Highlights – the overview
Yes, we’re still here in Cudillero and happy. The weather hasn’t been suitable to sail on, so we take the opportunity to work on a number of projects, which are listed below with a few highlights and have complete details in the Captain’s Log. And, since we have time, order some things and have them delivered here. The nice lady at the little post office here knows us well by now, and has our packages ready for us as soon as we walk in the door.
Project #1: Modifications to the aft storage area (lazarette) including building an enclosure for the SSB antenna tuner, a shelf for our new “hookah” underwater breathing system compressor and standard air compressor, some supports on the floor so the tool cases and compressors don’t shift when we are under way, and some removable shelves in the back to store lighter items.
Project #2: Improved insulation for the freezer box, using 2-part poured foam to create an insert hoping to minimize icing around the lid, condensation, and improve overall freezer performance.
Project #3: Toilet maintenance, including loosening a stuck through-hole valve so that we can remove (and clean) the hose that goes from the toilet to the black-water tank and overboard. It’s full of limescale, which forms over time with the combination of urine and sea water.
Meanwhile, inside is a terrible mess: floor boards open, cabinets emptied, tools everywhere.
But, after we install the hose again, the toilet works like a charm! Happy toilet, happy sailors! 🙂
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!
And then there are other times with winter storms! Still some little sunny intervals here before the approaching weather! Later, huge waves will crash over the wall.
We prepare for the weather that is forecast: the wind will increase to 8-9Bf (35-45 knots) during the night. The waves will built up to 5-8m. Code red, says the Spanish Meteo bureau. We have added some additional dock lines and now there are 10 distributed at various point on the pontoons, all our bollards occupied (so the forces are nicely distributed over the boat) and all 10 fenders are in place. All we can do is wait for things to come and act if necessary…
It’s a tough night. Wim is up from 2am checking and adjusting boat fenders to avoid damage. Sher is up from 3am, but goes back to bed a few hours later, while Wim stays up till 9am, dozing and checking fender position every half hour. The swell eventually eases down a bit because it’s almost low tide and the fenders are stable. Wim gets 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 dresses are completely ripped 🙁 And they have a somewhat too low air pressure because of the huge pressure that was on them. But! Sher has made new fender dresses! So, we replace the worst ones. And bring ‘m back to the right air pressure.
We have a separate post with more about the storm and Wim’s thoughts on preparation – read more about the storm here
After the storms pass, we go to Avilés by public transport one last time. We have ordered a cheesecake and some bread at La Miga de Mariana bakery, Sher wants to go to the big Carrefour hypermarket, and Wim wants to buy some plywood and the Brico store. Here we are in the train back to Cudillero with all our stuff 🙂
Back on Dione IV, the big cheesecake has to be divided between the fridge and the freezer. We cut extra-small pieces so it lasts – 24 super delicious dessert slices (instead of 8)!
Then a nice surprise, we get a message from cruisers who are visiting in Cudillero. Ingo and Marleth are a lovely couple and we have a very nice afternoon with them! They’ll sail from Aviles and come join us here. It appears that we have lots of things in common, as they are sailing the same route and have roughly the same time schedule!
Now that we have plywood again, Wim can finish the tools cabinet. All electric tools fit nicely, each with its own little space, are well protected and are easy to take out.
Finally, it is time to get ready to leave Cudillero. But before we can do that, we need to clean the propeller of growth. If we don’t do this, we use extra diesel fuel and get less propulsion and speed. Since we’ll likely be using the motor for much of the 40 nm to Ribadeo, it’s important. So Wim gets in the water with his wetsuit and the new hookah under-water breathing system.
We are now ready to go! The next morning, we start untying the spider web of lines and knots that have held us securely to the pontoon for the last two months. There has been lots of chafing and we’re glad to have found that huge piece of fishing-boat line, which also got worn down with rubbing back and forth through the cleat.
Bye, bye Cudillero!!! There we go! Bye-bye Cudillero! Thank you for the wonderful time, thank you Javier (harbormaster), thank you to all the friendly people we met!
The Captain’s Log (T+209,210,…231) – the complete story
Jump to specific topics below:
Lazarette ModificationsFreezer InsulationToilet MaintenanceCleaning Propeller
As we mentioned at the end of our last post, we decided to stay here in Puerto de Cudillero for a while. That gives us the opportunity to order things that have delivery times, such as a dive compressor for a “hookah” underwater breathing system from France, which we’ll use when we clean the hull and propeller. And since we have the little post office here with the very kind lady who is willing to receive any package for us, it is convenient to order things for projects we’d like to do. For big packages such as the dive compressor, we can ask our friend Jesús from Yates Marina in Gijón. And, have we mentioned already that we love Cudillero? It’s very well sheltered and often we have far better weather than at the west coast (A Coruña for instance). Plus, the marina is inexpensive at this time of year. Enough reasons to spend wintertime here before we sail into the Spanish Rias in spring!
