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
The weather forecast is nice for the coming week but the winds are from the East almost everyday and we want to go that way. Today, it’s the only day without East winds… it will be light from various directions so we decide to sail to Chipiona, our next destination, at the entrance to the Guadalquivir river. We’ll spend a few days here and visit San Lucar de Barrameda, then work our way up river to Seville, 50 miles north.
But getting out of the marina in Punta Umbria is a bit tricky. 1-3 hours after high tide, the current in the marina is very strong. Making maneuvering dangerous. Well, high tide is 0500h this morning so we wait until the current eases. But not too long because we have to get over the shallow sand banks: at low tide there’s 1,2m and we need 1,4m so we have to be there well before low tide…
At 0930h, the current has decreased enough to move. We have the current on our stern. We untie Dione IV except 1 dock line at the middle bollard and , Wim keeps Dione IV leveled alongside the finger dock using the engine and the bow thruster. Then, Wim puts the gearbox in reverse and throttles up. That takes the strain of the dock line so that Sher can quickly untie it. We move backwards against the current and when we reach the dock behind us, Wim switches Mighty Mitsu to forward and throttles up to 1800 revs while giving full port rudder and full power bow thruster to port. That swings Dione IV around while she’s drifting sideways in the current. When she has turned about 120º we can push her bow into the current and steer to the exit. That goes well! We’re out.
During the afternoon, the wind turns from the south to the northwest and stays at 8-10 knots. We do a nice 5 knots of speed.
The reason why we went to Chipiona is that we want to visit Sanlúcar de Barrameda, which is close by. This is one of the 3 cities that make up the Jerez/Sherry region (together with Jerez de la Frontera and El Puerto de Sant).
After a lovely scooter ride there, about 6km over a nice bike path through an agricultural area, we arrive at the Bodega de Hidalgo La Gitana. Our tour appointment is at 11 and they’re still closed. We have to wait 10 minutes.
We are welcomed with a glass of a sparkling light wine with mint… something new from their winery. We are the only guests today so this will be a private tour 🙂. We’ve said it many times before but we’re always so happy to be sailing off-season! In summer, it’s packed here! Seeing their facilities, they can easily host a 100 people per tour. La Gitana means gispy woman.
This is what they call “The Cathedral”. Hundreds of Sherry casks are stored here. The breeze from the sea keeps them cool and moist, also in summer.
The big round window (it’s not a window, it’s just shutters to keep the sunlight out) catches the sea breeze, the lady explains.
A guy follows us. He has to learn how to do the tour and how to pour a taste of Sherry in a glass. You can see he spills some. The lady explains you need a lot of practicing.
This Sherry is the Manzanilla. It is very tasty but also very dry. Dry wines are not our favorite but it’s nice to taste and to hear the 300-year story behind it. We think the lady notices that and she says: if you’ve had enough, just empty your glass in the san under the casks, there it will continue adding flavour to the cask 🙂
Rows of casks. Hundreds of years old.
There are several beautiful patio’s in the buildings. The lady that does the tour has a really amazing knowledge of the history and the techniques of producing Sherry!
She shows how to pour a taste of Sherry:
Behind every cask is some history to tell.
The office, with hundreds years of history.
La Gitana:
At the end of the tour we get the sweetest of the Sherries to taste. The dark one, Pedro Ximinez, which is super sweet, thick, raisin-like.
Funny: in the main patio, there’s an electricity mast with a huge cactus in it. And on top, of course a stork nest 😄
There’s a kiosk where they sell their Hidalgo La Gitano Sherry directly from the casks as well as in bottles. You bring your own bottle and they fill it. Sher has been here in 2021, so she knew about this and brought 2 of our water bottles! (who needs water when you can have delicious Sherry!
We get delicious Moscatel Sherry for € 5,45 per liter!
After that, we have a simple but delicious tapas lunch on the city square.
We visit the Castillo de Santiago and then we drive (scooter) back to the marina Chipiona.
The next day, we scooter into the town of Chipiona. We drive trough lovely small streets.
Chipiona seems to be famous for its Moscatel. There’s even a Moscatel museum and several Moscatel bodegas.
The bodega is very small and we stop to have a taste. The aged Moscatel is nice and we buy a bottle.
Then, we drive up to a fortress. The Moscatel museum is closed, too, because they’re hosting a private group.
The boulevards and beaches are gorgeous! We drive all along the coastline. Full of apartment buildings, restaurants, and bars (all closed). It must be PACKED here, in summer!
Orange and lemon trees everywhere.
A street full of orange trees. They blossom and they smell delicious!
Back on board, we have to start a little job:
We have an issue with one of our deck salon windows. They are very seaworthy double-paned glass: 10mm hardened glass on the outside and 6mm on the inside. But now there’s condensation between the 2 glass panes. That means that the seal between the panes is leaking and (moist-) air enters between the panes.
We have had this with other windows, too. We had 4 windows replaced in Harlingen, 2 years ago, and the rest of the windows seemed to be okay. But regretfully, no…
It’s a big bummer that the supplier, Rafa Ship Windows, has gone bankrupt. The clients have been taken over by Hora Ship Windows. We have contacted them for a replacement window but regretfully the templates of our windows got lost in the bankruptcy 😕. So, a new template has to be made.
