Portimão II

We spend most of the day cooking…

Sher makes “Grandma Mommy” (her great grandmother) cookies for Christmas 😋

At 4 o’clock, we’ve invited our friends for a Christmas Eve drink: 10-year old Moscatel. We’re having a really nice time! 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷

Sacha made Christmas presents for everybody and everyone got a Christmas stocking. So sweet!

Connect it to the hose of the sink and the toilet works like charm!

Solved for now. But we need to plan to take the boat out of the water and into the boatyard now. We were planning that for sometime in spring, but we decide to try to do it as soon as possible now. We do not like things that are out of order. Especially not below the waterline!
To read all the details of this project, click: Toilet-Project-Portimao

At 1145h, Wim meets up with the friends on the German boat “Müggele” and they’re having a big party, singing Karaoke 🫨 and everybody is having big fun!

At 12 o’clock, we have a toast with Champagne and view the big fireworks at the breakwater near the beach.

Sher has an idea of making a small shelf in the upper part of the cupboard. Here, small pans can be stored. Creates more space and less rattling during sailing!

Okay, back to the under-sink cabinet project… Paint everything with primer. Sher wears her painting mask because the fumes are bad.

After that, the professional organizer puts everything in place 🙂

Looking great!

We celebrate being back on anchor and the first beautiful sunset of 2026 with a nice Belgian beer. Cheers! 🍻

We have a spare anchor under the couch in the salon, a Delta 25kg, the same as we had on the bow.

We’ve been rethinking this. It takes a lot of place and it’s heavy. We decide to replace it with a new Fortress anchor: lightweight and it folds flat. There’s a Christmas discount on SVB so we order it.

Wim carries the Delta into the cockpit. We’re going to try to sell it.

Sher is working on her sewing projects.

Concentrated!

Wim sprays the other Delta anchor with zinc spray.

Looks like new 😅

2 anchors for sale…

Finishing touch at the water maker. A water leakage alarm.

It has a little sensor in the box.

And a very loud alarm 🫨

A small modification at the sea water filter of the water maker.

We discovered that the door of the washing machine didn’t fully open…

So, Wim turns the valve 45º and replaces the elbow by a more compact one.

Now, the door opens wide enough.

It’s narrow, but it fits.

Another little modification is making the valve handle shorter. So that it fits in front of the washing machine when it is switched to the flush position.

The last chocolate from the Advent box 🙂

We spend most of the day cooking…

Sher makes “Grandma Mommy” (her great grandmother’s cookies for Christmas 😋

Wim makes 2 Timballo’s (an Italian pasta dish). 😋

At 4 o’clock, we’ve invited our friends for a Christmas Eve drink: 10-year old Moscatel. We’re having a really nice time! 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷

Sacha made Christmas presents for everybody. So sweet!

We start the day with a real cave-woman’s breakfast 😅

And a real caveman’s breakfast 😅

Home made “Koopmans” apple pie!

Last year, we had problems closing the through hull valve but in the end, it worked. So, Wim knows it’ll take some force but he manages to close the valve.

Big job! The hose leads from the toilet through 4 closets, under the floor to the through hull valve. So, all the cabinets have to be emptied and with the 2 of us we push and pull the hose through a number of holes.

After an hour the hose is removed and we have a look into it. Hm. There is a layer of dirt on the inside but it’s by far not as bad as last year.

We stretch out the hose on deck.

And push the dock water hose inside to flush it. While Wim pushes the water hose, Sher holds the other end of the hose over board.

Hm. The water hose goes through very easy. Wim can’t feel any resistance of a clogged part…

Well, an amount of dirt comes out but no limescale at all! Hey, our theory of plenty flushing with lots of seawater seams to have worked!

After pushing and pulling the water hose a few times up and down, the toilet hose is clean.

Wim opens the through hull valve (in the photo, it’s without the handle) and tries to flush the toilet.

Nothing happens! It’s still massively clogged! 😫 What the heck is this?? We disconnect the hose and try the toilet pump. It works fine. Big pressure. Half a bucket in a second.

So, what’s going on here?? Could the elbow or the T-joint near the through hull valve be clogged? That’s unlikely. Wim checked the elbow when the hose was disconnected and cleaned some limestone on the inside with a knife. And the T-joint and valve are very big (1.5″) so it very unlikely there’s something stuck in it.