So, we’re taking this opportunity to do some projects from our list.
One of the things is a re-design and modification of the aft storage area (lazarette). Wim starts to saw pieces of wood to build a protective enclosure for the SSB antenna tuner. On the pontoon. In the sun, in his t-shirt.
January 14 – Lazarette project
We need a board of plywood to make a shelf in the lazarette and we want to visit La Miga de Mariana, the delicious bakery again, go to the Decathlon, and to the big Carrefour market. All of this is in Avilés.
So, we take the 10:20 bus to Avilés, arrive there at 11:30, go to the bakery. We are picking up the very delicious cheesecake we ordered as well as some bread and other treats… Yum! Then we take another bus to the big shopping mall area. There’s the Decathlon where we buy ear plugs (for diving) for Wim, buy things that we can’t find in Cudillero at the big Carrefour… we even found ricotta cheese, something we haven’t seen anywhere in any store since arriving in Spain, so this was a great find!, then on to the BricoMart for the plywood.
The train station is only a 15 minutes walk from the shopping mall and there is a direct connection to Cudillero. When we arrive at the little train station it appears that we just missed one train and that the next train will be there in an hour… Hmmm. Luckily the weather is nice and we can sit in the sun. After an hour, no train… A couple of girls show up and we ask them about the train schedule. They laugh! No schedule! Just wait until a train shows up! Hahaha! Well, after more than one and a half hour a train comes and we jump in. Yay, it’s our train to Cudillero!
There we go with our 2 heavy backpacks full of delicious things and our sheet of plywood! 🙂
When we arrive on board after the 45 min walk from the train station we are pretty exhausted from carrying the heavy backpacks, shopping bag and board of plywood. But the delicious cheesecake from the bakery in Avilés as a dessert is a great reward!
January 15 – more on the lazarette project
First, Wim starts making a cabinet for the SSB antenna tuner. The tuner has been sitting here unprotected and some stuff in the lazarette could have bumped into it at sea. Luckily that didn’t happen but a cabinet was a priority on our to-do list.
Next is the shelf. It will be above the big tool case. This tool case contains drawers with numerous special tools, it’s very heavy and it needs to be secure at sea. And by making a strong shelf above it we create extra space, for instance for the air compressor and for the dive compressor that we’ve ordered!
This is what the shelf is going to be look like.
Meanwhile, Sher picks up another project.
We have our freezer under this turquoise lid. We have some trouble with condensation on the lid and stacking of ice around the lid of the freezer box. We think it needs more insulation. The entire freezer is very well insulated in more than 10cm foam but the lid is only 3cm thick and we think that causes condensation, moisture and ice around it. So, we have discussed how to improve this. First, we raise the turquoise lid by 5cm. That gives us room for extra insulation.
Then, Sher covers the entire space under the lid with agricultural plastic foil. We are going to pour liquid foam and this foam doesn’t stick to this kind of plastic. So, we can release it when the foam is cured.
Then, we pour the 2-component foam, close the lid and wait 20 minutes till it cures. Then, we pour a little bit of foam in the holes again, close the lid, etcetera. In 6 stages like that.
At the last stage, the foam expands with force and we have to keep the lid down with some pieces of wood!
Here you see the foam expanding out of the lid. Meaning the room under the lid is completely filled with foam.
January 16 – more freezer foam project
Next morning, we release the block of foam.
It looks pretty good but it needs some additional foam on the sides.
In three stages, we put extra foam on the sides to make it a nice, smooth block.
Every time, Sher cuts away the excess foam.
Finally, we wrap it in plastic and see how it improves the freezer. Later, we’ll decide how to finish this block of foam.
To see if it improved the energy demand we have a look on our Victron Cerbo. The Cerbo senses the freezer temperature via a Bluetooth device. The thermostat of the freezer is set at -14ºC and we see the temperature moving from -12ºC to -15ºC while the compressor switches on and off.
So here’s the difference: before the foam block it did around 7 cycles per 24h and after it does around 3-4 cycles!
Well, we’ll have to see how things develop under our new foam piece: condensation, ice growth, moisture and mold. That will take one or two weeks to determine. But it looks promising!
Meanwhile, Wim has been working on the shelf in the starboard aft cabin (lazarette). It’s a nice and solid (18mm plywood) construction.
At least, he looks pretty satisfied with his work? 🙂
The big tool case fits right under the shelf and has two ridges on the floor to keep it in place.
And like the welder guy said when we were building the steel hull: on a boat, think upside down! What happens when you heel 90 degrees or worse, get upside down? Heavy weights should stay in place in any circumstance at sea!
