Highlights – the overview
We finally leave our berth in Viveiro after almost 2 months. We have had such a good time here! We accomplished so much, so many projects and improvements to Dione IV. There are such nice people here and good convenient shops, so we really feel a bit sad to go… But, the weather is gorgeous, the spring starts, and there are many Rias to explore, so we look forward to go on and go anchoring!
Our first stop isn’t far away at all. There’s no wind so we motor into the Ria de Viveiro. We take a right turn to Praia de Area. We drop our anchor at 6m depth in a white sandy bottom in front of the beach.
First thing we have to do is clean the underwater hull. We have about 1cm of thin green weed on the hull beneath the waterline. It’s embedded in layer of slimy brown algae.
Wim gets into his wetsuit and takes a short dive with the Hookah breathing system to have a look, then decides he can do the cleaning just by swimming not diving.
It’s a pretty tough job because the boat moves constantly in the wind and the current. Together with the small waves that makes it difficult to stay in one place and hold on firmly to the suction cap.
So, after a shower it’s good to relax!
After a beautiful sunset Dione IV gently rocks us into a scrumptious sleep.
We are so happy and lucky!
We continue on the following day. Round the first cape. Sher keeps an eye out for the ones crazy about capes: the northern gannets.
We pass the Northern most point of Spain, Punta da Estaca de Bares. From here, we will not go north anymore. Only South and West for a long, long time!
Many times we see ‘Le Fou du Cape’, the Northern gannets.
After the cape, we turn into the Ria de Ortigueira and gradually the wind eases down to nothing.
We start the engine for the last mile to Puerto de Espasante and drop our anchor in front of the beach. We gently rock on the little swell that curls around the wall of the port and we enjoy another beautiful sunset.
The next day, we are sailing and towing the dinghy, but the waves get bigger and bigger. The waves push the dinghy to our stern and pull it hard out. We’re afraid the towing lines might break from these hard yanks…
We decide to take her on board. That’s not easy in these waves and wind… but good teamwork and we get the dinghy onboard and stowed safely!
Around 1800h, we enter the Ria de Ferrol. It was a great sailing day! It’s funny: it was pretty cool at sea, around 16°C, But when we approach the Ria de Ferro, the temperature rises 10 degrees! Probably, the east wind blows over de warm land here. We take off our jackets and sweaters and in t-shirt we enter the Ria.
Right after the fortress we drop anchor in the bay of San Felipe.
Lovely temperature at 2000h so, our first dinner of this year at the cockpit table!
Cheers to that!
After a very quiet night and a nice sleep we wake up from the sound of our anchor chain at 0730h. What’s that? There is no wind. So, maybe a strong current? But we use a bridle on the chain hook and that never makes a sound. So, Wim jumps out of bed and has a look on deck. It’s still almost dark. Nothing to see. All is very quiet. No wind, no current. He checks the anchor chain and the bridle but all is good. Hm. He stands there, thinking: what the heck?? Then, suddenly a big dolphin pops up right next to him!! It scares the hell out of him! The dolphin turns around, next to the boat, and sprays a fountain of water and dives down with a powerful splash of his tail, spraying over Wim. Wow! Sher! Sher! A dolphin! Sher jumps in her clothes and comes on deck. In the half-dark we watch in awe how this big guy plays with our anchor chain! He puts his nose under the chain and swims a circle with it, hitting the water stay with it. That was the noise we heard. We watch him for 20 minutes. Then he disappears. We go back into our warm nest because it’s pretty chilly outside and we weren’t wearing warm-enough clothes.
Read all about our “dolphin delight”, with Manoliño, the celebrity dolphin of Galicia, in our next post!
The Captain’s Log [T+290, 291…293] – the complete story
April 6.
At 1100h, we leave our berth in Viveiro. We have had such a good time here! We got so much done, so much improvements to Dione IV, such nice people here, we really feel a bit sad to go… But, the weather is gorgeous and the spring starts so we look forward to go anchoring!
There’s no wind so we motor into the Ria de Viveiro. We take a right turn to Praia de Area.
We drop our anchor at 6m depth in a white sandy bottom in front of the beach.
The view is gorgeous!
First thing we have to do is clean the underwater hull. We have about 1cm of thin green weed on the hull beneath the waterline. It’s embedded in layer of slimy brown algae.
Wim gets into his wetsuit and takes a short dive with the Hookah breathing system. It appears the weed is only growing were the light reaches, so about half meter under the waterline. Deeper, on the dark side of the hull, is only a thin brown slimy layer, which is no problem for our speed. But the green weed is really slowing us down so that has to be removed. There is no need for diving because it’s within arm length when swimming. Wim uses a suction cap to hold himself to the boat with one hand while he has our new electric scrubber in the other hand.
The scrubber works really good. It takes away the weed quite easy and we see clear CopperCoat again!
This is a very good result!
