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
Today, we will sail to Ayamonte, at the Guardiana river. Originally we planned to go straight to Huelva, but decided to break it up.
There’s no wind at all, so Wim polishes the scratches on the railing that we got in Alvor . That can’t be done in any wind because the small metal particles would be blown on Dione IV’s decks and cause little rust specks.
Since the border between Portugal and Spain is in the center of the Guardiana river and we will anchor near Ayamonte (which is Spain), we will leave Portugal today! After 7 months. 7 great months! We celebrate this with a last Pastel de Nata!
Around 1600h we get to the entrance of the Guardiana. It’s a shallow entrance (we see 3m) so we follow the buoys.
Time to change our courtesy country flag back to Spain!!!
Around 1600h we get to the entrance of the Guardiana. It’s a shallow entrance (we see 3m) so we follow the buoys.
We hoist our anchor at first daylight. Our destination is the river Rio de Punta Umbria near Huelva and there’s a strong current. So we want to arrive a little before high tide to have the last bit of current with us when we enter. There’s a light breeze so we hoist sails as we leave the Guadiana river.
We set a course to Huelva and zoom in on the chart to have a look at the entrance. But there’s no chart detail. Hm. We have the Spanish digital charts (from O-charts), we bought them when we were at the Spanish north coast. After some investigation, we discover we have the charts for the Spanish Atlantic coast and there’s a separate set for the Spanish Southern and Mediterranean coasts! Oops… What a stupid mistake that we didn’t check that! Well, we have a good internet connection and after paying 30 euros we download (143Mb) and install the charts. But note to selves: check charts before we leave! ☝🏻
Off we go to Punta Umbria by Huelva. The entrance of the river has a shallow sand bar so we stay within the buoyed channel. We see a minimum depth of 3m, an hour before high tide and work our way in between the sand bars.
We sail up river along the town of Punta Umbria.
Storks! The Storks of Spain!!!
We turn left into a river arm called Canal de las Madres and at 1430h we drop anchor in 5m of water. It’s a gorgeous place with no one around. Probably not as tranquil during high season, and we love it!
3 miles up river, there should be flamingos. We decide to go this morning because the weather is lovely and in the afternoon there’s a strong breeze forecast. Sher has bought socks for Wim with all kinds of animals. One of them are flamingos! So this is an excellent opportunity to wear those! To show the flamingos that we are friends 😄.
It’s an hour ride with the dinghy. With the electric motor at 40%, with some current on our stern but against the wind we do 3 knots. A bit exiting because we haven’t gone that far with the electric motor.
But when we arrive at the end of the estuary we see 5 flamingo’s!
They are beautiful pink! But, despite of Wim’s socks and the noiseless electric motor, they are scared of us and the swim away as we come closer 😅.
We come closer to the observation hut and then we see 19 flamingo’s at our left side!
When we close in the fly away.
We decide to have a look at the observation point and pull the dinghy on the beach.
No way!!! When we climb over the little dike we see hundreds of flamingos!!! 🤩
We watch them for an hour and take hundreds of photos. They are so beautiful.
Time to head back to Dione IV. We have 60% left in the battery and we will have the wind on our back so that’ll be no problem.
Well, we have the wind on our stern but we go against the tidal current now… We have to throttle the motor up to 60% to reach 3 knots again. So it’s exiting again: will we have enough battery power? We decide to either take 2 battery packs or use the petrol engine for this kind of long trips.
But, no empty battery yet and the Dione IV comes in sight!
In the afternoon, we dinghy to to the town of Punta Umbria to do some provisioning. It’s an half an hour ride with the wind on our beam and not much current. We pull the dinghy on a beach and do the shopping.