The cabinet around the antenna tuner is closed now. Later, everything will get new paint: white. The pink colors are a souvenir from Wim’s daughter Dione, when she lived aboard. This used to be her room. She painted it herself 🙂
January 18 – everything fits great back in the lazarette!
Everything (except the scooters) in place. We have some more things things to do but this looks good so far: seaworthy, and we gained a lot more space!
January 21 – next project, toilet hose 🙁
Already for a couple of months, our toilet hasn’t flushed very well. We expect chalk problems in the hose that drains the toilet into the black-water tank and into the sea. Therefore, we have to close the through-hull valve to take the hose off. But we’ve discovered that the handle of the valve doesn’t move… So, this valve needs to be replaced. When we were in Gijón, we ordered a new bronze valve. But, to replace it we have to haul out the boat. Hm. That’s a big thing… We’d better combine this when we need a haul-out for more reasons: to clean the hull and/or do repairs. So, we have been thinking: what if we soak the shaft with WD40 and release the nut that presses the shaft? That will release it, maybe? Well, the pressure nut is not a common size that fits Wim’s sockets, it’s an inch size. 5/8″ to be precise. So, we order a 5/8-inch socket on Amazon and today, after a few days of soaking in WD40, Wim is going to try to release the pressure nut. That is nerve-racking… If something breaks we might have a leakage of seawater. Sher gets out our through-hull stoppers – an assortment in many sizes, if we have to plug the hole in case of emergency…
Here’s emergency cones kit to plug holes….
Well, the pressure nut releases very easily! Nothing leaking, and when Wim moves the handle a couple of times, the ball in the valve starts to move freely. Great! Now, we can close the valve and take the hose off.
Yes, there is a huge build-up of limestone/limescale in the hose! This is created by the continuous combination of urine and seawater in the hose.
We take out the entire hose and push the dock’s water hose in it.
A lot of brown limescale comes out.
After flushing it thoroughly, the hose is completely clean! The limescale deposits came off completely. That’s great, we don’t have to replace the hose.
Meanwhile, inside is a terrible mess: floor boards open, cabinets emptied, tools everywhere.
But, after we install the hose again, the toilet works like a charm! Happy toilet, happy sailors! 🙂
January 22-24 – Winter storm coming
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 up a spray of water from the surface inside the port. But that’s only very rare and it doesn’t bother us. Here are a few wind maps; screenshots from the Meteo app recently. 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 in 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. 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.
After some delays ,we have received the dive compressor we ordered in France. It is a so-called Hookah system. The name ‘Hookah’ comes from the waterpipe:
After some delays ,we have received the dive compressor we ordered in France. It is a so-called Hookah system. The name ‘Hookah’ comes from the water pipe:
Instead of diving with a tank of compressed air on your back (scuba diving), you breath trough a hose. The special compressor generates pressurized air (4 bar) that is supplied to the 2-stage regulator (mouth piece) via a 15m hose.
We can dive to a depth of max 10m, that is good enough to dive under the boat to clean the hull, dive to the propeller to clean it or free it when for instance a rope or fishing net gets strangled in it and to dive to the anchor in case it gets stuck behind something at the sea bottom.
We choose this Hookah system because it’s much simpler than a scuba system and we can operate it fully self-sustaining. Scuba tanks need to be filled by high pressure air at a dive shop. To fill these tanks ourselves would take a very expensive (over 10.000 euro) and power demanding compressor. Plus, the tanks are expensive and need to be maintained and certified all the time.
We fix the compressor to the new shelf by milling holes for it’s rubber feet.
A strap will go through the holes and around the compressor to hold it in place.
It’s an Italian made 2-cylinder oil-free compressor with a 12v 500W electric motor. The frame serves as a buffer for 3 liters of pressurized air.
Next to the dive compressor we position our regular air compressor. We use that for inflating fenders and such.
It was in the forward cabin up till now but that wasn’t a suitable place.
Straps through the holes in shelf hold both compressors in place.
One of the most important parts of the dive compressor is the air filter for the output. Nardi has an excellent name for this. You don’t want to breathe in anything other than pure air! So, no dust, no vapors, no metal particles, etcetera.
This is the filter cartridge. It needs pressurized air to have air flow.
We’ve ordered 2 spare cartridges . They need to be replaced every 30 hours.
Meanwhile, Sher continues sewing fender dresses 🙂
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 tealights, have delicious meals (with a nice glass of Rioja), watch an episode of the Spanish series ‘Vivir sin Permiso’ (“Unauthorized Living”, in English) in our nest and we sleep long. Life is a joy!
January 25-26 – another storm approaches (read more about the storm)
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 from going there at night.
But, something’s coming up… All fishing vessels, which always stay on the quay at Sundays, go on moorings buoys. The weather forecasts for the next days are pretty bad: storm, rain and huge waves…
Wim picks up another project: a shelf in the cabinet for the electric tools.
