Ria Arousa – I – Dione IV

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 and contains information for our reference as well.

Highlights – the overview

Last Saturday, the inflatable SUP that Sher ordered has arrived in Portosin.

Today, it’s a beautiful day without wind so a good opportunity to try it out!

First practice is to paddle while kneeling… then after a few circles around the “mothership” Sher is standing up.

Then it’s time to leave this Ria and continue south. Our destination is the entrance of Ria de Arousa, just around the next cape. We anchor in 6m of turquoise water in front of the long beach. The wind picks up and a big swell is coming in, so we stay on board and leave the next morning.

We decide to have a look at an anchorage near Puerto De Aguiño, just around the next cape. On the AIS, we see a fishing vessel go in between the mainland and a small island. It’s a narrow channel but if he can do it then we can too. There’s no wind. But the passage is narrower than we expected!

We make it into the Ria with no problem and at 1300h we drop our anchor in 5m water in front the beach of Ribeira… a lovely calm place.

The next day, we move 5nm into the Ria to the south side of Isla de Arousa. It’s a lovely sheltered bay with big, solid mooring buoys. Antares and Müggele (we know them from our stay in Viveiro) are already there. Nice to see them again! Ingo has invited us to celebrate his birthday with lunch and a walk on shore.

In the evening, we get an email from the webmaster of the OpenCPN (navigation software) website. We uploaded a picture of our navigation computer with OpenCPN on the screen. The webmaster says:” “It’s such a great picture of OpenCPN in action and you You really have a nicely laid out pilot house, may we use the picture as a featured image on our homepage?”

Well, we have to ask Badger and the Bears because they are in the picture. But they agree! In fact, they feel honored. They will be world famous! 😀

We do some work on our computers, some research for an electric outboard motor for the dinghy, Wim does some some maintenance jobs and Sher some sewing on the dinghy floor cover. Now you can see how much we’ve moved from paper charts to digital navigation… The paper chart course plotter is used for sewing 😂

In the evening, we make Nasi Goreng with Saté sauce and Seroendeng. In Spain, there are zero Indonesian spices available so all the spices had to come from our Holland-stock! It is truly delicious!

Dione IV in lower right – Drone photo from friends on Muggele

Yesterday’s strong winds have calmed down to almost nothing so Sher tries out the kayak seat on her SUP. It’s great!

The weather turns windy and cloudy… time for some maintenance jobs and indoor projects. For some months already, there’s a little bit of coolant in the bilge under the engine, so Wim needs to check that out. Next is cleaning the water intake filter, which is totally clogged up. This proves to be quite the challenge, but finally, with a product from Ingo, boiling and scrubbing with some metal brushes, it comes clean.

On the hull we have 2 little damages so they get a little treatment too. As a base for the teal high gloss paint we use grey primer (Interprotect). Sher has to get the pot out of our paint store in the forward cabin. While there, she decides to do some organizing. Wim puts layers of primer on the spots and then will finish with high-gloss paint.

In the afternoon, Sher continues sewing the cover for the dinghy floor.

In the evening, we test our shortwave (SSB) system and configure and test the SailMail connection on Sher’s laptop as a backup.

The bear ‘Schilder’ has his eyes on the Pactor Modem and he checks if everything is all right! Indeed, everything works fine and we have a very good connection with the SailMail station in Belgium. We easily configure Sher’s laptop and send some test emails.

In the afternoon, we take a walk over the south side of the island. Great views!

In the evening, there’s zero wind and the sea is like a mirror.

What a wonderful happy life afloat!

The Captain’s Log [T343, 344,…357] – the complete story

May 26.

After 2 days in the marina of Portosin we decide to go to the anchorage Ensenada de Esteiro. We have to wait for one more parcel to arrive and the anchorage is a lot more attractive than the marina.

May 27.

Last Saturday, the inflatable SUP that Sher ordered has arrived in Portosin.

Today, it’s a beautiful day without wind so a good opportunity to try it out!

First practice is to paddle while kneeling…

After a few circles around the boat, she’s standing up 🙂

In the afternoon, we get a message that the parcel has arrived. It’s the kayak seat for Sher’s SUP. We decide to go and pick it in Portosin marina and we motor the 2 sea miles while Wim does some experiments with the OpenCPN system. There’s still an issue with the wind display but bit by bit we’re unraveling the problem…

We moor for half an hour on the waiting pontoon and Sher gets the package. Then we sail back to the anchorage at Esteiro.

Dinner at the cockpit table, a beautiful sunset, we watch an episode of our series in our nest and we have a wonderful quiet night. 🤗

May 28.

We depart from the anchorage at 0900h. Our destination is the entrance of Ria de Arousa, just around the next cape. A 15 nautical miles sail. The wind is supposed to increase in the afternoon and we should arrive at the anchorage at midday.

