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.
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!
Highlights – the overview
After we leave Peniche, there’s an 8 knots wind right at our stern. We set the mainsail and Yankee sail in a wing-on-wing, or “butterfly” configuration, and we do around 4 knots of speed.
Dione IV is designed for this sail configuration… downwind and following the trade winds endlessly. Dick Koopmans Sr. and his wife wrote all about this in their books.
We are approaching Cabo da Roca… the western-most point of the European continent.
Dione IV is more west than she ever was before! And more South, of course.
We’ve made it! We are anchored in Cascais (pronounced: “Cash-kaish”), on the Atlantic coast by the Tagus river, which leads to Lisbon. All the boats from the Friends of Manolino WhatsApp group are here together!
The anchorage is lovely. We have beautiful weather, there’s a light swell curling around the corner that makes Dione IV rock gently, we have a cocktail hour with the Friends of Manoliño and we enjoy the city of Cascais.
An other boat arrives: “Zee van Tijd”, our friends Annet & Rainier. We have a coffee together, with fresh Pastel de Nata of course! These are from Aloha, which won the “best Pastel de Nata” in Portugal for the last 2 years. We disagree… Castro is still the best!
Sher has arranged a berth in the Alcântara marina, in Lisbon. This is the marina closest to the city center. 3 friends visiting Lisbon can easily visit us there. After breakfast, we hoist our anchor and leave Cascais.
There is no wind so we motor along the beautiful coastline of the Tagus river. We have about 2 knots of tidal current on our stern.
We pass the famous Belem tower but the tower itself isn’t visible because it is in scaffolding and nets because it’s being reconstructed.
The explorers monument near Belem is nice.
We approach the famous “Ponte 25 de abril” bridge, which looks very similar to San Franciso’s iconic Golden Gate bridge.
After the bridge, we turn into the Marina behind the container terminal. Hmm… Dione IV stuffed between big boats… We do not really like this place. It’s hot and noisy, no nice view, and the water is dirty. But, convenient for friends visiting us.
Of course, we never swim in the dirty water of marinas. But this monster, and his even bigger friends here, are an extra reason for not going into the water! The biggest one we saw was about half a meter in diameter and almost a meter long!
Michele and Nigel arrive and we are so happy to see them. Sher and Michele have a day together in the old town of Lisbon, then we have lunch on Dione IV the following day and dinner out with friends Marcia and Tom so everyone can meet.
Today, we have brunch at the B&B where Michele & Nigel stay. It’s only a 15 min walk from the marina. From there, we go to Sintra’s Pena castle. There are thousands of visitors climbing up to the castle…
We’re so happy to be enjoying this time and sightseeing here with our friends!
We sailed along the coast in the background.
We head back to Michele and Nigel’s place for a light dinner and another round of Nigel’s delicious Portuguese sangria made with this liquor. Then we say goodbye, as they have an early flight the next morning.
And just as Michele and Nigel leave, Sher’s friend Jana arrives for a few days. This will be our first stay-aboard guest on Dione IV since Sher and Wim are together. Great fun! Jana is a lovely guest and delighted to experience a bit of boat life with us!
Sher and Jana go into the old town of Lisbon to have, what else?… a Castro Pastel de Nata and coffee, then do some shopping before we leave the marina.
We will go to the anchorage at Seixal, at the south side of the Tagus river. Some of our friends are there already and they say it’s a tranquil place. Well, we could use some quietness and silence after a week in Alcântara!
We anchor in the bay.
Today is Sacha’s (boat “Smile”) birthday and we are invited at the little square in Seixal. We have delicious home made Sangrias! And it’s so nice to see everybody again!
We have a lovely time with Jana. She’s an easy guest. She loves everything: the boat, the food and drinks, the city, the company (of course 😄).
Today she flies back to Geneva to see her son. Sher accompanies her to the airport. On her way back, in Lisbon city, she sees Pastel de Nata socks in Dione IV color! Very funny 😄
Somebody asks: what kind of Pastel de Nata are they?
Castro’s, of course! 😂 (note: Castro does not actually sell socks in their Pastel de Nata boxes… haa haa!)
We love the anchorage here and the little town of Seixel with its little port. It is really a local town and community, but with a very convenient ferry back across to the bustling city of Lisbon.
Sher comes home from provisioning.
There’s a great Lidl supermarket here!
We’re having sunny days but the days get shorter and the sun gets lower. We have just enough solar power to keep our battery bank full (we cycle between 80 and 100%, we left the the marina Alcantara with 100%) We consume about 3kWh’s/day and the solar panels yield about 3 kWh’s/day.