All electric machines were stuffed up in that cabinet, all over each other. Hard to get one out and back in again, and bad for the machines.
That’s much better! Some dividers have to made still, but we’ve ran out of plywood. Next time when we go to Avilés, we’ll buy some wood.
Close the door…
Some little sunny intervals before the approaching storm!
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!
January 29
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 have 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.
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! Read more about the storm
It’s a tough night. Wim is up from 2am checking and adjusting boat fenders to avoid damage. Sher is up from 3am, but goes back to bed a few hours later, while Wim stays up till 9am, daylight. The swell eases down a bit because it’s almost low tide and the fenders are stable. Wim gets 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 dresses are completely ripped 🙁 And they have a somewhat too low air pressure because of the huge force that was on them. But! Sher has made new fender dresses! So, we replace the worst ones. And bring ‘m back to the right air pressure.
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.
Read more about the storm and Wim’s thoughts on preparation!
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… 🙂
January 31 – Ahoy from s/v Antares!
Around noon, we get a WhatsApp message from an Austrian couple. They have their boat in Avlilés and they are visiting Cudillero. They have spotted Dione IV and found Wim’s telephone number on the MarineTraffic website. Since there’s no berth available, they inquire about coming alongside tomorrow. Hmm. That’s not a good idea since there’s still some swell and some bad weather forecast for Sunday. Two boats tied together would probably be too much for the cleats on the pontoon. We decide to invite them over to explain this situation. Maybe the berth at our stern will come available as there is a local boat there temporary, he should be on a mooring ball. So, our suggestion is that the Austrian couple will have to wait for that, go on a mooring ball, or wait until we have left.
Anyway, Ingo and Marleth are a lovely couple and we have a very nice afternoon with them! It appears that we have lots of things in common. As they are sailing the same route and have roughly the same time schedule, we will certainly meet again!
February 1 – Hi Ho, Hi Ho, to Avilés we go!
Today, we go to Avilés by public transport. We have ordered a cheesecake and some bread at La Miga de Mariana bakery, Sher wants to go to the big Carrefour hypermarket and Wim wants to buy some plywood and the Brico store.
Here we are in the train back to Cudillero with all our stuff 🙂
Back on Dione IV, the big cheesecake has to be divided between the fridge and the freezer. We cut extra-small pieces so it lasts – 24 super delicious dessert slices instead of the normal 8 pieces!
February 3 – Every tool has its own space
Now that we have plywood again, Wim can finish the tools cabinet. All electric tools fit nicely, are well protected and are easy to take out.
February 4 – cleaning the propeller
Tomorrow, we plan to leave. The weather forecast says: no wind in the morning, 15 knots from the North-east in the afternoon. So, that means a motor boating at least half a day. We have noticed that we have some seaweed on the propeller and that has to be cleaned first. Dirt on the prop uses more diesel and provides less propulsion and speed. So, this is a nice opportunity to try out our new Hookah dive system!
Wim gets into his new wetsuit and dives down to the propeller. The water is 14ºC and thanks to the 5mm wet suit it doesn’t feel cold at all. It’s a pity that the water isn’t clear, because the little river that runs into the port is bringing in a lot of sediment. The stream is quite powerful due to all the rain last Sunday. So, the visibility under water is quite poor.
But he’s doing fine! The Hookah system works great and breathing under water is very easy.
The lead belt needs some adjustments: 2x 2kg of lead isn’t quite enough to stay down but it’s okay for now. Later, we will add another 2 kg’s and see how that goes next time.
Cleaning the prop with Scotch Brite isn’t successful. That doesn’t remove all of the growth. A steel brush works fine and after 10 minutes of brushing the prop is shiny!
All good!
Happy propeller, happy boat, happy sailors!
February 5 – Bye, bye, Cudillero!
After exactly 2 months we are going to leave our beloved Cudillero today! And head west, to Ribadeo. A trip of 40 sea miles.
At 8 o’clock, we start untying our spiderweb of dock lines 🙂
We have to cut our 1-inch line because the knots have been pulled too hard, we can’t untie ‘m. But it has been chafing pretty bad in the pontoon’s cleat. 2 months of constant movement! But, this big old one has held us nice and tight to the pontoon!
The spring dock line on the middle bollard has also suffered at lot…
After all the dock lines are released, we take off.
There we go! Bye-bye Cudillero! Thank you for the wonderful time, thank you Javier (harbormaster), thank you to all the friendly people we met!
At 0830h, we turn out of the port, pushing our bow into the swell. One last look at the “más bonitas pueblo de España”
We round the wall and Dione IV plows her bow into the swell (swell North-West 2-4m). There’s no wind and Marvelous Mighty Mitsu is growling with pleasure to push us forward again after such a long time!
The sun rises behind us while we stow away the 10 boat fenders and head to Ribadeo!
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