4 huge engines and when the winds blows from that direction (luckily very rarely) we can smell the heavy sulfur from the exhausts.
Back to the radio…. We wrote an email to SailMail tech support summing up a long list of everything we checked and tested… We’re running out of ideas. Today, in the early evening we receive their reply:
Wim & Sher,
We’re sorry to report that the Belgium Station, OSY, is no longer in service. With the advent of Starlink, most cruisers are switching to that for their communications needs. Our goal is to keep SailMail running for as long as we can with fewer members and land stations, but at some point in the near future we will not be able to sustain the system.
You mention that you have tried connecting with the Trinidad station. That station is blocked by a high mountain to the East, so it will not work for you. Have you tried connecting with the Rock Hill station?
Thank you for being a long time member of SailMail and we wish we had better news.
Best,
Sue Corenman
We are shocked! The station we have been trying to call all this time doesn’t exist any more! 😱😱 After sunset, Wim tries to call Rock Hill, South Carolina, USA. It connects! This is great news. There’s nothing wrong with our radio system!🥳
There’s the GRIB! 🥳🥳🥳
Sher is starting to make new covers for the small cockpit cushions. First, she tests the fabric. Since it is lightweight, she uses the Pfaff instead of the Sailrite.
Every day at 1030h the ferry from Madeira comes in and every day at 2000h it departs. We sit in the cockpit and hear her engines start at 1945h. We can hear the heavy pounding of the huge pistons of her 2 big engines and seconds later she blows out 2 clouds of black smoke. There she goes, to Funchal, Madeira. See you tomorrow, Lobo Marinho (sea lion).
There’s a very light breeze and it swirls behind the mountain next to the port. Making all boats swirl around their anchor and everybody is moving in different directions, circling around their anchors. All boats are anchored pretty close to each other and as long as there’s wind and everybody points in the same direction there’s no problem. But in this circumstance every boat should have room to circle around its anchor, a circle with a radius of the length of the anchor chain. But there’s no room for that, here. Too many boats.
The French boat next to us almost hits us! With just a few inches left Wim quickly starts the engine and pushes Dione IV away from him! It’s clear that we have to find another spot. But where?? It’s completely full here… We decide to go outside the port and anchor in front of the beach. There are about 10 other boats anchored here and there’s plenty of room. There’s some swell and at night we roll a bit. But not too bad. The water is extremely clear. We can see our anchor chain lying on the white sand bottom at 6m of depth.
There are always things to do on board… some think we are retired, but the fact is that we are both employed full time on Dione IV. Wim works on a few little projects while Sher sews the “test cushion” before starting on the final ones.
In Cadiz we filled our water tanks before we left. That’s exactly 2 weeks ago. Now, the middle tank is empty. Although we still have 3/4 of the Port tank and a full SB tank, we decide that it’s time to make our own water. We’ve installed the water maker last December in Portimao, but we haven’t commissioned it yet. The sea water is very clean here and we will need to make our own water more and more, while we are at these dry islands.
So let’s kick it off! First fill the entire system with sea water. The water maker is self priming but pumping air goes slowly. It takes about half an hour before the system is filled.
It’s running, but there’s no fresh water output. Hm. There are still air bubbles in the supply hose. And as long it has air in the high pressure pump it can’t reach the pressure needed to push water trough the membrane. While Sher has gone ashore for some provisioning, Wim lets it run for another hour. But no water at the output… Still air bubbles… Wim needs to go to the toilet and while he’s in the bathroom he hears air hissing. The breather in the sea water pipe! The water maker is sucking air in! He closes the toilet’s sea water valve and after another 15 minutes the air bubbles are gone!
Another 15 minutes later the first drops appear! It sounds a lot louder in this video than it really is. It’s actually very silent! We can hardly hear it. That was an important criteria when we were deciding which one to buy, last year. It is installed under the floor and when it’s closed up, you can barely hear it at all.
Wim calculates output… 6L/hour. That’s exactly according the specifications. He tests the water quality… TDS = 175 (Total Disolved Substances).
If it’s under 50 ppm, it’s too pure and lacks vital minerals. It can taste flat or bland.
Between 50–150 ppm is excellent, crisp, and clean mineral balance.