In the morning, we go on a Flamingo safari with our friends Tom & Marcia (from the boat “Bird Song”) and Rainier & Annet (from the boat “Zee van Tijd”). We take 2 dinghies with electric motors, not to disturb the Flamingo’s 🤫
At low tide, we go deep into the estuary until it gets so shallow that we have to row. Then we are using the oars to pole through the mud… until we are stuck and need to back out. Walking is no option because the seabed is very muddy.
But then, we see 4 flamingos! Still at a considerable distance away, but Sher manages to get some pictures, zooming in. Beautiful!
When the tide rises, we head back. The dinghies are tied together; coupled like a catamaran 😄. We’re having a nice chat with all of the group.
After that, we have coffee together on Dione IV. What a lovely morning!
In the afternoon, the wind increases to about 20 knots. On the anchorage, there’s a pretty strong current (about 2 knots). In a wind against current situation, Dione IV turns and circles like crazy around her anchor. The current tries to keep her bow in the current and the wind tries the same but from the opposite direction. The result is swinging in all directions, making a 50m circle with our 25m of chain (in 6m water at high tide). Sometimes we drift over our anchor, the chain goes from the bow under the boat to the stern! Because all boats behave differently in these circumstances, we get dangerously close sometimes. This is not so nice… Luckily, the tide changes and the current reverses so that wind and current are in the same direction. That stabilizes everything…. until we are too close again. We need to go onto a mooring buoy for safety, but these big plastic mooring balls hit and damage the boat’s hull. What to do?…
While Sher maneuvers Dione IV close to the buoy, Wim tows a line around the buoy and hoists it out of the water. Now, we can put a line though the underwater shackle.
First, we lift the anchor from its roller, so we can pull the mooring line through. We hoist the mooring ball in the hope that we can keep it clear of the hull.
We hoist the buoy completely out of the water, because when it stays floating, it’s still going to hit the hull. Making a lot of noise and damages to the paint.
Of course, Sher has a pajama ready to protect the paint! 😄
The result is a spaghetti of lines on the fore deck but we think it’s pretty good!
Then, another boat shows up. This time there are 2 marineros accompanying them and they are going to assist in mooring. The two guys on board (one at the helm and the other on the bow with lines) obviously don’t know what they are doing. This results in a 1 hour circus act and they can’t get the boat moored! One of the marineros gets extremely angry and is shouting loudly all the time 😱. They leave, so Wim and another boat take dinghies to try and help them tie up. No success. The marineros return and try to tow the boat onto the mooring. No success. Lots of yelling and frustration. In the end, the marineros leave, very angry, without having the boat moored. Then the boat leaves, too.
Sher goes to the sewing machine store in Lisbon with Marcia and Tom… the trip is successful. They did some tests with some heavy fabric Sher took with her and Bird Song now has a new Pfaff sewing machine. It will do most boat projects, which is just what they want!
Marcia (and maybe Tom too?) is a “Pfaffer” now! 😂 Some of the ladies (including Sher) from the boats we know have Pfaff sewing machines so the club is growing… 🤗
The weather isn’t great and the mooring is hitting the hull. We decide this isn’t a good solution. Sher is back on board and the Pfaff safely stowed on Bird Song, so we have lunch and after that we release Dione IV from the awful mooring buoy and head to Lisbon with the current on our stern. Luckily it has stopped raining.
The old town of Lisbon in the sun.
So beautiful! Our “City of Love” 🥰
A little sunny interval makes the sights extra lovely! We pass under the bridge and are heading past Lisbon and on to Oeiras, at the entrance of the Tagus river. We’ll stay at the marina there for a month, while Sher travels back to the USA and Wim does some onboard projects.
After a challenging entrance to the marina, and the boat next to us having lines across our space, not a bad place. The marineros are super nice and come immediately to assist! We even have a view at the Tagus.
A little side story from Wim… As we pass the marina Bom Successo near Belem, he remembers years ago seeing a boat there named Pandora, and thinking that this was the type of boat he loved… ketch rig, deck salon, and with clipper bow and heart-shaped stern. This became the inspiration for Dione IV!
The Captain’s Log [T464, 465,…483] – the complete story
October 3.
After we leave Peniche, there’s an 8 knots wind right at our stern. We set the mainsail and Yankee sail in a wing-on-wing, or “butterfly” configuration, and we do around 4 knots of speed. It’s cloudy but the forecast is a sunny afternoon.
Dione IV is designed for this. Following the trade winds endlessly. Dick Koopmans Sr. and his wife wrote all about this in their books.
In the afternoon, it gets sunny indeed and the wind increases a bit to about 13 knots, still at our stern. We keep the wing-on-wing sail configuration and enjoy the ride!