The only explanation is there’s something wrong with the valve itself. The handle moves odd. It seems to have a lot of play. Although it makes a nice 90º turn. Maybe there’s something wrong with the connection between the shaft of the handle and the ball inside the valve. The ball turns extremely stiff. There’s a square connection between the shaft and the ball. Probably this square got damaged by the big force Wim had to apply… Probably last year the damage was already so bad that the valve didn’t open completely. Probably now, Wim closed the last bit of the valve and the square got more damaged… So bad that it doesn’t open at all now…

Probably…probably… We don’t know. Well, it’s very clear that this valve has to be replaced. We had already decided that last year. We have planned this job for the next time on a boatyard and we have ordered 4 new valves already. Top quality bronze ones: Groco.

Well, we’re safe for now. It’s better that it’s closed than open (and impossible to close in an emergency…). But it’s clear that we have to do the replacement now, asap.

Connect it to the hose of the sink and the toilet works like charm!

Solved for now. But we need to plan a haul out an short term now. We were planning that for somewhere in spring but we decide to try to do it asap now. We do not like things that are out of order. Especially not below the waterline!

In the afternoon, a couple of things arrive that we’ve ordered. From Amazon a stainless steel cable to attach out anchor retriever line (the yellow ball) to the new anchor. The hole is quite rough and could damage the dyneema line.

From SVB in Germany as heavy duty shackle arrives. This one has a breaking load of 9 ton (the chain has a breaking strength of 8 ton).

We’ve decided not to use the swivel any more. Researching the swivel, Wim discovered that it has a breaking strength of only 1.2 ton! 😮 That has really been the weakest link…

We were talking about the awful hassle of a having a clogged toilet we started thinking about preventive measures. Flushing with lots of seawater has proved to be good already.

What more can we do before we have to go through the terrible job to remove and clean the hose?

And, we should have a backup plan when the toilet gets clogged suddenly. Having a dirty toilet that doesn’t flush in the late evening is very inconvenient, we discovered 🤮. Well, that one we have now💡! We have the hose that extends and the connecting piece to connect the toilet to the sink outlet. We can connect that in a minute! And take care of the other problem when there’s time.

For preventive ways of cleaning, we looked at snakes with brushes for pipe cleaning. Hm. That is limited to the pipe right under the sink. We have about 6m of hose to clean… Than, we came to the professional pipe cleaning systems: that connects to our Kärcher high pressure cleaner. It has a spinning nozzle that propels itself through the hose. If we do this every few months or so, this might prevent the accumulation of limescale. And, we don’t have to take the entire hose out. Let’s see how this works out…

Since we have sold both our Delta anchors, we need another spare anchor. We decide to buy a Fortress 23. It’s lightweight (only 6.8kg) and it can can be disassembled so it takes only little space. They have a good name and seem to have a surprisingly good holding. Theoretically almost as good as our Vulcan 33 anchor.

And, because it’s light, we can use it as a stern anchor (when needed at narrow anchorages) and bring it out with the dinghy.

In the morning, Wim gets on his scooter and drives to the big Chinese store in town to see if they sell some fireworks. Nothing to be found in the shop so he asks the Chinese lady at the counter. Officially to allowed she says, but we can make an exemption…Come and have a look here. Under the counter, she has a box with fireworks 🤫. Wim selects some Roman Candles, some rockets and an unknown fountain-like thing. She quickly puts it in a plastic bag and Wim puts it in his back pack. All right! We have something to fire at 12 o’clock tonight! 🎆🎇🧨

In the afternoon, we start another job that was on the list already for a long time: Re-organize and re-paint the cupboards in the kitchen. We remove all pots and pans and Wim removes the worn-down hinges of the doors.

At 1145h, Wim meets up with the friends on the German boat “Müggele” and they’re having a big party, singing Karaoke 🫨 and everybody is having big fun!

At 12 o’clock, we have a toast with Champaign and view the big fireworks at the breakwater near the beach.

After that, we light our own small fireworks. The thing which was supposed to be a fountain is in fact a red smoke bomb 😄

The Roman Candles are nice and colorful.