We sail out of the Ria de Muros with a gentle 10 knots downwind but once we are at open sea the wind increases to 25-30 knots. There’s a solid swell of 2-3m from the North-West and the 1,5m wind waves come from the North-East so we have pretty confused cross-seas.

We tumble and roll around Cabo Corrubedo, but we make nice speed and after we round the cape the sea calms down.

We anchor in 6m of turquoise water in front of the long beach.

Here are Las Dunas da Corrubedo, the famous dunes.

The afternoon is pretty windy. Around 20 knots from the North. The anchor holds well in clear white sand. 2 more boats anchor next to us.

In the early evening, the wind is suddenly completely gone although the forecasts didn’t indicate any change 🤔. The weather keeps surprising us…

Although we should have good protection from the swell by this long cape, there’s obviously quite a bit of swell curling around the corner. We are rolling quite a bit that night.

May 29.

After a beautiful sunrise and coffee in the cockpit we decide to move on. We didn’t sleep so well. Perhaps we’re not used to the heavy rolling any more…

Here you see the channel between the rocks left and right.

The passage is narrower than we thought… You don’t want to kiss this baby’s belly…🫡

Surfing on the swell, we pass the rocks close left and right of us. This is not a place to get an engine failure… 🫡

We pass safely and we have a quick look at Puerto De Aguiño but that’s not an attractive anchorage at all. We decide to move on around the cape, to the bay of Ribeira. After we have rounded this cape the swell is completely gone and we have a smooth sea. We see a group of dolphins pass behind our stern but they’re too far away for pictures.

At 1300h we drop our anchor in 5m water in front the beach of Ribeira.

Lovely place!

It’s really warm, 30ºC. In the afternoon, a gentle breeze come over the hills and that’s nice and cool. We inflate the dinghy but we stay on board. Siësta, bit of cleaning, reading, a lazy afternoon.

While we have a delicious dinner, the beach gets really crowded. And noisy. Well, when the sun goes down behind the hills everything is quiet again.

We have a very calm night with no wind and no swell. We sleep like babies. 😴

May 30.

Now we’re talking Galician Flags!

A warm day with a little haze and sea fog in the distance. Sometimes a breeze from all directions. We make a number of 360º circles around our anchor!

Wim spends a couple of hours swimming in his wetsuit, cleaning spots on the hull just below the waterline. Spots where we didn’t scrub the Coppercoat last time have some seaweed growing on it. So this time he treats these remaining spots with ScotchBrite on the electric scrubber and does some finishing by hand with a patch of ScotchBrite. On the bow thruster prop is no antifouling and there are a lot of small barnacles. But they’re easy to scrub off from the plastic prop.

May 31.

Sunrise in very moist air.

In the morning, we row to the beach and do some provisioning at the Lidl store nearby.

By the end of the morning we move 5 sea miles to the East, to A Illa de Arousa. We’ve been invited by Ingo from the Antares for a lunch in town, tomorrow. It’s his birthday.

It’s a lovely sheltered bay with big, solid mooring buoys. Antares and Müggele (we know them from our stay in Viveiro) are already there. Nice to see them again!

June 1.

We row to the beach and have a delicious lunch in a local restaurant with the group. After that, we take a walk around the northern part of the island, all together. Beautiful! We have a cocktail in a beach bar and and 2000h are back on Dione IV.

In the evening, we get an email from the webmaster of the OpenCPN website. We uploaded a picture of our navigation computer with OpenCPN on the screen. She says:” “It’s such a great picture of OpenCPN in action and you You really have a nicely laid out pilot house, may we use the picture as a featured image on our homepage?”

Well, we have to ask Badger and the Bears because they are in the picture. But they agree! In fact, they feel honored. They will be world famous! 😀

June 2.

We spend the day on board. The weather is nice, it’s a bit cooler than the previous days. 23ºC in the afternoon and sunny with some clouds. The wind has increased to 20-30 knots but we are in our little green spot 🙂 Still, we get gusts of 25 knots but our mooring is very heavy. So, no problem.

In the evening, we make Nasi Goreng with Saté sauce and Seroendeng. In Spain, there are zero Indonesian spices available so all the spices had to come from our Holland-stock!

It is truly delicious!

June 3.

We get some lovely drone shots from Philipp, our neighbour.

Yesterday’s strong winds have calmed down to almost nothing so Sher tries out the kayak seat on her SUP. It’s great!

June 4.

Today is cloudy and windy. The wind is South, 20 knots. Our bay at A Illa de Arousa is open to the south but because there are a lot of islands and peninsula’s in the Ria the waves don’t build up. We have small wind-waves that make us rock a little and our mooring ball is very strong so we can just stay here.

Time for some maintenance jobs. For some months already, there’s a little bit of coolant in the bilge under the engine. Just a few drops per week. But it shouldn’t be there so let’s have a look under the floor of the lazarette. Maybe the heating system is leaking a bit somewhere, maybe the engine. We have noticed that the level of coolant in the reservoir of the heating has gone down a bit over the winter. And, at the daily engine checks, we have noticed that the level of coolant in the heat exchanger has gone down a bit.