Dione IV is designed for this. Following the trade winds endlessly. Dick Koopmans Sr. and his wife wrote all about this in their books.
Butterfly sail configurations from light winds to storm situations.
No more beaches. A more rocky coast and cliffs.
When we approach Cabo da Roca, we see the castle of Sintra in the distance on the hill.
There comes Cabo da Roca.
The most western point of the European continent.
Dione IV is more west than she ever was before!
And more South, of course.
When we round the capes, the wind increases to 20-25 knots and our course changes to a broad reach. We jibe the mainsail and hoist the mizzen and Dione IV picks up full speed: 7-8 knots.
The wind increases to 30 knots. We surf at full speed on the big waves: We see 8.5 knots of speed!
We’ve made it! We are anchored in Cascais (pronounced: “Cash-kaish”), on the Atlantic coast by the Tagus river, which leads to Lisbon. All the boats from the Friends of Manolino WhatsApp group are here together! Yay! We’ll call a few marinas on Monday to try to get a berth for the time Michele and Nigel visit. We’ll be in the Lisbon area for about 5-6 weeks and then continue our journey south.
Sunset over Cascais 🤩
October 5.
The anchorage is lovely. We have beautiful weather, there’s a light swell curling around the corner that makes Dione IV rock gently, we have a cocktail hour with the Friends of Manoliño and we enjoy the city of Cascais.
October 6.
An other boat arrives: “Zee van tijd”, our friends Annet & Rainier. We have a coffee together, with fresh Pastel de Nata of course!
The nights are tranquil, the gentle swell rocking us to sleep under a full moon 🤗
October 7.
Sher has arranged a berth in the Alcântara marina in Lisbon. This is the marina closest to the city center. 3 friends visiting Lisbon can easily visit us there.
After breakfast, we hoist our anchor and leave Cascais.
There is no wind so we motor along the beautiful coastline of the Tagus river. We have about 2 knots of tidal current on our stern.
We pass the famous Belem tower but the tower itself isn’t visible because it is in scaffolding and nets because it’s being reconstructed.
The explorers monument near Belem is nice.
We approach the famous “Ponte 25 de abril” bridge.
What a nice experience to sail under this bridge!
Wim has crossed it many times by car while he was working in Lisbon.
The bridge reminds Sher of the Golden Gate bridge in her beloved San Francisco.
And Dione IV thinks: Yay! I’m more South and more West then I’ve ever been! Bring it on!
After the bridge, we turn left in to the Doca de Alcântara and find the berth that has been reserved for us.
Hm. Dione IV stuffed between big boats… We do not really like this place. It’s hot and noisy, no nice view, the water is dirty. Well, it has a purpose: friends visiting us.
In the afternoon, we take walk along the river Tagus and admire the bridge again.
We we get back on board, Wim’s colleague Pieter and his wife Annet knock on the railing. They are visiting Portugal, partially for work, partially for pleasure. We have drinks and snacks and a good time together!
Sunset in Alcântara.
We can see the bridge but it’s making a lot of noise: the cars drive on some kind of grid instead of tarmac and that generates a loud humming noise.
On our Port side is the container terminal. The loading and unloading of containers goes on day and night. There’s a constant noise of the cranes and the banging of the steel containers. Another noise is the coming and going of yachts doing sunset tours with tourists. And on top of that all, there are the airplanes: every 2 minutes a plane descends a low altitude to Lisbon airport.
But the nights are pretty quiet, luckily. So we sleep well.
Of course, we never swim in the dirty water of marinas. But this monster is an extra reason for not going into the water!
9 October.
Today, our friends Michele & Nigel arrive. They admire Dione IV and we have a nice lunch at the cockpit table and a wonderful afternoon. In the evening, Tom & Marcia from the boat “Bird Song”, still at anchorage in Cascais, come to Lisbon and the 6 of us have a delicious dinner and a good time in a bistro in Lisbon center.
October 12.
Today, we have brunch at the B&B where Michele & Nigel stay. It’s only a 15 min walk from the marina.
After that, we take a Bolt taxi to Sintra, Pena castle. After a 45 min drive it’s a half an hour walk up to the castle. We are not the only ones… There are traffic jams on the way to the drop-off point and there are thousands of visitors climbing up to the castle…
But the castle is beautiful. Built on the rocks, over-viewing the ocean.
A stop along the way up to the palace for photos
Not a very friendly guy…
A beautiful patio.
We’re so happy to be enjoying this time and sightseeing here with our friends!
The interior is authentic and well preserved.
The exterior is colorful and has a Moorish style.
The views over the mainland are stunning.
Impressive interior decor.