Wim measures all sizing and curves and puts that in a 1:1 scale in a drawing program (Affinity Designer).
The shape is pretty complicated. We have to check the drawing in reality. So, we print it in tiles.
The 8 tiles (A4 paper sheets) have to be cut and taped together with great precision. That’s Sher’s specialty!
We’ve printed out a couple of versions of the drawing. We ran into a problem with the printer: the bleeds and margins are fucking up the real size. So, Wim draws small circles as a pattern and Sher matches the circles when she’s cutting off the margins and taping the tiles together.
That works perfect! After a few more versions with small adjustments in the drawing the print fits almost perfect! Almost: there are some millimeters here and there which could fit better but we’re unsure where that error is: the drawing, the printer, the cutting of the sheets of the taping together… The real measurements withe the tape ruler shows that we’re pretty close.
We send the drawing and photos to Hora to see what they think.
Now it’s time to leave the marina and work our way up the Guadalquivir river entrance towards Seville. Chipiona at our stern. There’s almost no wind and the weather is gorgeous. We enjoy the little trip!
At 1700h, we drop anchor in front of Bonanza beach, opposite of Sanlucar de Barrameda.
After breakfast, at 0830h, we hoist anchor and sail up river with the tide.
There’s a cool breeze from the north and have to wear our jackets.
There’s 1 knot of current with us.
On the VHF, we are called by a pilot on board of a cargo vessel that approaches behind us. The channel is narrow here and they need to be in the middle because of their draft. He requests that we sail just outside the buoyed channel. We move to the right side and we still have 5-6m of depth. The cargo vessel passes with a big wake that makes us roll. Stork nests everywhere! Even on the guiding lights 😄
Well, the river isn’t scenic… The land is flat and seems totally uninhabited. No villages, no fishermen, no boats, no trees, no bridges, nothing. The water gets brown, more and more. In the meantime, the current has increased to 2 knots.
Another call from a big heavy lift vessel that want to overtake us. Yes, we’ve seen you and we’ll move to the side. But the river is really narrow here. The pilot advises us to go to left side, outside the red buoys and reduce speed until they have passes. It’s a small area where the river widens a bit but it’s shallow area and after this, the river gets very narrow. We hover in this area with the engine idling. We see the big boy coming at a speed of 12 knots with a huge wake. Because there’s not so much water here, the wake breaks behind their stern. We prepare for a big blow! But when the pass us they reduce speed to 7 knots and have almost no wake! They blow their big horn as a thank you. How nice! Then, they throttle up again with a big black cloud from their exhaust.
Wow! Hundreds of stork nests!
At 1300h, the current starts decreasing. It has been 2 knots at max. We had estimated that around 1400h the tide changes and we would get the current against us. So, we have to find a place to anchor. On the chart we see a spot where the river widens a bit. We could anchor there outside the buoyed channel.
There’s a huge cruise ship approaching behind us. We manage to get it that spot just before he passes! Right after we have dropped anchor he comes by with a huge surge and wake.
This river is extremely dirty. It has a strong smell of washing powder. It discharges the sewage from many big cities and numerous towns along this 576km long river, from Cordoba to Sanlucar de Barameda… They have sewage treatment plants of course, because the water doesn’t smell like poop, but sewage treatment plants can only remove organic substances, not washing detergents. That’s why there’s no life in this water. No fish, no water birds, no water plants, dead trees on the riversides.
A gorgeous sunset!
At 23300h, Wim wakes up from sounds of the anchor chain. He gets out of bed and checks outside. There’s current up river and wind from the same direction. He looks at the speed-through-water transducer reading: about 2 knots. About 10-15 knots of wind from the same direction (from the south). That should pull us neatly straight behind our anchor and the chain shouldn’t make noise. The chain is sometimes noisy when wind and current are in opposite directions but that’s not the case now. So, he decides to check outside, on the bow, and dresses.
At the bow, he notices that the chain and the bridle are both stretched firmly. Hm. The bridle (the lines from the chain hook to both forward bollards) should be carrying the force of current and wind but the chain should be hanging loosely. He hoists some of the chain to inspect the chain hook. What?? The hook has come loose! It’s opnposite of the chain. And the only thing holding it is the rope that should secure the hook onto the chain. Here’s some pictures (from the next morning) of how the chain hook is attached to the chain.
The hook clicks on the chain and should stay in place but in the past, it has happened that the hook released itself when we where turning and twisting in odd situations. That’s why we tie the hook to the chain, for extra security.
But this night, the hook has come loose and reversed itself away from the chain. The rope is still holding it to the chain. But of course, because of the forces of wind and current, the rope has been jumping over the chain links. That was the sound we heard.
UNBELIEVABLE! How did that happen????
Anyway, it’s not a real problem, the windlass can hold the chain in these circumstances but we’re not going to take chances… So, Wim clicks the hook back onto the chain, re-attaches the rope around it and releases the chain so that the bridle takes the force.