But when we return to Dione IV after half an hour we have a pretty strong current against us. Hm. That changes quickly here… We have to throttle up the electric motor to 70% to have a reasonable progress. Again, we say: perhaps we should use the petrol engine for these kinds of rides… But we arrive at Dione IV with 40% of battery power left…
And: with our favorite Spanish beer:
The weather forecast isn’t so nice. Rain and strong winds are expected over the next days. We decide to move to one of the marinas here. We phone the first one but a lady answers that they have no space available. Well we sailed by and we were there with the dinghy and we saw they have hundreds of available places… Obviously they don’t want quests… The next marina (Puerto de Punta Umbria) is very kind. We are welcome. At high tide (1400h) we hoist our anchor. Very muddy, not a solid hold. We already noticed that we dragged about 10m when the tide and wind changed but once the anchor did dig in we had a steady hold. But that made us doubt: we’ve had 20 knots but there’s a forecast for 35 knots (gale force)… Another issue is that the spring tide is nearing. We hit the bottom at low tide and that’s going to get worse. So, we had to move to deeper, more open, water. Reasons enough to go into the marina.
15 minutes later we enter the marina. We have a little current on stern. When we turn into the dock the current has reversed already!
A very nice marinero (marina employee) helps us dock.
The dock is full of seagulls poop.
A huge amount of poop in the red circle but our part of the dock (and the finger dock) has been cleaned!
Amazing. They must have cleaned it just before we came!
Today is a beautiful day for a long scooter ride to the flamingo observatory. It’s about 25km from the marina.
Once outside the town of Punta Umbria, we ride along a nice bicycle path through a dune landscape.
Storks!
Of course, Sher must have a picture!
Lots of flowers along the way. Spring has really begun!
After one and a half hour we arrive at the flamingo area. This is the same area as where we went by dinghy but now we’re at the other side. There are hundreds of flamingos and they are quite close. They’re feeding shrimps from the shallow salt lakes.
We stay an hour and Sher makes hundreds of photos 😅. Then, we return the same way back. Another 25km.
When we return to Punta Umbria at 1500h we have a delicious lunch in a very local restaurant. Great Sangria! 🍷🍷
Back on board. Wim’s battery pack is 18%, Sher’s is 28%. The scooter’s internal battery are still at 90%. So, 50km is easy-peasy 🙂
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 on to Chipiona at the mouth of the Guadalquivir river.
The Captain’s Log – the complete story
March 13.
Today, we will sail to Ayamonte, at the Guardiana river.
Because there’s no wind at all, Wim polishes the scratches that we got in Alvor on the railing. That can’t be done in any wind because the small metal particles would be blown on Dione IV’s decks and cause little rust specks.
We hoist our anchor just before high tide. Not to have the strong current against us in the narrow exit.
There’s no wind yet but the forecast is 15 knots from the northwest. That will be nice broad reach sail.
Since the border between Portugal and Spain is in the center of the Guardiana river and we will anchor near Ayamonte (which is Spain), we will leave Portugal today! After 7 months. 7 great months! We celebrate this with a last Pastel de Nata!
Bummer! The wind stays west (right on our stern) and only 5 knots all day… So, no sailing. Just Mighty Mitsu all day…
There’s more swell than we expected.About 1m from the southeast with a short period. So we’ll roll quite a bit. We set the mizzen sail and lower the centerboard to stabilize Dione IV a bit.
We struggle a bit with the tuna nets they put out here. At the first one, they say it should be possible to pass it on the inside. But we see the many yellow floats very close to the beach. So, we decide to go around the outside. That brings us in Orca territory (around 60m of depth) so we keep a good lookout. But, no Orca’s.
The next 2 tuna traps are easy to pass on the inside.
Around 1600h we get to the entrance of the Guardiana. It’s a shallow entrance (we see 3m) so we follow the buoys.
Change courtesy flags!
Along the long breakwater. We have about 1.5 knots of current against us.
At 1700h we anchor in front of Ayamonte. It’s not the most beautiful anchorage ever and there are fishing vessels passing by with very big wakes but we won’t stay long. On Sunday we’ll continue to Huelva.
March 14.
