Highlights – the overview
It’s wintertime… one storm after another. But we’re very well sheltered here in Cudillero. The only thing is the swell, always causing some surge in the port. We’re continuously moving, Dione IV rubbing along her 10 fenders against the pontoon. But our construction with the thick rope at the middle bollard and our 8 dock lines hold pretty well. Some Vaseline on places that chafe or squeak, some repositioning of fenders, and tying up lines, all keep things from getting damaged.
Most of the time, we have lovely weather. Around 20ºC, very nicely sheltered from the wind, often sunny.
Sometimes we can have lunch in the cockpit!
The evenings are cozy, we light some tea lights, have delicious meals with a nice glass of Rioja, watch an episode of the Spanish series ‘Vivir sin Permiso’ in our nest, and we sleep long. Life is a joy!
But then the weather changes quickly, and we are watching the radar and forecasts closely. A storm is coming…
As the swell at sea builds up, we get more and more effects of the swell in the port. Dione IV rubs heavily in her boat fenders. Hard on the little fender covers/dresses!
We discuss what we can improve to make Dione IV as safe as possible for this weather. We are good at this! Thinking of things together, stimulates each other’s thoughts.
As the high winds will come from our bow, we think it’s a good idea to put an extra spring line at the pontoon. Not on a cleat because our neighbor is already pulling hard on this cleat. No, we take a 6-ton sling from our hoisting gear and put that around the end of the pontoon. That is a sturdy point.
Then we reinforce the heavy line holding the boat on the mid-ship bollard by doubling it up. Even with such heavy line, there was chafing where it went through the cleat. This way, if one line breaks the second one will hold us.
Huge waves crash over the wall. We didn’t catch the biggest ones on camera because they come when the heavy rain showers with strong winds are there. Impossible to go above deck with a camera in such circumstances.
When we go to sleep at 2200h, there is 25 knots of wind from our port bow and heavy, short rain showers with 40 knots of wind in it. We are rocking quite a bit, but no problem.
At 2 o’clock, Wim wakes up from a loud sound and jumps out of bed. 3 fenders have jumped out and are lying on top of the pontoon instead of between the boat and the pontoon. He jumps into his clothes and goes outside to put the fenders in place again, but while he’s doing that, other fenders jump out! Dione IV is rocking like crazy in a very rough swell. The wind is howling and the air is filled with seawater spray.
Wim adjusts the fenders so they stay in place and checks them every half hour until 9am in the morning. Sher stays awake with him for a few hours and then heads back to bed. The swell eases down a bit because it’s almost low tide and the fenders are stable. We sleep till 1100h. We have breakfast and coffee and while every now and then a huge waves comes over the wall, things ease down. We have survived this without damage.
Well, almost without damage. Our boat fender covers/dresses are completely ripped apart! 🙁
And they have somewhat deflated, with too little air pressure because of the huge force that was on them.
But! Sher has made new boat fender dresses! So, we replace the worst ones.
And Wim brings ‘m back to the right air pressure.
Good that we just installed our air compressor!
Dione IV is well protected again!
There’s a LOT that goes into preparing for a storm, even in the harbor. Read below in the Captain’s Log for the detail on storm forecasts and conditions, preparing the boat for the storm, and Wim’s story and thoughts during and after the storm.
The Captain’s Log – the complete story
January 22-24 – storms roll in
It’s wintertime. A train of depressions travels over the northern Atlantic ocean. One storm after another. But we’re very well sheltered here in Cudillero. The steep rock wall (about a 100 meter high) to the west of us offers a lot of protection: the strong winds from the south, west and south-west blow over us. Sometimes there’s a powerful but very brief down-draft from the hill. Sometimes so powerful that it blows a spray of water in the port. But that’s only very rare and it doesn’t bother us. Here are a number of wind maps (screenshots from the Meteo app) we saved over 2 weeks. We are at the pin. You can see that even when there’s a severe storm, we are in a little green spot! (less than 10 knots of wind). So we really are at the perfect place for the winter. The only thing is the swell, always causing some surge in the port. We’re continuously moving, Dione IV rubbing along her 10 boat fenders against the pontoon. But our construction with the thick rope at the middle bollard and our 8 dock lines hold pretty well. And we don’t mind some rocking, in fact we like it. As long as it doesn’t make too much noise and it doesn’t break or damage things. That takes some care: some Vaseline on places that chafe or squeak, some repositioning of fenders, tying up lines, etcetera.