Back in bed. We are fully awake and can’t sleep now. Despite of knowing better, we worry about the approaching ship… Wim decides to keep watch. Half an hour later, the vessel passes by. Very calm. Not even a wake. Wim says: I know, I worry too much 😅 and we try to sleep. Well, on MarineTraffic he saw another cargo vessel departing from Sevilla and that will pass us in an hour. And it did, at 0100h. With a big wake. Now, sleep. No more ships will be coming. They don’t operate the locks in Sevilla at night.
0500h. We wake up from a lot of noise. We roll heavily. Another big guy passed by! So, they do operate the locks at night…
When we wake up it’s super calm. Low tide.
We wait till the current turns around and at 1100h we lift our anchor. It has buried deep! The windlass pulls the bow down to pull it out of the clay. Here we go, the last miles to Sevilla.
We have an appointment for Monday afternoon to go through the lock and the bridge to enter Sevilla so we have 2 days to spend. We expected to do some stops along the way but there were no suitable anchor spots so we’re ahead of schedule now. For Sunday, there’s a forecast for a lot wind and we don’t like idea of being anchored in strong currents with 20-25 knots of wind. When wind and current are in opposite directions that isn’t comfortable. So, Sher calls the little marina in Puerto Gelves. We are welcome there.
This is the first time in 50 nautical miles we see a village at the river! Coria del Rio.
There’s a little ferry.
We pass the lock that leads to the canal in Sevilla and continue on the Guadalquivir. We’ll be back here Monday.
We can see the marina but there are power lines over the river that seem pretty low. When we have a close look at the chart it says: 16.5m clearance. Oops! Our main mast is 17m… Well, we’re an hour after low tide and the 16,5m might be worst case: at high tide at spring tide.
We decide to be very careful and slow down. With the engine idling in reverse the current moves us very, very slowly forward…
We get extremely close to the wires… If we touch the first wire it will be very softly and while Sher is looking up at the fore deck, Wim is prepared to full throttle reverse…
Slowly, like a snail, Wim lets Dione IV move forward; gently adjusting the throttle in reverse and looking at the shore to see minimal forward speed.
It goes well! We’re through!
We sail past the marina and turn around. Against the current we approach. The harbor master is waving on the visitors pontoon.
We turn inside and the current is gone.
The marinero is a lovely guy. He helps us tie up and asks to come to his office to register.
It’s a lovely warm day and we have dinner in the cockpit! 😀
We had a very nice night of sleep. It’s super calm here. It’s a tiny marina, no tourists. Even no noise at Saturday night. No bright lights, no traffic, very sheltered, really nice.
By the end of the morning, at low tide, we notice that we touch the bottom. No problem of course, it’s soft mud. But the harbor master didn’t tell us that it was so shallow… It we would have had a boat with a deep keel we would have been in trouble 😅. We guess he’s not a real marinero… his main business are the numerous camper vans parking on the marina quays. Yesterday, we asked him how high those power lines are above the water but he kept avoiding an answer. He kept saying: pass at low tide. Probably he didn’t know the height…😅
But we love the no-nonsense atmosphere. And we laugh about the rickety pontoons, the very slow internet and the state of the electricity supply 😅 We just have to be a bit careful and patient… and the price is right, 14.50 euros/day!
For lunch, we had a pizza at one of the little restaurants on the quay. Not the mother of all pizzas… but okay… 😅
After that, we drove around town with our scooters but… nothing impressive…😅
Today at 1700h is our appointment for the lock and an hour later for the bridge in Sevilla.
After low tide (we hit the bottom and see 10cm below our waterline) we wait till we’re afloat and at 1430h we depart from Gelves marina.
We have to pass the electricity cables again but we’re right after low tide and the tide is lower than when we came in because it’s almost spring tide. So, this should be no problem at all.
But it stays an exciting moment! Passing these cables so close…
We are way too early for the lock so we have to anchor for a few hours in the river.
The current is picking up. We already know there’s 2 knots of current at half tide. We laugh about the yellow buoy from the anchor retriever line: it sometime disappears under water in the current. It’s a hard life, being a happy little yellow anchor ball 😅
The problem is that the wind is picking up, too. We get 15 knots from the north, opposite of the current. So, Dione IV is swirling around here anchor. Not knowing what to do: put her bow into the current or her bow into the wind…
After an hour or so in this situation wen notice that we are drifting up river a little bit. The wind is gusty and when it eases down we notice that we move with the current indeed. Hm. the anchor might not have a good hold… We decide to hoist the anchor and re-anchor. Funny, we don’t see the yellow ball anymore. The chain must have caught the retriever line when we did 360º circles in wind against current…
Sher holds Dione IV in position with the engine while Wim hoists the anchor. Bloody hell, when the anchor is just below the waterline it gets stuck! Wim can’t hoist it any further because the retriever line holds it. The line and yellow ball must be stuck somewhere! In the propeller?? Hm. There was 10m line on it…Could that reach the prop? 🤔. We have propulsion on the engine so there seems to be nothing wrong with the prop, thank goodness.