From 150–300 ppm, it’s good and very common for tap and natural spring waters.
300–500 ppm is acceptable, but may start having a noticeable or slightly salty/bitter taste.
Above 500 ppm: Poor quality.
He tests salt and Ph values… all good. After running 2 hours the TDS has dropped to 129 and doing some more test during the afternoon it stays around 130.
👍🏻👍🏻
We can easily run the water maker as long as we want. It takes about 5A but we have plenty of solar power! We need to run it at least once every three days unless we back fill or pickle it.
From now on, we will run the water maker every day for about 5 hours (=30L). Let’s see if we can fill our Mid tank. That should take about 10 days. If we use water in an economic way (not crazy sparingly but also not spilling any water and not using the washing machine) we use one tank per 2 weeks. So, running the water maker 5 hours per day should keep up with that.
In the evening, we’re invited for drinks & tapas on the Canadian catamaran “Stray Kitty”. Chris & Christine are very experienced cruisers and wonderful hosts. They have had 20 boats! Now, they have a Vietnam-built all-electric cat. We bring our bottle of Mar7 vermouth and they provide ice and orange slices… delicious!
We have a lovely evening with lot’s of interesting conversations, great food and great drinks!
And a (partial) view on our girl.
Wim spends a big part of the day under water and Sher behind her Pfaff.
Almost all of the green stuff is brushed off the hull now. What’s left are these thin white chalky roots that stick on the CopperCoat. Wim scrapes them off with a scraper with a plastic blade.
The water maker makes a ticking noise. We’re not sure whether that’s normal or not. We decide to disassemble the drive unit to check if there’s some play in a bearing or in the piston rod or so.
But everything seems to be fine. Perhaps the ticking is caused by the pressure valve. We suppose that’s normal.
In the afternoon, same story: Wim diving and scrubbing the hull, Sher sewing 🙂🙂
A while ago we bought a waterproof case for a smartphone to make underwater shots. But we were very hesitant to put our expensive phones in it and dive…
But Wim has idea: use his old phone. It has a green line in the display but for the rest it’s working fine. And you won’t see the green line in the video.
So, let’s try! If it leaks water it’s no drama for the old phone.
It’s a test video and of course Wim can’t work while filming but the phone stays perfectly dry! After that, Wim continues another hour scrubbing and scraping. Making progress! Dione IV’s
Today, there’s a solar eclipse and an eclipse party has been arranged at a viewpoint on a hill. We take our scooters and drive up to the viewpoint. It’s a 7km drive.
It’s a lovely ride along the coast through the long linear town. The last 2km is uphill and Thelma & Louise don’t have enough power for that. So, we put the girls in 5km/h cruise control so that they drive themselves and we walk. It’s pretty warm but there’s a light breeze. But we’re sweating a lot 😅
Now, which viewpoint shoulde we go??
While we’re looking on Google Maps a taxi van passes. All the other cruisers are in it 😄. So we follow the taxi.
We’re still walking uphill.
We take a rest.
The view over the bay is gorgeous! At 1815h we get to the viewpoint.
A group of about 20 cruisers is there and everybody brought food and drinks.
The views are stunning!
Everybody waiting for the moment…
Thelma & Louise don’t seem very interested 😄. They’re waiting for the nice downhill ride!
At 1915, the moons begins to cover the sun.
Somebody has brought his binoculars to make a projection of the eclipse.
We have about 90% coverage. It doesn’t get dark at all. We notice the light a bit grey-ish instead of orange but that’s all.
Sher is watching it. Fascinating!
It’s over. What a nice happening!
We have smooth scooter ride back to the marina and dinghy back to Dione IV.
Just before dark we arrive on board and we have a nice shower with the new fresh water from our water maker. It has the same soft and smooth feeling as showering with rain water: there’s no chalk and no chlorine in this water!
And after viewing an episode of the series “Prison Break”, another day in paradise ends 😊😊. “Paradise” may seem a big word but we really feel like that. We’re thankful for every day we live this cruising life and don’t take a single day for granted!