Most of the time, we have lovely weather. Around 20ºC, very nicely sheltered from the wind, often sunny.
Sometimes we can have lunch in the cockpit!
The evenings are cozy, we light some tea lights, have delicious meals with a nice glass of Rioja, watch an episode of the Spanish series ‘Vivir sin Permiso’ in our nest and we sleep long. Life is a joy!
January 25 – and another storm
Here’s another storm… Big swell (4m).
Because sometimes the big waves crash over the wall, it’s very dangerous to walk there. Often, people are fishing on the wall or people take an evening stroll. Today, the lights on the wall have been switched off. We think that’s to discourage people going there at night.
January 26 – our protected “green” spot
Stormy weather but we’re still in our little green spot 🙂
Because the wind blows from the Canary islands / African coast, the temperature is really nice!
But, something’s coming up… All fishing vessels, which always stay on the quay at Sundays, go on mooring buoys. The weather forecasts for the next days are pretty bad: storm, rain and huge waves…
January 27 – a new storm develops
The storm is developing, the swell is getting bigger (around 3m).
The swell forecast: 10m at the northern point! 6m at our place.
The Spanish Meteo issues warnings: 10-12m waves at A Coruña! Wind 9 Bf.
We are in the orange zone: 5-8m waves and 8Bf.
In the hours before high tide, the swell in the port is pretty serious. Dione IV bounces on her fenders, pulling her dock lines heavily. At high tide, it calms down and at low tide it’s very calm. And then it starts all over again. We are awake at night, for some time. Listing to the sounds. Will everything hold on?
Yes, it does, up till now.
January 28 – no more little green spot 🙁
No more little green spot for Dione IV! 🙁
And heavy rain showers.
But, some little sunny intervals, too!
Huge waves crash over the wall. We didn’t catch the biggest ones on camera because they come when the heavy rain showers with strong winds are there. Impossible to go deck with a camera in such circumstances.
A Spanish guy (one of the boat owners) came to warn us yesterday: tomorrow, don’t walk on the wall! Well, we knew that already… He said: if you want to go to town, take the dinghy and row to the other side. Well, we stay nice and snugly on board!
As the swell at sea builds up, we get more and more effects of the swell in the port. Dione IV rubs heavily in her fenders. Hard on the little boat fender dresses!
January 29 – preparing for the next storm
It is windy (from the west, that is at our port bow) and rainy in the morning. After lunch, the sun breaks through the clouds. We need to do some shopping and pick up some parcels from the post office so we decide to take a walk to town.
Because there are waves crashing over the wall from time to time, the police has closed the foot path over the wall. It can be dangerous.
We climb up the wall and from a safe distance we look at the wave pattern: 2 high waves followed by 5 low ones. The high ones crash over the wall, the low ones not. So, we wait for 2 big ones crashing over the wall and then run! We don’t get wet 🙂
Back on board, we prepare for the weather that is forecast: the wind will increase to 8-9Bf (35-45 knots) during the night and veer from the south-west to the north-west. North-west is right at our bow, without protection from the hill at our port side. The waves will built up to 5-8m. Code red, says the Spanish Meteo bureau.
Our friend Jesús, the harbor master of the marina in Gijón, sends us a message (first part).
This is a local guy. When he starts worrying, there’s really something to worry about…
We discuss what we can improve to make Dione IV as safe as possible for this weather. We are good at this! Thinking of things together, stimulate each other’s thoughts.
As the high winds will come from our bow, we think it’s a good idea to put an extra spring line at the pontoon. Not on a cleat because our neighbor is already pulling hard on this cleat. No, we take a 6-ton sling from our hoisting gear and put that around the end of the pontoon. That is a sturdy point.