At that moment the lock calls us on the VHF. They must have seen our AIS signal. A lady says: “Hello Dione IV, we have your appointment at 1700h but since there’s a big cargo ship approaching we’d rather have you now. Please come into the lock.” All right, that’s better, we think, we don’t have to re-anchor then. But we have to hoist the anchor. We’re not going to sail with the anchor in the water. What the heck, Wim thinks, I’ll just pull full power with the windlass, then the retriever line will break, we’ll lose the yellow ball but at least I can get the anchor on board. The winch pulls full power (1250kg of pulling force), anchor moves a little (just above the waterline) and then the windlass breaker trips. Shit! The 6mm dyneema retriever line is stronger than we thought!
Wim resets the breaker and tries some more but no movement. The chain is heavily twisted, maybe 40 times! We didn’t make that many turns, maybe 1 or 2 🤔.
The lock calls us again. “Dione IV, we have the lock ready for you. You have to come now!” Hm. Okay, the anchor is almost above water and seems stable. Strongly pulled back by the retriever line. We have normal propulsion. So, let’s move into the lock.
We are all alone in the huge lock and the huge door behind us closes. We go up by only half a meter.
We have some time to quickly try to solve the anchor problem.
We have to cut the retriever line. Wim tapes a ceramic knife to the boat hook and cuts the line.
The anchor swings forward and the the chain unfurls. After that, Wim can hoist the anchor onto the bow.
Oh no, but we’ve lost the yellow ball and the line! They’re probably stuck somewhere under the boat…
While we’re discussing that, maybe we have to dive to cut it free, but it isn’t a real problem for now, the yellow ball pops up behind us! It has released and it drifts away by the wind.
Let’s go and get it! We still have some time left, the door isn’t open yet!
YELLOW BALL IN LOCK RESCUE MISSION: We release our dock line from the lock wall and Wim moves Dione IV back in reverse until Sher can pick it up with the boat hook! SUCCESS! Happy little yellow anchor ball is reunited with mother ship and crew!
What a horrible and traumatic experience for the poor little yellow ball! 🫡 It needs a rest on the cockpit floor (and a bit of air as it’s somewhat deflated) to recover from all this 😅
Then the door opens and we continue our sail to the bridge and into Sevilla.
We pass the Puente del V Centenario which is very high.
After that, we have to wait for the opening of the bridge Puente de las Delicias at 1800h. That’s 75 minutes from now.
We try to moor at 2 places but since these quays are not made for yachts, it’s too difficult to prevent us from getting damages on the hull.
After an hour we see some action on the bridge. 2 policemen at each side and 2 operators in the cabin. The policemen first stop the (busy-) traffic and then the gates close.
Slowly the bridge opens and the lights go to green.
We’re in Sevilla!
The marina is right after the bridge and a marineiro is already waving at us. We moor Med-style, with the stern to the pontoon and a mooring line at the bow.
When we’re having dinner in the cockpit, this cruise ship passes under the bridge. They have to fold everything down and the people on the upper deck have to dive down, but they don’t need to open the bridge. 😅
Dione IV is in Sevilla! 🥳 Milestone!
The Captain’s Log – the complete story
March 23.
The weather forecast is nice for the coming week but there are easterly winds almost everyday. And we want to go east. Today, it’s the only day without east wind. The wind will be light from various directions so we decide to sail to Chipiona.
1-3 hours after high tide, the current in the marina is very strong. Making maneuvering dangerous. Well, high tide is 0500h this morning so we wait until the current eases. But not too long because we have to get over the shallow sand banks: at low tide there’s 1,2m and we need 1,4m so we have to be there well before low tide…
At 0930h, the current has decreased enough to move. We have the current on our stern. We untie Dione IV except 1 dock line at the middle bollard and , Wim keeps Dione IV leveled alongside the finger dock using the engine and the bow thruster. Then, Wim puts the gearbox in reverse and throttles up. That takes the strain of the dock line so that Sher can quickly untie it. We move backwards against the current and when we reach the dock behind us, Wim switches Mighty Mitsu to forward and throttles up to 1800 revs while giving full port rudder and full power bow thruster to port. That swings Dione IV around while she’s drifting sideways in the current. When she has turned about 120º we can push her bow into the current and steer to the exit. That goes well! We’re out.
Once we’re outside the breakwaters we follow the buoys that mark the narrow channel between the sandbanks. We see a minimum of 3,20m of depth.
A fishing vessel meets us, full throttle against the current. The fishermen on deck wave a whistle enthusiastic. Are they so cheerful because they had a good catch last night or are they delighted to see such a beauty sailing by? 😄
Once we’ve cleared the sand bar we turn east. There’s almost no wind.
We pass through the Huelva anchorage area.
The sea is very turquoise here. The color of the sea matches Dione IV’s color!
Well, almost 😁
In the beginning of the afternoon, a light breeze comes up from the south so we set sail.
This is what they call “Champagne Sailing”. We glide along a flat sea 😊
During the afternoon, the wind turns from the south to the northwest and stays at 8-10 knots. We do a nice 5 knots of speed.
An hour before we reach reach Chipiona, the wind is at our stern and we don’t have much speed any more. So, Mighty Mitsu brings us in.
At 1700h we turn into the marina.