There are some spots that need more work. The roots of the weed are hard to remove. Well, we are planning to scrub the CopperCoat with a patch of ScotchBrite on the electric scrubber to activate the copper. Expose copper particles to the seawater. That oxidizes the copper (it gets green) and is what we need to prevent stuff from growing on the hull. But this is work for a next time.
For now, we are good for sailing.
It’s a pretty tough job because the boat moves constantly in the wind and the current. Together with the small waves that makes it difficult to stay in one place and hold on firmly to the suction cap.
So, after a shower it’s good to relax!
After a beautiful sunset Dione IV gently rocks us into a scrumptious sleep.
We are so happy and lucky!
April 7.
In the morning, there’s no wind and it’s another sunny day. Wim scrubs the prop first (which is still pretty clean since he cleaned it in Cudillero), the other side of the hull (Port side) and some more on the Starboard side. The calm weather makes the scrubbing much easier. After an hour of scrubbing the scrubber’s battery is empty and we decide that the hull is clean enough to sail to the next Ria.
At 1300h we lift the anchor and motor out of the Ria de Viveiro.
Round the first cape. Sher keeps an eye out for “the ones crazy about capes”: the northern gannets.
Once we’re out of the Ria, the East wind comes and we set sail.
It’s a lovely sailing day with 10-15 knots from the East. It’s cool though: 16°C so we’re wearing sweaters and jackets.
We pass the Northern most point of Spain, Punta da Estaca de Bares. From here, we will not go north anymore. Only South and West for a long, long time!
Many times we see Le Fou du Cape, the Northers gannets.
After the cape, we turn into the Ria de Ortigueira and gradually the wind eases down to nothing.
We start the engine for the last mile to Puerto de Espasante and drop our anchor in front of the beach.
We gently rock on the little swell that curls around the wall of the port and we enjoy another beautiful sunset.
April 8.
The morning is very moist and cloudy but the sun is trying to break through. Because the weather and wind forecast looks good we decide to around the corner today. This is the notorious North-West corner of Spain. A month ago, there was 60 knots of wind and of 14m of swell here!
But today, there’s a gentle breeze from the East (at our stern) and about 1-2m of long swell that doesn’t bother us. We put the spinnaker pole in the Yankee and sail wing-to-wing with the mizzen. The waves on our stern make us gently rolling and we enjoy!
We are towing the dinghy but the waves get bigger and bigger. The big waves push the dinghy to our stern and pull it hard out. We’re afraid the towing lines might break from these hard yanks…
We decide to take her on deck. That’s not easy in these waves and wind…
First, we reduce speed by furling-in the Yankee. The mizzen will give us a speed of 2-3 knots and hold us on course.
Then, we tow the dinghy alongside, with an extra safety line. Then we hoist her over the railing with the spinaker halyard. Then lower her on the foredeck and deflate, roll up and tie her on her frame. All goes well. We cooperate perfectly. But: lesson! We shouldn’t tow the dinghy on passages, even not a day-passage!
We pass many capes and thus, see many gannets!
Around 1800h, we enter the Ria de Ferrol. It was a great sailing day! It’s funny: it was pretty cool at sea, around 16°C, But when we approach the Ria de Ferro, the temperature rises 10 degrees! Probably, the east wind blows over de warm land here. We take off our jackets and sweaters and in t-shirt we enter the Ria.
We pass the impressive fortress of Ferrol.
Another fortress on the opposite site.
Right after the fortress we drop anchor in the bay of San Felipe. We have a little bit trouble digging-in the anchor because of some rocks on the bottom. But finally the anchor finds a sandy patch and holds.
Lovely temperature at 2000h so, our first dinner of this year on the cockpit table!
Cheers to that!
April 9.
After a very quit night and a nice sleep we wake up from the sound of our anchor chain at 0730h. What’s that? There is no wind. So, maybe a strong current? But we use a bridle on the chain hook and that never makes a sound. So, Wim jumps out of bed and has a look on deck. It’s still almost dark. Nothing to see. All is very quiet. No wind, no current. He checks the anchor chain and the bridle but all is good. Hm. He stands there, thinking: what the heck?? Then, suddenly a big dolphin pops up right next to him!! It scares the hell out of him! The dolphin turns around, next to the boat, and sprays a fountain of water and dives down with a powerful splash of his tail, spraying water over Wim. Wow! Sher! Sher! A dolphin! Sher jumps in her clothes and comes on deck. In the half-dark we watch in awe how this big guy plays with our anchor chain! He puts his nose under the chain and swims a circle with it, hitting the waterstay with it. That was the noise we heard. We watch him for 20 minutes. Then he disappears. We go back into our warm nest because it’s pretty chilly outside and we weren’t wearing enough clothes. Read all about our “dolphin delight”… with Manoliño, the celebrity dolphin of Galicia, in our next post!
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