We’ve been here two weeks and knew immediately that we didn’t want to rush away from here. Not only that, but we are rethinking our “ideas/plans” and may well delay our Atlantic Ocean crossing for a year. That way, we can spend more time here, in Madeira, and in the Canary Islands, then in spring sail up to the Azores and then back again. You know what they say about cruiser’s sailing plans??… they are written in the sand at low tide, meaning they change all the time!
The Captain’s Log – the complete story
August 2.
After a long (12 hours) and very quiet night of sleep, the first thing we have to do is check in at the marina office and the police office. The marina requests a small fee to be anchored here: 6 euro/day. We think that is fair. It’s a protected anchorage (protected from the swell by the surrounding wall), we can safely leave our dinghy at the dinghy dock in the marina and we can park our scooters at the marina office. We’re also allowed to use their showers and toilets but of course, we don’t need that. And we can take fresh water. But the rumors are that the quality of the tap water isn’t great. So, we inflate the dinghy and go ashore.
After the formalities at the office building we sit down at the marina cafe for a Portuguese treat, Pastel de Nata! 😋😋
View over the bay:
When we return to Dione IV, it’s mid day and so the sun is at its highest point. That illuminates the white sandy sea bed and the turquoise water. The color of the water exactly matches Dione IV’s hull! 🤩
August 3.
We take the scooters ashore. Who dares to go first? Thelma or Louise? The girls decide that Thelma is the bravest 😄, so there she goes!
Sea scooter!
After Thelma has reached the shore safe and dry, Louise sails over!
The girls are ready to explore the island!
Well, Thelma hesitates… her throttle is a bit wonky. Wim already noticed that sometimes in Cadiz but now it results in an Error #3. Well, after moving it up and down a couple of times it works again.
We drive to a great Pingo Doce supermarket and do some provisioning.
August 4.
While Wim is troubleshooting the shortwave radio, Sher took out her Pfaff and does a sewing project.
Wim is checking the entire radio system, all cables, all devices, all software, all settings, communicating with Gösta, a sailing friend who is a real specialist in these things, communicating with his brother in law who is a radio amateur, but we can’t find anything that is wrong…
Checking and adjusting the transmitter’s output power, checking the SWR, double checking the SailMail frequencies, trying transmissions after sunset, but no result…Not connecting to SailMail 😕
Let’s try a local beer. Not bad! 🍺
August 5.
Checking shortwave reception. This is Shannon, Ireland. If we can receive this then we should be able to receive the SailMail station in Belgium???
Meanwhile, Sher has finished her new top! 🤩
Making Ottolenghi’s stuffed courgettes. These courgettes are huge! Almost as long as your lower arm!
All fruits and vegetables are great here. Some things come from Madeira and the Canary islands, lot’s of things come from the Azores. Everything grows in the sun and you can see that and you can taste that!
An important ingredient for this recipe is fresh oregano. Often very hard to find. But here we found great looking and very tasty fresh oregano!
It comes with little flowers.
The end result is super delicious!! 😋😋
A tanker comes into the little port. It brings HFO (Heavy Fuel Oil) for the island’s power station. The power station is on the shore next to the anchorage. We can hear the pounding of the 4 huge 2,3MW Wärtsilä engines and when the winds blows from that direction (luckily very rarely) we can smell the heavy sulfur from the exhausts.
We wrote an email to SailMail tech support. Summing up a long list of everything we checked and tested. We’re running out of ideas.
Dear SailMail,
We have an Icom IC-M804, AT-141, SCS P4 Dragon installed on our boat. All equipment was bought and installed in 2022 and has been working flawlessly since then.
Based in the Netherlands that time, we have been using SailMail during summer trips to Scandinavia, UK, France and British Channel Islands. Mostly, we used OSY in Belgium, sometimes XJN714 in Nova Scotia. In 2024 we have left the Netherlands and sailed along the French and Spanish coast. Because the coastal routes we didn’t really need SailMail because we had good internet connection for our weather forecasts but occasionally we tested the SSB system. Arriving at the Spanish south coast we noticed difficulties in obtaining a connection with OSY. But after trying multiple times at various times of day or night, we established a connection.
A week ago we left the the Spanish south coast and sailed a 5 day passage to the island of Porto Santo (near Madeira). During the whole passage we didn’t manage to establish a connection with a SailMail station (we tried Belgium, Nova Scotia and Trinidad at various times during day and night). We tried to switch off all equipment on board (as much as possible).