After the paperwork at the reception (by a very nice and friendly guy) we moor in the marina. Between 2 ugly motorboats… You can’t have it all…
What a delicious day at sea we had!!
March 24.
The reason why we went to Chipiona is that we want to visit Sanlúcar de Barrameda. This is one of the 3 Sherry cities (together with Jerez de la Frontera and El Puerto de Sant). It’s a 10km scooter ride.
After a lovely scooter ride (about 6km over a nice bike path through an agricultural area) we arrive at the Bodega de La Gitana. Our appointment is at 11 and they’re still closed. We have to wait 10 minutes.
We are welcomed with a glass of a very light Sherry. We are the only guests today so this will be a private tour 🙂. We’ve said it many times before but we’re always so happy to be sailing off-season! In summer, it’s packed here! Seeing their facilities, they can easily host a 100 people per tour.
La Gitana means gispy woman.
This is what they call “The Cathedral”. Hundreds of Sherry casks are stored here. The breeze from the sea keeps them cool and moist, also in summer.
The big round window (it’s not a window, it’s just shutters to keep the sunlight out) catches the sea breeze, the lady explains.
A guy follows us. He has to learn how to do the tour and how to pour a taste of Sherry in a glass. You can see he spills some. The lady explains you need a lot of practicing.
This Sherry is the Manzanilla. It is very tasty but also very dry. Dry wines are not our favorite but it’s nice to taste and to hear the 300-year story behind it. We think the lady notices that and she says: if you’ve had enough, just empty your glass in the soil under the casks, there it will continue adding flavour to the cask 🙂
She shows us a transparent cask with a light behind it.
The casks are not completely filled. So, on top of the Sherry is a layer of yeast.
This thick layer of yeast does the trick: over the years, it generates the intense flavor.
Rows of casks. Hundreds of years old.
There are several beautiful patio’s in the buildings.
The lady that does the tour has a really amazing knowledge of the history and the techniques of producing Sherry!
She shows how to pour a taste of Sherry:
Behind every cask is some history to tell.
Another gorgeous patio.
The office. Hundreds years of history.
La Gitana:
At the end of the tour we get the sweetest Sherry’s to taste. The dark one, Pedro Jiminez, is super sweet, thick, raisin-like.
Funny: in the main patio, there’s an electricity mast with a huge cactus in it.
And on top, of course a stork nest 😄
There’s a kiosk where they sell Sherry from the cask. You bring your own bottle and they fill it. Sher has been here in 2020 so she knew about this and brought 2 of our water bottles!
We get delicious Moscatel Sherry for € 5,45 per liter!
After that, we have a simple but delicious tapas lunch on the city square.
We visit the Castillo de Santiago and then we drive back to the marina Chipiona.
March 25.
We scooter into the town of Chipiona. We drive trough lovely small streets.
Chipiona seems to be famous for its Moscatel Sherry. There’s even a Moscatel museum and a Moscatel bodega.
The bodega is very small and we have a taste. The aged Moscatel Sherry is nice and we buy a bottle.
It’s more a Sherry production facility.
Then, we drive up to a fortress. It’s closed (like almost every touristic attraction, off-season. The Moscatel museum is closed, too) but it’s nice from the outside.
The boulevards and beaches are gorgeous! We drive all along the coastline. Full of apartment buildings (all closed), restaurants, bars (all closed). It must be PACKED here, in summer!
Orange and lemon trees everywhere.
A street full of orange trees. They blossom and they smell delicious!
We do some shopping at a little grocery and drive back to the marina.
Back on board, we have to start a little job:
We have an issue with one of our decksalon windows. They are very seaworthy double glass: 10mm hardened glass on the outside and 6mm on the inside. Now, there’s condensation between the 2 glass panes. That means that the seal between the panes is leaking and (moist-) air enters between the panes.
We have had this with other windows, too. We had 4 windows replaced in Harlingen, 2 years ago, and the rest of the windows seemed to be okay. But regretfully, no…
It’s a big bummer that the supplier, Rafa Ship Windows, has gone bankrupt. The clients have been taken over by Hora Ship Windows. We have contacted them for a replacement window but regretfully the templates of our windows got lost in the bankruptcy 😕. So, a new template has to be made.
Wim measures all sizing and curves and puts that in a 1:1 scale in a drawing program (Affinity Designer).
The shape is pretty complicated. We have to check the drawing in reality. So, we print it in tiles.
The 8 tiles (A4 paper sheets) have to be cut and taped together with great precision. That’s Sher’s specialty!
March 26.
We’ve printed out a couple of versions of the drawing. We ran into a problem with the printer: the bleeds and margins are fucking up the real size. So, Wim draws small circles as a pattern and Sher matches the circles when she’s cutting off the margins and taping the tiles together.
That works perfect! After a few more versions with small adjustments in the drawing the print fits almost perfect! Almost: there are some millimeters here and there which could fit better but we’re unsure where that error is: the drawing, the printer, the cutting of the sheets of the taping together… The real measurements withe the tape ruler shows that we’re pretty close.
We send the drawing and photos to Hora to see what they think.