Today, we stay at the anchorage near Ayamonte. The wind blows 15-20 knots and it’s partially sunny with a temperature of around 20ºC.
Since we have a running paddle wheel on the speed transducer again, we can see the speed through water. We aren’t moving, so, there’s a 1.5 knot current in the river.
In the late afternoon, the boat “Smile” comes in. Some photos vice versa 🙂
March 15.
We hoist our anchor at first daylight. Our destination is the river Rio de Punta Umbria near Huelva and there’s a strong current. So we want to arrive a little before high tide to have the last bit of current with us when we enter. There’s a light breeze so we hoist sails as we leave the Guadiana river.
Once we are at sea, the breeze picks up to 15-20 knots and we sail 6-7 knots.
We set a course to Huelva and zoom in on the chart to have a look at the entrance. But there’s no chart detail. Hm. We have the Spanish digital charts (from O-charts), we bought them when we were at the Spanish north coast. After some investigation we discover we have the charts for the Spanish Atlantic coast and there’s a separate set for the Spanish South & Mediterranean coast! Oops… What a stupid mistake that we didn’t check that! Well, we have a good internet connection and after paying 30 euros we download (143Mb) and install the charts. But: note to selves: check before we leave! ☝🏻
An hour before we reach Huelva the wind dies down and we start the engine for the last miles.
The entrance of the river has a shallow sand bar so we stay within the buoyed channel. We see a minimum depth of 3m, an hour before high tide.
We enter the river between sandbanks.
Huelva itself if very industrial. It has a large port for big cargo ships and tankers.
We sail up river along the town of Punta Umbria.
Along the fishing port.
There’s a huge number of fishing boats anchored in the river and it’s sometimes hard to find our way between them 😅
Storks!
Maneuvering in the channel, between all fishing boats.
Once we have cleared the fishing boats area we approach a deserted place. It’s a nature reserve.
We turn left into a river arm called Canal de las Madres and at 1430h we drop anchor in 5m of water.
It’s a gorgeous place! Nobody here.
We relax and enjoy the beautiful surroundings, the birds and the sunshine. In the evening, we enjoy a beautiful sunset 🤩
March 16.
3 miles up river, there should be flamingos. We decide to go this morning because the weather is lovely and in the afternoon there’s a strong breeze forecast. Sher has bought socks for Wim with all kinds of animals. One of them are flamingos! So this is an excellent opportunity to wear those! To show the flamingos that we are friends 😄.
It’s an hour ride with the dinghy. With the electric motor at 40%, with some current on our stern but against the wind we do 3 knots. A bit exiting because we haven’t gone that far with the electric motor.
But when we arrive at the end of the estuary we see 5 flamingo’s!
They are beautiful pink! But, despite of Wim’s socks and the noiseless electric motor, they are scared of us and the swim away as we come closer 😅.
We come closer to the observation hut and then we see 19 flamingo’s at our left side!
When we close in the fly away.
We decide to have a look at the observation point and pull the dinghy on the beach.
No way!!! When we climb over the little dike we see hundreds of flamingos!!! 🤩
We watch them for an hour and take hundreds of photos. They are so beautiful.
Time to head back to Dione IV. We have 60% left in the battery and we will have the wind on our back so that’ll be no problem.
Well, we have the wind on our stern but we go against the tidal current now… We have to throttle the motor up to 60% to reach 3 knots again. So it’s exiting again: will we have enough battery power? We decide to either take 2 battery packs or use the petrol engine for this kind of long trips.
But, no empty battery yet and the Dione IV comes in sight!
Arrived. Our pretty girl is patiently waiting for us 🤗
38% left! What did we worry about?? 😄
In the afternoon, we dinghy to to the town of Punta Umbria to do some provisioning. It’s an half an hour ride with the wind on our beam and not much current. We pull the dinghy on a beach and do the shopping.