This used to be the kitchen.
Who picked this color combination, anyway?
This is where we sailed by!
We sailed along the coast in the background.
In the evening, we have dinner at Michele & Nigel’s place. Tomorrow, they’ll fly back to the US,
October 13.
Today, Sher’s friend Jana arrives. She’s going to stay on board for a few days.
We have a great dinner at the pizza place where we were last year February.
After that, we walk back to the marina, enjoying the view at the bridge and the large Jesus statue in Almada, at the opposite site of the Tagus..
October 14.
In the morning, Sher and Jana do some sightseeing and some shopping in Lisbon.
In the afternoon, it’s time to leave this marina and go to an anchorage!
We will go to the anchorage at Seixal, at the other side of the Tagus. Some of our friends are there already and they say it’s a tranquil place. Well, we could use some quietness and silence after a week in Alcântara!
No wind, so we motor to cross the Tagus.
We anchor in the bay.
Today is Sacha’s (boat “Smile”) birthday and we are invited at the little square in Seixal. We have delicious home made Sangria’s! And it’s so nice to see everybody again!
Good times!
The sun goes down over our anchorage as we return to Dione IV.
October 15.
And, what goes down, must rise again!
We have lovely weather, already for weeks. Most days with a blue sky, light breeze and temperatures around 25ºC. There’s tidal current here, around 2 knots at half tide. It makes us turn around our anchor 4 times a day but the holding is good.
October 16.
We have a lovely time with Jana. She’s an easy guest. She loves everything: the boat, the food and drinks, the city, the company (of course 😄).
Today she flies to Geneva to visit her son. Sher accompanies her to the airport. On her way back, in Lisbon city, she sees Pastel de Nata socks in Dione IV color! Very funny 😄
Somebody asks: what kind of Pastel de Nata are they?
Castro’s, of course! 😂
A blood red sky after sunset.
October 17.
We love this anchorage!
Today, we do 3 loads of laundry.
When the sun goes down, our battery bank is not at 100% (98), despite the fact that it was a bright and sunny day. The washing machine takes about 5% per load and the sun is lower and the days are getting shorter. Our solar panels yield pretty much the same energy as we use (about 3kWh/day). So, not much surplus any more…
We love the little town of Seixel with its little port.
This is the dinghy dock. Nobody nagging about leaving our dinghy there and certainly not asking for money for it!
The cozy town squares are so pretty and calm…
In the afternoon, Wim scrubs the waterline. We don’t have much growth, only marina-dirt. He works for from within the dinghy because the water is not so clean here (river sediment) and there are huge jellyfish. Because of the troubled water you can’t see them coming!
October 18.
Sher comes home from provisioning.
There’s a great Lidl supermarket here!
We’re having sunny days but the days get shorter and the sun gets lower. We have just enough solar power to keep our battery bank full (we cycle between 80 and 100%, we left the the marina Alcantara with 100%) We consume about 3kWh’s/day and the solar panels yield about 3 kWh’s/day.
At around 1900h, the sun sets. Today, in beautiful deep red colors. Well, that means: the weather is going to change…
October 19.
In the morning, we go on a Flamingo safari with our friends Tom & Marcia (from the boat “Bird Song”) and Rainier & Annet (from the boat “Zee van tijd”). We take 2 dinghy’s with electric motors, not to disturb the Flamingo’s 🤫
At low tide, we go deep into the estuary until it gets so shallow that we have to row. At a distance, we see 2 flamingo’s but they fly away as we approach.
We go deeper and deeper into the estuary and it gets so shallow that our dinghy’s run aground. We can’t go any further. Walking is no option because the seabed is very muddy.
But then, we see 4 flamingo’s! Still at a considerable distance but Sher manages to get some pictures, zooming in. Beautiful!
When the tide rises, we head back. The dinghy’s coupled like a catamaran 😄. We’re having a nice chat with all of the group.
After that, we have coffee together on Dione IV. What a lovely morning!
In the afternoon, the wind increases to about 20 knots. On the anchorage, there’s a pretty strong current (about 2 knots). In a wind against current situation, Dione IV turns and circles like crazy around her anchor. The current tries to keep her bow in the current and the wind tries the same but from the opposite direction. The result is swinging in all directions, making a 50m circle with our 25m of chain (in 6m water at high tide). Sometimes we drift over our anchor, the chain goes from the bow under the boat to the stern! Because all boats behave differently in these circumstances, we get dangerously close sometimes. This is not so nice… Luckily, the tide changes and the current reverses so that wind and current are in the same direction. That stabilizes everything.
The Lidl sells great fresh grilled chicken skewers. Delicious with some home made saté sauce, rice and cabbage!