At 1530h we leave the marina. It’s low tide and we should have a favorable current into the Guadalquivir river. We want to anchor at the entrance for the night before we sail up river to Sevilla.
This really a nice marina. So tranquil. And inexpensive: € 19 per night. We might be back here!
Chipiona at our stern. There’s almost no wind and the weather is gorgeous. We enjoy the little trip!
Entering the channel that leads to the Guadalquivir.
At 1700h, we drop anchor in front of Bonanza beach, opposite of Sanlucar de Barrameda.
March 27.
At 0730h, the sun rises. It has been a tranquil night and we slept great.
It was low tide at 0550h so the current has already started to flow up river.
After breakfast, at 0830h, we hoist anchor and sail up river.
There’s a cool breeze from the north and have to wear our jackets.
There’s 1 knots of current on on stern.
Here, the river is very wide. A big cargo vessel passes us.
Nobody’s waving back…😩
On the VHF, we are called by a pilot on board of a cargo vessel that approaches behind us. The channel is narrow here and they need to be in the middle because of their draft. He requests us to sail outside the buoyed channel. We move to the right side and we still have 5-6m of depth. The cargo vessel passes with a big wake that makes us roll.
Stork nests everywhere! Even on the guiding lights 😄
Well, the river isn’t scenic… The land is flat and seems totally uninhabited. No villages, no fishermen, no boats, no trees, no bridges, nothing. The water gets brown, more and more. In the meantime, the current has increased to 2 knots.
Another call from a big heavy lift vessel that want to overtake us. Yes, we’ve seen you and we’ll move to the side. But the river is really narrow here. The pilot advises us to go to left side, outside the red buoys and reduce speed until they have passes. It’s a small area where the river widens a bit but it’s shallow area and after this, the river gets very narrow. We hover in this area with the engine idling. We see the big boy coming at a speed of 12 knots with a huge wake. Because there’s not so much water here, the wake breaks behind their stern. We prepare for a big blow! But when the pass us they reduce speed to 7 knots and have almost no wake! They blow their big horn as a thank you. How nice! Then, they throttle up again with a big black cloud from their exhaust.
Wow! Hundreds of stork nests!
At 1300h, the current starts decreasing. It has been 2 knots at max. We had estimated that around 1400h the tide changes and we would get the current against us. So, we have to find a place to anchor. On the chart we see a spot where the river widens a bit. We could anchor there outside the buoyed channel.
There’s a huge cruise ship approaching behind us. We manage to get it that spot just before he passes! Right after we have dropped anchor he comes by with a huge surge and wake.
After the cruise ship has passed we decide to re-anchor. To be a little further outside the buoys. Hm. The anchor doesn’t dig in… That’s very strange for our great Vulcan anchor 🤔. It always grips immediately. We pull backwards and further backwards but it keep dragging… Bummer. Well, we moved too far and we decide to try again. Hoist. Then, Wim sees what’s going on! The anchor is fully covered with rubbish! A huge amount of fabric, ropes, some leather-like stuff (skin??) and quite big bones (human?? 😮), a lot of heavy mud/clay and even beer cans. While Sher moves Dione IV back to the spot where we like to drop anchor, Wim cleans the anchor with the boat hook. Then we drop again en pull back. After some dragging we get a hold. All right.
This river is extremely dirty. It has a strong smell of washing powder. It discharges the sewage from many big cities and numerous towns along this 576km long river, from Cordoba to Sanlucar de Barameda… They have sewage treating plants of course, because the water doesn’t smell like poop but sewage treating plants can only remove organic substances, not washing detergents. That’s why there’s no life in this water. No fish, no water birds, no water plants, dead trees on the riversides.
It’s a calm and bright afternoon. Some big ships pass us, making us rock heavily with big wake and suction.
We are only about 50m outside of the green buoy so they pass quite close. But we’re at a depth of 2m (at low tide) so they wouldn’t try to pass outside that buoy, with their draft of 6m…
Not only huge cargo vessels pass by… This guy with a small motorboat, making a loud engine noise, towing some kind little hoisting platform 😄
A gorgeous sunset!
After watching our daily program (an episode of an English series called Slow Horses) we go to sleep at 2200h.
At 23300h, Wim wakes up from sounds of the anchor chain. He gets out of bed and checks outside. There’s current up river and wind from the same direction. He looks at the speed-through-water transducer reading: about 2 knots. About 10-15 knots of wind from the same direction (from the south). That should pull us neatly straight behind our anchor and the chain shouldn’t make noise. The chain is sometimes noisy when wind and current are in opposite directions but that’s not the case now. So, he decides to check outside, on the bow, and dresses.
At the bow, he notices that the chain and the bridle are both stretched firmly. Hm. The bridle (the lines from the chain hook to both forward bollards) should be carrying the force of current and wind but the chain should be hanging loosely. He hoists some of the chain to inspect the chain hook. What?? The hook has come loose! It’s opnposite of the chain. And the only thing holding it is the rope that should secure the hook onto the chain. Here’s some pictures (from the next morning) of how the chain hook is attached to the chain.