But… our middle bollard is already fully occupied… So, we decide to take this 20mm line around it and fix it at the fore deck.
Hm. The bollards at the fore deck are pretty occupied but we have the Port rear one free. The line goes via the Starboard rear bollard.
Next, we closely inspect all other dock lines. Hm. Our main dock line, the 1-inch fishing vessel line, shows some chafing damage under the cleat at the pontoon!
If this one breaks, we’re f***ed…
So, we decide to run the other end of this thick rope through the cleat as an extra safety.
And tie it with some big knots to the middle bollard.
So, if the damaged part breaks, the new part will hold us.
We can’t think of any more improvements. We have 10 dock lines distributed at various point on the pontoons, all our bollards occupied (so the forces are nicely distributed over the boat) and 10 fenders in place. All we can do is wait for things to come and act if necessary…
Well, things are going to come!
Wim:
When we go to sleep at 2200h, there is 25 knots of wind from our port bow and heavy, short rain showers with 40 knots of wind in it. We are rocking quite a bit but no problem.
At 2 o’clock, I wake up from a loud sound and jump out of bed. 3 fenders have jumped out and are lying on top of the pontoon instead of between the boat and the pontoon. I jump into my clothes and go outside to put the fenders in place again, but while I’m doing that, other fenders jump out! Dione IV is rocking like crazy in a very rough swell. The wind is howling and the air is filled with seawater spray. While fighting with the fenders, for a moment I think I’m going to lose the battle: for every fender pushed back into place, 4 others jump out! Bloody hell! Without fenders Dione IV will hit the pontoon and her beautiful teal hull will be severely damaged! Then, I realize something: The wind comes from the other side of the bow (from starboard). The boat is listing to the far side (Port side)! So, fenders are hanging too high! That’s why they jump out! I start to lower the fenders one by one and yes! they stay in place! One by one I adjust the length of the rope and push the fender in place with brutal force. All right! We have 10 fenders in place again and Dione IV is rocking like crazy against them.
After that work, I have some time to look around: there are huge waves rolling at the entrance of the port, creating this swell inside the port. I look to my other side: What?? There are huge waves crashing over the wall! Amazing amounts of water flood over the wall. Some waves are twice as high as the wall! The violence of these huge forces of nature is very scary. But, apart from the spray / mist of seawater it generates in the hurricane-force wind, it doesn’t affect us. Even it is only 50 meters away, it looks as something happening far away from us. While standing there on the pontoon that jumps up and down like a cakewalk, almost blown from my feet, I realize that is a comforting thought. I go inside and close the doors and the hatch of the companionway.
Silence.
This is one of the greatest things on Dione IV. Because she’s so heavy and well insulated. Even when the sounds outside are roaring loud, when you close the companionway it is (almost) silent. Many times, in harsh conditions, this felt soothing. Relaxing. De-stress. Time to think in peace, for a moment.
So, what are my thoughts?
- Keep checking the boat fenders.
- Keep checking the dock lines.
- Keep checking the cleats on the pontoons.
- Check the weather forecasts.
- Eat and drink something.
- Switch on the heating, it’s 10ºC but because of the storm it feels much colder. Feeling warm and comfy is good against stress.
- Watch the fishing boats in front of us. Will their mooring lines hold on?
- Watch the wall. Can these monster waves destroy millions of kilo’s of concrete like it happened in 2014? (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftYFEXzuo4I)
When I take some nuts, drink a glass of water and sit down in the deck salon, Sher gets out of bed and dresses. Together we watch the situation in awe. 48 knots of wind. Those waves crashing over the wall!! Freaky!
I think about the wall. It is build on a natural rocky reef by stacking up concrete cubes on which a cast reinforced concrete structure has been built:
My friend André is a construction engineer. He sails around the world with his yacht “Marije” and we have a WhatsApp conversation the day after the storm. He makes calculation for constructions like breakwaters and he show me some calculations:
These cubes are 3x3x3m = 27 cubic meters. Made of Basalt concrete. That is 1,5 times heavier than the concrete used for construction in houses and bridges and so on. Each one of these cubes weighs about 80 tons. Think about it: a heavy-load truck is required for transporting just one of these into here. A heavy-load crane is needed to put one block in place. And these cubes are scattered around like grains of sand… Hundreds of them. They are scattered in an irregular way to divert the forces of the waves in many different directions. To break the force of the waves.