On our arrival at the island of Porto Santo we started trying to figure out was is wrong.
We’ve checked all hardware and cables. Everything seems to be okay, behaving normal, and nothing was changed since our last connection with OSY last July.
We’ve checked all cables to the antenna tuner and to the backstay. The AT-141 seems to be working, we hear it making clicking sounds when we change frequency and transmit.
Batteries (Lithium) were full or almost full at all times. The Icom draws 20-30A at 13,6v during transmitting.
We’ve checked the Icom’s settings. They are all according your document “Using the Icom M803 with Sailmail”.
We’ve checked the settings in the Pactor modem. Everything is as it was before (we’ve made screenshots of every tab during the installation of the system). Screenshot of current settings attached.
We’ve checked the SWR. On all 4 OSY frequencies it’s between 1:1,1 and 1:1,2. When we measure the output power we see values between around 900W with the Pactor transmits a burst . Of course, that’s impossible. We suspect the SWR/Power meter (a Zetagi HP500) is wrong. But when we decrease FSK and PSK values to around 250 and 400 we see an output power of 60 Watts.
We checked the reception. On 8422kHz we hear a loud and very clear morse signal. It looks like random characters with lots of “T”.
Can you please advise what else we can do or check or change?
Best regards,
Wim & Sher
SY Dione IV
Today, in the early evening we receive their reply:
Wim & Sher,
We’re sorry to report that the Belgium Station, OSY, is no longer in service. With the advent of Starlink, most cruisers are switching to that for their communications needs. Our goal is to keep SailMail running for as long as we can with fewer members and land stations, but at some point in the near future we will not be able to sustain the system.
You mention that you have tried connecting with the Trinidad station. That station is blocked by a high mountain to the East, so it will not work for you. Have you tried connecting with the Rock Hill station?
Thank you for being a long time member of SailMail and we wish we had better news.
Best,
Sue Corenman
We are shocked! The station we have been trying to call all this time doesn’t exist any more! 😱😱
Anyway, after sunset Wim tries to call Rock Hill, South Carolina, USA. It connects! 🥳 It’s a slow data connection (only 2 bytes/sec) but it’s stable. We request a GRIB file for the next 5 days and we receive the file! This is great news. There’s nothing wrong with our radio system!
There’s the GRIB!
August 6.
We write an email to SailMail:
Dear Sue,
Thank you for your reply. It’s shocking and astonishing!
Why weren’t we informed that OSY is no longer in service? Our last contact with OSY was June 6 2026 at our anchorage near Puerto Sherry (El Puerto de Santa Maria) in Spain. We had no clue it was shut down after that and started our 540NM passage to Porto Santo in full confidence that we could download our GRIB files from OSY.
We even downloaded the most recent station information from stations@saildocs.com into Airmail yesterday and OSY is still on the list!
Thank you for pointing out Rock Hill. We hadn’t thought of that because the propagation reliability is very poor in our area (Madeira). But we tried yesterday after sunset and we were connected! On 2 frequencies: 18618 and 18630kHz. The data connection was very slow but reliable. Probably degraded by the fact that we’re anchored East of Porto Santo with it’s mountains (peaks up to 500m) blocking the West. But anyhow, after days and days of troubleshooting and testing our SSB installation (and not finding anything wrong), we’re very happy to know that the installation is fine and we’re able to make a long range call (3500NM).
What we don’t understand is that you mention the advent of Starlink as a reason for downgrading SailMail. Starlink is something very, very different from shortwave communications! Perhaps even the opposite of shortwave! Starlink is in the hands of 1 man, the richest man in the world. As we all know, the ultra rich want to control the world. Taking over all internet communications is a very clever way to start that. That is a very dangerous development. What’s even more dangerous is that this man is extremely fickle. If he overdoses on ketamine he might decide to push the button. All those cruisers in the middle of the ocean would be lost…
Shortwave communication (for private use) on the other hand is controlled by no one. Totally independent of everything and everyone. Operated by individuals and enthusiasts. It is the ultimate freedom. Nobody can switch it off. No government can restrict or control it (well, except for requiring a radio operator license, which totally makes sense. Else, any dumb fool would start polluting the frequency bands). But no digital ID to track you, no age restrictions, no censoring, no limitations. And when the shit really hits the fan we’ll be the only ones being able to keep communicating (especially the cruisers, with their self sustaining systems).