The hook clicks on the chain and should stay in place but in the past, it has happened that the hook released itself when we where turning and twisting in odd situations. That’s why we tie the hook to the chain, for extra security.
But this night, the hook has come loose and reversed itself away from the chain. The rope is still holding it to the chain. But of course, because of the forces of wind and current, the rope has been jumping over the chain links. That was the sound we heard.
UNBELIEVABLE! How did that happen????
Anyway, it’s not a real problem, the windlass can hold the chain in these circumstances but we’re not going to take chances… So, Wim clicks the hook back onto the chain, re-attaches the rope around it and releases the chain so that the bridle takes the force.
Back inside, he checks the anchor alarm. The boat has re-positioned 7m. That’s because we have some extra chain length now. No problem. The anchor seems to holding stable. On MarineTraffic, he sees a cargo vessel coming up river. Okay….🤔…so, these guys navigate at night at this narrow river… Do we have to worry about a Philippines helmsman which had too much beers or is falling asleep?? We are only 50m away from their track… We have left our AIS transponder on so that they can see us. And, even if they steer a wrong course they will run aground before they hit us… No, don’t worry, they will have an experienced pilot on board who know what he’s doing…
Back in bed. We are fully awake and can’t sleep now. Despite of knowing better, we worry about the approaching ship… Wim decides to keep watch. Half an hour later, the vessel passes by. Very calm. Not even a wake. Wim says: I know, I worry too much 😅 and we try to sleep. Well, on MarineTraffic he saw another cargo vessel departing from Sevilla and that will pass us in an hour. And it did, at 0100h. With a big wake.
Now, sleep. No more ships will be coming. They don’t operate the locks in Sevilla at night.
0500h. We wake up from a lot of noise. We roll heavily. Another big guy passed by! So, they do operate the locks at night…
March 28.
When we wake up it’s super calm. Low tide.
We wait till the current turns around and at 1100h we lift our anchor. It has buried deep! The windlass pulls the bow down to pull it out of the clay. Here we go, the last miles to Sevilla.
We have an appointment for Monday afternoon to go through the lock and the bridge to enter Sevilla so we have 2 days to spend. We expected to do some stops along the way but there were no suitable anchor spots so we’re ahead of schedule now. For Sunday, there’s a forecast for a lot wind and we don’t like idea of being anchored in strong currents with 20-25 knots of wind. When wind and current are in opposite directions that isn’t comfortable. So, Sher calls the little marina in Gelves. We are welcome there.
This is the first time in 50 nautical miles we see a village at the river! Coria del Rio.
There’s a little ferry.
We pass the lock that leads to the canal in Sevilla and continue on the Guadalquivir.
We can see the marina but there are power lines over the river that seem not really high. When we have a close look at the chart it says: 16.5m. Oops! Our main mast is 17m… Well, we’re an hour after low tide and the 16,5m might be worst case: at high tide at spring tide.
We decide to be very careful and slow down. With the engine idling in reverse the current moves us very, very slowly forward…
We get extremely close to the wires… If we touch the first wire it will be very softly and while Sher is looking up at the fore deck, Wim is prepared to full throttle reverse…
Slowly like a snail Wim lets Dione IV move forward, gently adjusting the throttle in reverse, looking at the shore to see minimal forward speed.
It goes well! We’re through!
We sail past the marina and turn around. Against the current we approach. The harbor master is waving on the visitors pontoon.
We turn inside and the current is gone.
The harbor master is a really nice guy and he helps us dock.
He asks to come quickly to his office to register because it’s 1345h and he works till 1400h 🙂. After that, it’s siesta…
It’s a lovely warm day and we have dinner in t🫡he cockpit! 😀
March 29.
We had a very nice night of sleep. It’s super calm here. It’s a tiny marina, no tourists. Even no noise at Saturday night. No bright lights, no traffic, very sheltered, really nice.
By the end of the morning, at low tide, we notice that we touch the bottom. No problem of course, it’s soft mud. But the harbor master didn’t tell us that it was so shallow… It we would have had a boat with a deep keel we would have been in trouble 😅. We guess he not a real marinero… his main business are the numerous camper vans parking on the marina quays. Yesterday, we asked him how high those power lines are above the water but he kept avoiding an answer. He kept saying: pass at low tide. Probably he didn’t know the height…😅
But we love the no-nonsense atmosphere. And we laugh about the rickety pontoons, the very slow internet and the state of the electricity supply 😅 We just have to be a bit careful and patient…
For lunch, we had a pizza at one of the little restaurants on the quay. Not the mother of all pizzas… but okay… 😅
After that, we drove around town with our scooters but… nothing impressive…😅
March 30.
Today at 1700h is our appointment for the lock and an hour later for the bridge in Sevilla.
After low tide (we hit the bottom and see 10cm below our waterline) we wait till we’re afloat and at 1430h we depart from Gelves marina.
We have to pass the electricity cables again but we’re right after low tide and the tide is lower than when we came in because it’s almost spring tide. So, this should be no problem at all.
But it stays an exiting moment! Passing these cables so close…
We are way too early for the lock so we have to anchor for a few hours in the river.