On these cubes, a reinforced concrete wall has been built. 12m high, 6m width. Millions and millions of kg of steel and concrete.
Now, think about these waves that have traveled and built themselves up for thousands of sea miles: a 15m high wave, 200m long, weighs 15m x 200m x 1028kg = 3 million kg. That wave approaches us with a speed of about 25 knots = 12.58 m/ sec. 1/2×3.083000kgx12.58V2 = 27433423,799796 Kilojoule. That is about 27,5 million Kilojoule (KJ) of energy. Per meter! We saw huge waves as wide as the entire wall in front of us, that’s about 75m So, that’s 75×27,5= 2062,5 million kJ. 2 billion kJ. As kilojoule doesn’t say much to most people, we can convert that to horsepower: 750.000 hp. These energy levels are completely beyond our comprehension…
Well. Of course, I did not make these calculations this night 🙂 But I am thinking of the situation in 2014 where the sea broke down this wall. And that worries me this night.
At 4 o’clock, we see a wave crashing over the wall in front of us that is twice as high as the wall and over the full width of the wall (about 75m)!!. There are lamp posts on the wall. They are about 10m high. This wave floods them completely! At the same time, all floodlights on the wall switch off. The posts might have broken and the remaining cables must have caused a short circuit. We are in almost complete darkness, only some lights on the land side light the port a little. I realize we are alone and on our own. There’s nobody here. This isn’t a proper marina, where the manager on duty would be available to help. There’s nobody to call when things go awfully wrong. When the wall breaks down and we get into these monster waves…
I feel like a tiny creature. These powers are a million times stronger than us and our little boat.
Well, I realize, when sailing there’s not much difference. You’re on your own and you have to solve problems yourself. And, there are no real problems now: just keep checking the dock lines and fenders, that’s all I can do now. I go outside every half an hour and re-adjust the fenders and look at the pontoon’s cleats and our dock lines. A few times, I notice that the cleat on which our thick line is fixed, is moving. I have my big spanner/wrench size 24 ready for that and I re-tighten the nuts.
At 6 o’clock in the morning, the wind has backed off to 20 knots, 35 knots in rain showers. There is still a brutal swell in the port and the waves keep crashing over the walls. Sher says: “Do you mind if I go back to bed? There is not much I can do right now.” I say: That’s right. Get some rest, I’ll stay on watch and try to close my eyes a bit. I keep checking the fenders and dock lines every half an hour.
I stay up till 9, daylight. The swell eases down a bit because it’s almost low tide and the fenders are stable. I get back into bed and we sleep till 1100h. We have breakfast and coffee and while every now and then a huge waves comes over the wall, things ease down. We have survived this without damage.
Well, almost without damage. Our little boat fender covers/dresses are completely ripped apart! 🙁
And they have a somewhat too low air pressure because of the huge pressure that was on them.
But! Sher has made new boat fender dresses! So, we replace the worst ones.
And bring ‘m back to the right air pressure.
Good that we just installed our air compressor!
Dione IV is well protected again!
The next day is nice and calm and we walk over the wall to town.
A bunch of engineers and construction workers are repairing things. The light post on the corner of the wall has been ripped of from it’s foundation and they have cast new concrete and new bolts and cables.
These light posts are recent. They are high-power LED’s. I noticed before they had to draw cables and they milled a cable tray in the concrete. This tray was cast with brand new concrete. Now, this new concrete has many cracks. So, the wall has been shaking a bit…
In Lluanca, 15 sea miles west of here, they were not so lucky… The wave breaker got destroyed by the huge waves… 🙁
That evening, all lights are on again, some guys are fishing on the wall and some people take an evening stroll on the wall. As if nothing has happened… 🙂
Leave a Reply