So we urge you, please continue your commitment to SailMail like you’ve done so excellent over so many years! In return, we’ll help covering the costs of that by paying our yearly contribution (even if you would have to raise the rate) and bringing SailMail (and shortwave communication in general) to other people’s attention (also as a backup for their satellite system). We think many people don’t know that SailMail is in trouble. Maybe you’ll have to consider to send out an email to your members and see how they can support the existence of SailMail? Please let us know if we can do anything to be of help. Sher is a very experienced marketing girl…(from the US).
We think we need a SailMail station in Europe. What does it take to create a station? Can it be done by an amateur radio station?
Best regards,
Wim & Sher
Sher is starting to make new covers for the small cockpit cushions. First, she tests the fabric. Since it is lightweight, she uses the Pfaff instead of the Sailrite.
Every day at 1030h the ferry from Madeira comes in and every day at 2000h it departs.
We sit in the cockpit and hear her engines start at 1945h. We can hear the heavy pounding of the huge pistons of her 2x 10.000hp Caterpillar engines and seconds later she blows out 2 clouds of black smoke.
There she goes, to Funchal, Madeira. See you tomorrow, Lobo Marinho (sea lion).
There’s a very light breeze and it swirls behind the mountain next to the port. Making all boats swirl around their anchor and everybody is moving in different directions, circling around their anchors. All boats are anchored pretty close to each other and as long as there’s wind and everybody points in the same direction there’s no problem. But in this circumstance every boat should have room to circle around its anchor, a circle with a radius of the length of the anchor chain. But there’s no room for that, here. Too many boats.
The French boat next to us almost hits us! With just a few inches left Wim quickly starts the engine and pushes Dione IV away from him! It’s clear that we have to find another spot. But where?? It’s completely full here… We decide to go outside the port and anchor in front of the beach. There are about 10 other boats anchored here and there’s plenty of room. There’s some swell and at night we roll a bit. But not too bad.
August 7.
It’s a lovely spot!
The water is extremely clear. We can see our anchor chain lying on the white sand bottom at 6m of depth.
Wim takes a morning dive. The water temperature is 25ºC, just perfect.
Sher spends the day with here sewing projects and Wim does some hull cleaning with the electric scrubber. He notices some green weed deeper down on the hull. It will take a dive to clean that. But today, he does the cleaning at arm length while swimming.
August 8.
A beautiful sunrise. At 8 o’clock, the sun rises over the mountains.
After breakfast we investigate a little problem: starting the engine with the ignition key switch at the instrument pod in the cockpit sometimes doesn’t work. We’ve had this problem before and that time Wim added a relay near the ignition switch in the decksalon. While Sher operates the key switch in the cockpit, Wim listens at the relay in the cockpit. It ticks, so is should be engaging the starter. But sometimes is doesn’t… Hm. Bad relay contacts? Wim replaces the relay by a new one but without result. Every once in a while the starter doesn’t engage when operated in the cockpit. While it works flawless when operated in the decksalon. Funny. This needs some more thinking… 🤔
A container ship comes in. 2 tugboats accompany it, from Funchal push and pull the ship into the little port and exchange about 30 containers with a lift truck.
A tiny little job: this little hatch provides access to the diesel tubes at the day tank. Although this hatch is here for over 10 years, Wim never put screws in it to hold it in place. It was held in place by the backrest cushion of the decksalon couch. But during our passage to Porto Santo we were rolling so severely that the cushion moved sometimes and the hatch fell down 😅
So, now 2 little screws hold it in place. Like it should be.
Another small job concerns this corner of the lazarette. 2 boards prevent things from shifting out at sea. But because of the movements on our passage the rear board, which was held in place by 2 snap locks, was pushed out by the crate behind it.
A little piece of plywood is going to hold it place in the future!