The current is picking up. We already know there’s 2 knots of current at half tide. We laugh about the yellow buoy from the anchor retriever line: it sometime disappears under water in the current. It’s a hard life, being a little yellow ball 😅
The problem is that the wind is picking up, too. We get 15 knots from the north, opposite of the current. So, Dione IV is swirling around here anchor. Not knowing what to do: put her bow into the current or her bow into the wind…
After an hour or so in this situation wen notice that we are drifting up river a little bit. The wind is gusty and when it eases down we notice that we move with the current indeed. Hm. the anchor might not have a good hold… We decide to hoist the anchor and re-anchor. Funny, we don’t see the yellow ball anymore. The chain must have caught the retriever line when we did 360º circles in wind against current…
Sher hold Dione IV in position with the engine while Wim hoists the anchor. Bloody hell, when the anchor is just below the waterline it gets stuck! Wim can’t hoist it any further because the retriever line holds it. The line + yellow ball must be stuck somewhere! In the propeller?? Hm. There was 10m line on it…Could that reach the prop? 🤔. We have propulsion on the engine so there seems to be nothing wrong with the prop.
At that moment the lock calls us on the VHF. They must have seen our AIS signal. A lady says: “Hello Dione IV, we have your appointment at 1700h but since there’s a big cargo ship approaching we’d rather have you now. Please come into the lock.” All right, that’s better, we think, we don’t have to re-anchor then. But we have to hoist the anchor. We’re not going to sail with the anchor in the water. What the heck, Wim thinks, I’ll just pull full power with the windlass, then the retriever line will break, we’ll loose the yellow ball but at least I can get the anchor on board. The winch pulls full power (1250kg of pulling force), anchor moves a little (just above the waterline) and then the windlass breaker trips. Shit! The 6mm dyneema retriever is stronger than we thought!
Wim resets the breaker and tries some more but no movement. The chain is heavily twisted, maybe 40 times! We didn’t make that many turns, maybe 1 or 2 🤔.
The lock calls us again. “Dione IV, we have the lock ready for you. You have to come now!” Hm. Okay, the anchor is almost above water and seems stable. Strongly pulled back by the retriever line. We have normal propulsion. So, let’s move into the lock.
We are all alone in the huge lock and the huge door behind us closes. We go up by only half a meter.
We have some time to quickly try to solve the anchor problem.
We have to cut the retriever line. Wim tapes a ceramic knife to the boat hook and cuts the line.
The anchor swings forward and the the chain unfurls. After that, Wim can hoist the anchor onto the bow.
Well we’ve lost the yellow ball and the line. They’re probably stuck somewhere under the boat…
While we’re discussing that, maybe we have to dive to cut it free, but it isn’t a real problem for now, the yellow ball pops up behind us! It has released and it drifts away by the wind.
Let’s go and get it! We still have some time left, the door isn’t open yet!
We release our dock line from the wall Wim moves Dione IV back in reverse until Sher can pick it up with the boat hook!
What a horrible adventure for the poor little ball! 🫡 It needs a rest on the cockpit floor to recover from all this 😅
Then the door opens and we continue our sail into Sevilla.
A tug enters from the other side to go and pick up the freighter.
In the port, we pass the same vessel (from Amsterdam) that did pass us on the way here. The pilot calls us: “Dione IV, please speed up. We’re being pulled from the shore.” We throttle up Mighty Mitsu to 1800 revs and with a speed of 7 knots we make way for them.
We pass the Puente del V Centenario which is very high.
After that, we have to wait for the opening of the bridge Puente de las Delicias at 1800h. That’s 75 minutes from know.
We try to moor at 2 places but since these quays are not made from yachts, it’s too difficult to prevent us from damages.
We decide to keep hovering in the soft breeze. There’s no current so that’s easy.
While we’re waiting we have time to evaluate the situation with the anchor. We think the retriever line went under the boat when we made these crazy turns and movements in wind against current and it was caught by the anodes which are right in front the centerboard case. And when we turned back, the boat pulled the retriever line and thus it lifted our anchor! Then, it rolled over the seabed while we moved in the current, unable to dig in because the retriever line held it in a wrong position. That probably caused the numerous turns in the chain. Luckily, the line wasn’t tangled to much around the anodes and was released by the flotation of the yellow ball when we cut the line.
We’ve seen some problems with the yellow ball disappearing and popping up again when it got caught by the chain when we turned a lot but that never led to this kind of problems. We will have to carefully reconsider the use of the retriever line… Consider the risks between being able to release the anchor when it gets stuck behind chains, cables of rubbish on the seabed and situations like this afternoon… 🤔
After an hour we see some action on the bridge. 2 policemen at each side and 2 operators in the cabin. The policemen first stop the (busy-) traffic and then the gates close.
Slowly the bridge opens and the light go to green.
We’re in Sevilla!
The marina is right after the bridge and a marineiro is already waving at us. We moor Med-style, with the stern to the pontoon and a mooring line at the bow.
When we’re having dinner in the cockpit, this cruise ship passes the bridge. They have to fold everything down and the people on the upper deck have to dive down 😅
Dione IV is in Sevilla! 🥳 Milestone!
Leave a Reply