After removing a lot of stuff from the lazarette and removing the floor we see no leaks in the heating systems. But Wim sees a drop of coolant at the bottom connection of the spiral in the hot water boiler that exchanges the heat from the engine to the hot water boiler. The hose clamp can be tightened a bit. That must have been the cause. Wim tightens all other hose clamps from the engine’s cooling system too. Most of them can have a half turn more. Well, we didn’t do that yet, after the engine was installed 3 years ago. The rubber or plastic of the hoses tends to settle a bit over time. We add half a liter coolant in the engine to bring the level in the heat exchanger to max and we add a cup in the heating system’s expansion tank in the bathroom to bring the level to min (not to max because we need that room for expansion when the heating gets hot).

So, let’s see if the floor under the engine stays dry. We always keep the white floor under the engine very clean. To be able to see a leakage immediately.

While working on the cooling system, Wim decides to take the seawater filter out for cleaning. It has sufficient flow but we’ve seen a little bit of weed in it, recently (the pot has a transparent lid). He closes the sea cock and takes the stainless steel mesh filter out. Oops! It is badly covered with limestone and barnacles! Most of the holes in the mesh are closed. Maybe 10% of all holes are open, near the top. So, time to clean this!

Wim has done this before. Since it’s all limestone, boiling it in 50% vinegar – 50% water solves it.

We have Spanish vinegar that says: highly concentrated.

We boil it for half an hour but nothing happens. Hm. In the Netherlands, this always worked. Another kind of limestone/barnacles? Another kind of vinegar?

Let’s try toilet cleaner. This stuff works great for limestone in the toilet so it should on this limestone too. But no, nothing happens after half an hour…

Then, we decide to ask our neighbor, Ingo from the Antares. They have a factory in Austria that manufactures all kinds of cleaning products. He has something on board and brings it over with their dinghy. It’s a strong acid. Following Ingo’s instruction, we spray it pure over the filter. It should start foaming. But nothing happens… Them we dilute it with 50% water and boil it for half an hour. No magic is happening…

Then, we take it out of the pan and rinse it with cold water. Hm. It looks like the limestone has softened a bit. Let’s brush it with the steel brush. Yes! A lot of limestone comes of. But not all of it. After brushing the top layer off, we get to a hard layer again.

Boil it for another 15 minutes, brush it, another 15 minutes, brush it, it becomes cleaner and cleaner.

Yay! Like new!

June 5.

A rainy and windy day. We stay cozy inside and do all kinds of things on our computers.

Like installing the latest Beta version of OpenCPN on our navigation computer. We have been running the Beta for the last 2 weeks on Wim’s laptop, parallel to the navigation computer, and we’ve seen no issue’s. Just improvements. So, now we start testing it in the real sailing world 😀

We receive an update of the Engine Dashboard in OpenCPN and now, the fuel rate gauge works.

An advantage of a rainy day is that we can fill our water tanks with fresh rain water! Yesterday morning, we cleaned the decks so now we catch crystal clear rain water 💦🙂💦

June 6.

Another rainy day. The hill next to us is in the clouds.

Our starboard water tank was empty. By the end of the afternoon it’s 86% full.

At the end of the afternoon, it stops raining and the sun comes out. 600+ Watts of solar power in the late afternoon is not bad at all!

June 7.

Sunny weather so Wim can do some some paint jobs on deck. We have some little scratches that start to get rusty so, after sanding these small spots they get 3 layers of white primer (International Interprotect) today, whith a tiny brush.

June 8.

Then, Wim treats the spots on the hull, sitting in the dinghy. 3 layers today and another 3 layers of white primer on the spots on the decks. 6 layers is the base. After that is cured we sand it and paint it with high gloss, but that is for later.

While Sher is the forward cabin, she decides to some more organizing in the cabinets.

In the afternoon, she continues sewing the cover for the dinghy floor.

In the evening, we test our shortwave (SSB) system. We had to test the antenna after replacing the steel cable with the stainless steel one. We did that in A Coruña but we couldn’t do a test there. In a busy marina it could be dangerous to blow 250 watts of HF power into the air. Possibly we could damage other boats equipment or damage our transmitter because of the reverse power generated by all these masts around us. So, we do the testing in open space, at anchor.

Another thing we have to do is configure and test the SailMail connection on Sher’s laptop. As a backup.

The bear ‘Schilder’ has his eyes on the Pactor Modem and he checks if everything is all right!

Indeed, everything works fine and we have a very good connection with the SailMail station in Belgium. We easily configure Sher’s laptop and send some test emails.

Long range communication stays impressive: from here to Oostende in Belgium is 1300km and an email jumps back to us in a second.

June 9.

In the afternoon, we take a walk over the south side of the island. Great views!