The little rockets are really funny. They lift off with scream and explode into sparkles.

After this, we are invited by our neighbors (they are from Finland) for a glass of campaign. Lots and lots of sailing stories and boat talk 😄 but we have a good time and when Wim returns to Dione IV at 0230h he finds Sher in deep sleep and he joins her 😴

2026 has begun! We said to each other: if 2026 is going be as good as 2025 it’s going to be a great year!!

A fixation for the case around the little boiler was lacking for years already…😅 But now, it’s nicely in place.

We replace the old hinges. They were worn out after 20 years of opening and closing these doors multiple times a day. We replace ‘m by stainless steel piano hinges. That needs some modification in the wooden base.

It’s a precise job…

But in the end, the doors fit better than ever before.

Sher has an idea of making a small shelf in the upper part of the cupboard. Here, small pans can be stored. Creates moor space and less rattling during sailing!

The shelf is easily removable because we need to be able to reach behind the sink in case we have to replace the tap or piping.

For the lid’s of the pans we make special constructions against the side…

…and in both doors.

These lid’s tend to rattle during sailing and we always had to stuff them up with fabric.

We have our thick fishing vessel line from Cudillero and that keeps us firmly to the dock.

We discover that this kind of line has a special name: a Hawser.

“A hawser is a nautical term for a very thick, heavy rope or cable used for large-scale maritime tasks, specifically mooring (tying a ship to a pier) or towing.
​In the world of shipping, where ordinary ropes aren’t strong enough to hold the weight of a massive vessel, the hawser is the heavy-duty solution.”

And that’s right: ordinary ropes aren’t strong enough for this.

We lead the hawser with a double 5-ton mooring line to the port side winch. The forces are so huge that the lines slip on the winch! And we have to lead the force back to the starboard winch.

But, like always, it does the trick! We sleep relatively good although we wake up a number of times from noises and shocks. Dione IV is rocking heavily.

In the morning, we hear people from our friends boats complaining that they hardly slept and had to work with lines and fenders in the middle of the night… Somebody even got seasick!

Well, we already know that the hawser pushes hard on the boat fenders. One fender pajama is completely gone…

And others got badly damaged.

Well, this fabric is more than a year old and it suffered a lot. So, new sewing job for Sher…😅

One rubber snubber at the stern lines is broken. But, better a broken rubber snubber than a broken mooring line…

Meanwhile, Wim continues finishing the kitchen cabinet (sanding and filler) and Sher her sewing projects. With Sacha (from the boat “Smile”) she prepares the next big sewing project: dinghy chaps. Sacha is an experienced sail maker and they’re going to travel to the Netherlands next week and they will bring the fabric and materials back for it. So, the 2 girls prepare the list of materials needed.

Paint everything with primer.

The weather is lovely so we can paint the loose parts outside.

While Sher does the painting, Wim makes a shelf for under the couch in the salon, cutting wood on the pontoon.

The shelf is going to cover the pipes, wires and air tube under the starboard couch. Thus protecting the wires and pipes and creating a nice flat surface to store things.

After a layer of primer the cupboard looks a whole lot better already!

The new shelf in place.

We have a number of boxes with plumbing stuff in this area and we were always worried that these heavy boxes could damage the wires under there. Now, they’re safely covered.

A vertical piece protects the AIS transceiver and all wiring from shifting boxes.

After that, the professional organizer puts everything in place 🙂

Looking great!

After sanding all the primer, it’s time for a final layer of high gloss. We paint indoors because of the wind.

Epiphany day. Today the Christmas trees and light have to go 😔 It’s a jinx to do that after epiphany, they say 😅

Sher has found a home for the trees: in the garden of one of the Portimão sailors!

While Wim takes down the Christmas lights…

…Sher does another layer of paint on the cupboard parts.

We celebrate that with a nice Belgian beer. Cheers! 🍻

Sher heads back to the marina to help Sacha make patterns for 2 other dinghy’s.

Meanwhile, Wim picks up another job: the next 2 galley cupboards.

New hinges. That needs some slight modifications to the doors.

After Sher has been helping Sacha in the marina, we move out of the bay of Portimão and head to the anchorage in Rio de Alvor.

See you soon Portimão! 👋🏻