But when we return to Dione IV after half an hour we have a pretty strong current against us. Hm. That changes quickly here… We have to throttle up the electric motor to 70% to have a reasonable progress. Again, we say: perhaps we should use the petrol engine for these kinds of rides… But we arrive at Dione IV with 40% of battery power left…
And: with our favorite Spanish beer:
Lovely temperature!
And a great Rioja with dinner! € 3,50 bottle and really great taste!
Yes, we’re happy to be in Spain again! 😋
March 17.
The weather forecast isn’t so nice. Rain and strong winds are expected over the next days. We decide to move to one of the marinas here. We phone the first one but a lady answers that they have no space available. Well we sailed by and we were there with the dinghy and we saw they have hundreds of available places… Obviously they don’t want quests… The next marina (Puerto de Punta Umbria) is very kind. We are welcome. At high tide (1400h) we hoist our anchor. Very muddy, not a solid hold. We already noticed that we dragged about 10m when the tide and wind changed but once the anchor did dig in we had a steady hold. But that made us doubt: we’ve had 20 knots but there’s a forecast for 35 knots (gale force)… Another issue is that the spring tide is nearing. We hit the bottom at low tide and that’s going to get worse. So, we had to move to deeper, more open, water. Reasons enough to go into the marina.
15 minutes later we enter the marina. We have a little current on stern. When we turn into the dock the current has reversed already!
A very nice marinero (marina employee) helps us dock.
The dock is full of seagulls poop.
A huge amount of poop in the red circle but our part of the dock (and the finger dock) has been cleaned!
Amazing. They must have cleaned it just before we came!
The town of Punta Umbria as a backdrop.
We connect the water hose and give Dione IV a good cleaning job. The dirt from the boatyard was still on the decks.
Sher cleans her precious dinghy gown 😄
We tie up firmly. There’s a good amount of wind to be expected…
An hour after high tide we are surprised by the strength of the current!
“Anlege Bier” (arrival/anchoring beer) 😄🍺
March 18-21.
The weather is not so bad as the forecast said but we have rain and sometimes strong winds. We see max 30 knots. But sometimes we have sunny intervals. The temperature is nice: around 20ºC in the afternoon.
Sher goes on an outing by bus to Huelva to visit some sewing and fabric shops and Wim does work on his computer. We take it easy 😊
After a night with 30 knots from the south-east (the river is open to that direction) and 20 knots during the day, the water in the marina is very calm. No swell at all.
But when Wim drives his scooter to the entrance he sees big breaking waves on the sandbanks. These sandbanks protect us but also make it very dangerous to sail in or out! The big fishing fleet stays put, these days!
The current in the marina is really strong! It’s spring tide now.
From 1 to 3 hours after high tide we see 3 knots or more. After that, is slows down and around low tide the currents are pretty calm.
But, no problem. We’re tied-up very well.
March 22.
Today is a beautiful day for a long scooter ride to the flamingo observatory. It’s about 25km from the marina.
Once outside the town of Punta Umbria, we ride along a nice bicycle path through a dune landscape.
We get to beach club which is closed (almost everything is closed here. In summer, this is a very touristy and crowded area but now there’s nobody).
Oops, this isn’t a suitable scooter path… We have to return and take another route.
There’s a nice bicycle path all along the highway to Huelva.
Storks!
Of course, Sher must have a picture!
Lots of flowers along the way. Spring has really begun!
After one and a half hour we arrive at the flamingo area. This is the same area as where we went by dinghy but now we’re at the other side. There are hundreds of flamingos and they are quite close. They’re feeding shrimps from the shallow salt lakes.
We stay an hour and Sher makes hundreds of photos 😅. Then, we return the same way back. Another 25km.
When we return to Punta Umbria at 1500h we have a delicious lunch in a very local restaurant. Great Sangria! 🍷🍷
Back on board. Wim’s battery pack is 18%, Sher’s is 28%. The scooter’s internal battery are still at 90%. So, 50km is easy-peasy 🙂
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.
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