Wim takes a dive with the Hookah breather to scrub the underwater hull. Below half a meter from the waterline there’s some green woolly stuff growing. It has tiny little chalky roots that stick on the CopperCoat. We will have to remove that and re-activate the CopperCoat with ScotchBrite. But first we have to scrub the green weed off with a hard brush on the electric scrubber.
It’s a hard job. The green stuff is hard to remove and because Wim had to work at a depth of 1 to 1.5m he needs the lead belt to keep him down. But since we have this lead belt the buckles are slipping when you move. Every time Wim has to surface, climb in the dinghy and adjust the buckles because he almost lost the belt. Tiring!
Anyway, he cleans the starboard hull from the rudder to the centerboard case. That is, the green weed. The white chalky stuff needs another treatment.
Back on board he figures out another way to strap the buckles of the lead belt. Some photos, for future reference:
While Wim was struggling under water Sher made a test cushion cover. She’s not entirely satisfied with it yet but it looks great already!
It has loops so we can attach them somewhere in the cockpit to prevent it from blowing away by the wind.
Wim lost the steel brush and the putty knife while he was working under water. They were attached to the railing with a rope but somehow that rope came loose during work and the brush and knife sank to the sea floor. It’s 6m deep here and he can clearly it on the sand. He tries to dive but ow-ow! his ears! This is a known problem, trouble clearing the pressure. So, we think of another solution: fishing it up with the dinghy’s little umbrella anchor. While Wim hangs over the dinghy’s tube with his dive mask on, Sher rows to the spot were the tools are. Luckily there are connected with a piece of Dyneema that floats up. So once Wim has guided Sher to the exact position, it’s easy to pick up withe little anchor!
The sky is very clear. We can see Madeira at a distance of 40NM.
The container vessel is done and she’s being pulled out by the 2 tugs.
“Jaime S”. We met her on our way in!
Bye-bye Jaime 👋🏻 Have good trip to Lisbon.
August 9.
In Cadiz we filled our water tanks before we left. That’s exactly 2 weeks ago. Now, the Mid tank is empty. Although we still have 3/4 of the Port tank and a full SB tank, we decide that it’s time to make our own water. We’ve installed the water maker last December in Portimao but we haven’t commissioned it yet. The sea water is very clean here and we will need to make our own water more and more while we are at these dry islands.
So let’s kick it off! First fill the entire system with sea water. The water maker is self priming but pumping air goes slowly.
It takes about half an hour before the system is filled.
It’s running but there’s no fresh water output. Hm. There are still air bubbles in the supply hose. And as long it has air in the high pressure pump it can’t reach the pressure needed to push water trough the membrane. While Sher has gone ashore for some provisioning Wim lets it run for another hour. But no water at the output… Still air bubbles… Wim needs to go to the toilet and while he’s in the bathroom he hears air hissing. The breather in the sea water pipe! The water maker is sucking air in! He close the toilet’s sea water valve and after another 15 minutes the air bubbles are gone.
Another 15 minutes later the first drops appear!
And after another 15 minutes all air is gone and we have a little stream of water.
1 liter…
…in 10 minutes.
So, that’s 6L/hour. That’s exactly according the specifications.
And, very important, it’s very silent! We can hardly hear it. That was an important criteria when we were deciding which one to buy, last year.
TDS = 175 (Total Disolved Substances).
Under 50 ppm: Too pure; lacks vital minerals and can taste flat or bland.
50–150 ppm: Excellent, crisp, and clean mineral balance.
150–300 ppm: Good and very common for tap and natural spring waters.
300–500 ppm: Acceptable, but may start having a noticeable or slightly salty/bitter taste.
Above 500 ppm: Poor quality.
Salt = 0.01%
Acceptable Safe Limit: Up to 0.02% (around 200 mg per liter).
Taste Threshold: Above 0.02% to 0.05%, humans begin to taste a salty flavor.
Ph = 7,64
pH 6.5 to 8.5: The recommended safe range. It ensures the water tastes normal and feels smooth.
After running 2 hours the TDS has dropped to 129 and doing some more test during the afternoon it stays around 130.
👍🏻👍🏻
We can easily run the water maker as long as we want. It takes about 5A but we have plenty of solar power!