October 20.
Today, there’s 15-20 knots of wind again. In the afternoon, we have the same problem with wind against current. We are getting up to a few meters of other boats. This is not good. This is not a good place to anchor. There’s not enough room. We decide to call the marinero’s and go to a mooring buoy. A marinero shows up in his dinghy and tells us which buoy we can have. We ask him to assist in attaching the line to the buoy because they pretty big and have no eye on top. So, that means the line goes somewhere under water through an eye. No, he can’t help us and he dissapears!
Well, it’s high tide so there’s no current and the wind has eased down a lot. So, let’s try.
While Sher maneuvers Dione IV close to the buoy Wim tows a line around the buoy and hoists it out of the water. Now, we can put a line though the underwater shackle.
First, we lift the anchor from its roll.
Then, we pull the mooring buoy as high as possible.
And hoist the buoy out of the water. The problem is, when it stays floating, it’s going to hit the hull. Making a lot of noise and damages to the paint.
Of course, Sher has a pajama ready to protect the paint! 😄
The result is a spaghetti of lines on the fore deck but we think it’s pretty good!
Then, another boat shows up. This time there are 2 marinero’s accompanying them and the are going to assist in mooring. This results in a 1 hour circus act and they can’t get the boat moored! One of the marinero’s gets extremely angry and is shouting loudly all the time 😱. After all, the marinero’s leave, very angry, without having the boat moored. Then the boat leaves, too.
October 21.
Hm. Last night the buoy came loose and was making a lot of noise against our water stay. At 0400h, Wim got up to fix it again but after a while it came loose again. Bad night’s sleep…
It’s a rainy and windy morning. Sher goes to Lisbon with Tom & Marcia and Wim stays on board. Dione IV is swinging vigorously around the mooring in 20-25 knot of wind.
A boat came loose and is drifting with the current! Luckily, the marinero’s get there and tow it to the dock in town.
A boat anchored next to us come way to close! Nobody on board there.
The mooring buoy is making a lot of noise, flipping from one side to the other on our bow. Shitty. This isn’t a good place in this kind of weather. When it was calm weather, it was fine. There was just the current turning us around 4 times a day. But with this wind it’s really bad. We decide to get the the hell out of here before accidents happen or we get damages. We call Oeiras marina (on the other side of the Tagus, in the direction of Cascais) and they have a berth for us. We decide to go there in the afternoon, at high tide.
Plenty of power in sunny intervals with the wind generator running!
Sher’s visit to the sewing machine store is successful. They did some tests with some heavy fabric Sher took with her and Marcia bought the Pfaff machine.
She’s a “Pfaffer” now, too! 😂 Some of the ladies (including Sher) from the boats we know have a Pfaff sewing machine so the club is growing… 🤗
When Sher is back on board we have lunch and after that we release Dione IV from the awful mooring buoy and head to Lisbon with the current on our stern. Luckily it has stopped raining.
Many ferries pass.
2 ferries passing on either side of us!
The old town of Lisbon in the sun.
So beautiful! Our “City of Love” 🥰
There’s the impressive “Ponte de 25 abril” again.
This orca didn’t come after our rudder! 😅
Beautiful old and new builings next to each other.
The explorer’s monument.
A little sunny interval makes it extra lovely!
The “Torre de Belem”, regretfully in scaffoldings.
This is the marina “Doca do Bom Sucesso” where Wim got his idea for the design of the Dione IV.
Little side story:
While Wim was was working in Lisbon in 2002, in his spare time he browsed through the marina’s. On August 28 he saw this boat in “Doca do Bom Successo”, she was called “Pandora”.
Then, he thought: this the kind of boat I love.
The ketch rig with cutter rig main mast, the deck salon, the nice camber,
the clipper bow,
and the heart-shaped stern.
All these design elements are realized in the Dione IV.
After that, we motor against wind but with the current on our stern over the Tagus to Oeiras. It’s a choppy sea and we get some spray on deck. But we make a nice speed (about 6 knots) and at 1800h we arrive in the marina of Oeiras.
Between the breakwaters at the entrance the current makes a weird turn. Wim has to throttle Mighty Mitsu up to get Dione IV in the right direction and he has to do some serious steering. But once inside, everything is super calm and the marinero’s receive us on the pontoon. His thoughts go to the island of Vlieland in the Netherlands: when you can steer a boat into that narrow entrance with 5 knots of current, you can steer into any entrance 😁 Provided you have engine power. And Mighty Mitsu has plenty of that 👊🏻🙂.
Moored at marina Oeiras at a lightly cloudy sunset.
Not a bad place. We even have a view at the Tagus.
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