From now on, we will run the water maker every day for about 5 hours (=30L). Let’s see if we can fill our Mid tank. That should take about 10 days. If we use water in an economic way (not crazy sparingly but also not spilling any water and not using the washing machine) we use one tank per 2 weeks. So, running the water maker 5 hours per day should keep up with that.
Our new solar panels are performing great! This is a set of 3 in full sun (no shadows) at mid day. 277W is exactly peak power 84 cells of 0.33Wp each = 277.2W
Even a bit over Wp!
Once, Wim saw 295W for a moment!
In the evening, we’re invited for drinks & tapas at the catamaran “Stray Kitty”. Chris & Christine are very experienced cruisers. They have had 20 boats! Now, they have a Vietnam-built all-electric cat.
We have a lovely evening with lot’s of interesting conversations, great food and great drinks!
And a (partial-) view on our girl.
August 10.
After running the water maker yesterday, the Mid tank is already 8%!
Wim spends a big part of the day under water and Sher behind her Pfaff.
Almost all of the green stuff is brushed off the hull now. What’s left are these thin white chalky roots that stick on the CopperCoat. Wim scrapes them off with a scraper with a plastic blade.
August 11.
The water maker makes a ticking noise. We’re not sure whether that’s normal or not. We decide to disassemble the drive unit to check if there’s some play in a bearing or in the piston rod or so.
But everything seems to be fine. Perhaps the ticking is caused by the pressure valve. We suppose that’s normal.
In the afternoon, same story: Wim diving and scrubbing the hull, Sher sewing 🙂🙂
We run the water maker all day. 25% already!
We don’t switch tanks so the water we use during the day is included in this.
August 12.
A while ago we bought a waterproof case for a smartphone, to make underwater shots. But we were very hesitant to put our expensive phones in it and dive…
But Wim has idea: use his old phone. It has a green line in the display but for the rest it’s working fine. And you won’t see the green line in the video.
So, let’s try! If it leaks water it’s no drama for the old phone.
It’s a test video and of course Wim can’t work while filming but the phone stays perfectly dry!
After that, Wim continues another hour scrubbing and scraping. Making progress! Dione IV’s hull is getting clean!
We run the water maker from the morning till later afternoon. 39% now.
By the way, our SB tank sensor is malfunctioning. It has a weird problem, sometimes it works, sometimes not. Wim has checked the electrical connections but didn’t see anything wrong. The sensor itself probably causes trouble. We have a spare sensor but it’s a pain in the ass to exchange it… We would have to remove the Mid tank to shift the SB out to reach the sensor.
Today, there’s a solar eclipse and an eclipse party has been arranged at a viewpoint on a hill. We take our scooters and drive up to the viewpoint. It’s a 7km drive.
It’s a lovely ride along the coast through the long linear town. The last 2km is uphill and Thelma & Louise don’t have enough power for that. So, we put the girls in 5km/h cruise control so that they drive themselves and we walk.
It’s pretty warm but there’s a light breeze. But we’re sweating a lot 😅
Now, which viewpoint shoulde we go??
While we’re looking on Google Maps a taxi van passes. All the other cruisers are in it 😄. So we follow the taxi.
We’re still walking uphill.
We take a rest.
The view over the bay is gorgeous!
At 1815h we get to the viewpoint.
A group of about 20 cruisers is there and everybody brought food and drinks.
Wim’s t-shirt needs to dry…😅
The views are stunning!
Everybody waiting for the moment…
Thelma & Louise don’t seem very interested 😄. They’re waiting for the nice downhill ride!
At 1915, the moons begins to cover the sun.
Somebody has brought his binoculars to make a projection of the eclipse.
We have about 90% coverage. It doesn’t get dark at all. We notice the light a bit grey-ish instead of orange but that’s all.
Sher is watching it. Fascinating!
It’s over. What a nice happening!
We have smooth scooter ride back to the marina and dinghy back to Dione IV.
Just before dark we arrive on board and we have a nice shower with the new fresh water from our water maker. It has the same soft and smooth feeling as showering with rain water: there’s no chalk and no chlorine in this water!
And after viewing an episode of the series “Prison break”, another day in paradise ends 😊😊. “Paradise” may seem a big word but we really feel like that. We’re thankful for every day we live this cruising life and don’t take a single day for granted!
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