Rio de Alvor

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

We leave the bay of Portimão at 1430h. There’s no wind so we motor along the coast in westerly direction. At 1530 we enter the breakwaters of Alvor.

It’s an hour after low tide and the area is shallow. So, carefully we move between the sandbanks.

The channel is narrow at low tide. We estimate about 70m wide. So, we drop our anchor in the middle and let out 25m of chain. The depth is about 6m at high tide and 3m at low tide. Like that, we can easily swing around our anchor (the green circle is a 40m radius in our anchor alarm app) and stay at a safe distance from the rocks.

We have some time here in Alvor to work on projects… In Portimão, there’s a Seldén (Seldén is our masts brand) dealer. We ask for a quotation for a whisker pole for our jib. We’re also planning to replace our wind generator for the new one we purchased. For that, we need an adapter flange to mount the new wind generator to the existing base. Wim makes a drawing and sends it to the welder guy (named Rui) who’s going to do the welding work on the through-hull sensor positions. He answers he can make it. 👍🏻 In the meantime, Sher has made a new and improved design and pattern for boat fender pajamas (covers).

Next challenge will be how to take the old wind generator down and put the new one up… We have several options:

Take the entire mizzen mast off the boat and to the work on the ground.
Lower the mizzen mast ourselves (it hinges backward) and do the work from a scaffolding (height will be about 5m from the ground when the boat is on the yard).
Leave the mast on the boat and de the work from a cherry picker of bosun’s chair in a crane. This seems to be the easiest way but we’re having difficulties to arrange this with the yard…
To be continued…

The next project is moving on to the next set of cupboards in the galley. The cupboards have their new stainless steel piano hinges and everything has been filled and sanded. Sher puts her respirator mask on and paints the first layer of primer inside the cupboard and the doors and shelves on top of the table.

When all is painted we get out to the village of Alvor to escape from the smell. Alvor appears to be a really lovely little village! After a delicious sandwich lunch and a Pastel de Nata at a bakery we dinghy up the river. See if there are flamingo’s.

We don’t see any and eventually it gets too shallow to continue, so we head back. While we cruise on the river to and from the village we pass a huge number of boats on moorings here. Most of them look run down and in a very bad state of maintenance. On a lot of these boats, there seem to be people living. Paupers, we guess, trying to live cheaply. Next to us is a small German boat. They have 3 little children and 2 very big dogs. We see them in their dinghy with a huge bundle of empty water bottles, obviously getting water in the village.

Rainier (from the boat “Zee van tijd”, anchored further down the river) has been flying his drone and sends us some great pictures! Thanks, Rainier!

The weather turns rainy and the temperature drops down to 14ºC. Inside is 18ºC and the humidity is somewhat high (70%) so we feel a bit chilly. We decide to light our Dickinson heater. After it has burned an hour, the temperature is nice and comfy. 😊

We hadn’t expected that we would need the heater in the Algarve! We thought it would only be needed again once we get to Antarctica! 😂

After painting the next layer of primer, which seems to need a little longer to cure, Sher continues on her boat fender pajama project. From plastic, she makes patterns that fit the cone-shaped top. The idea is, making the cover fit nicely around the top, the cover won’t shift down.

It takes her the whole day, readjusting and correcting the shape… This is no boat fender pajama, this is a boat fender gown! 😄

The nights are really cool: around 4ºC. So, in the early morning and in the evening we light the Dickinson heater.

But the days are mostly sunny with some clouds and a light rain shower sometimes. The sun heats up our decksalon nicely, so at around 10 o’clock we can turn the heat off and by 12 o’clock the companionway is open, most of the days. Then, as the sun sets at 5 o’clock, it cools down pretty quickly and at night the heater is needed again.

The sunny parts of the day are just enough to keep our batteries at the same level (50-60%), with a little help from the wind generator. Although that’s not much, there’s not much wind.

Yesterday night we cooked Ottolenghi’s recipe for cauliflower salad. That needed an hour roasting in the oven and would take the batteries down 10%. So, we decided to run the engine for an hour to compensate that. A nice side effect is that the engine heats the central heating system to the entire boat was thoroughly warm.

In the morning, Wim sands all the primer and after that, Sher paints with high gloss.

At least, what we think is high gloss… Because when the paint dries we notice it’s satin! Wim took the wrong pot… Well, after it has cured we’ll decide if we repaint with high gloss or leave it like this. For now, we have to escape from the smell! We leave 2 windows open and dinghy to town. We have a delicious lunch in a little cafe (too bad the bakery was closed!) and we do some provisioning at the supermarket Pingo Doce.

The paint has cured and we decide that the satin looks good enough. The color is exactly the same as the glossy and the cupboards look a thousand time better than before! Wim mounts the doors and Sher puts everything back in.

After lunch, we go and have try to have a look at the flamingo’s in the wetlands.

We dinghy to a little beach…

…and leave the dinghy there.

We have to walk for half an hour along a dirt road around the wetlands.

The area is gorgeous. Spring has begun here!

We see some flamingos, but they are quite far away. Sher manages to capture some to send to MomCat, who adores flamingo’s!

Our neighbor, Rainier, has been flying his drone and he sends us these lovely pictures:

Sher has a girls outing in Alvor with Marcia from the boat “Bird Song” and Scarlett from the boat “Zazoe”.

It’s our last day in Alvor before we head back to Portimao and prepare for our week in the boatyard.

The Captain’s Log [T567,568,…577] – the complete story

January 11.

We leave the bay of Portimão at 1430h. There’s no wind so we motor along the coast in westerly direction. At 1530 we enter the breakwaters of Alvor.

The area looks gorgeous!

It’s an hour after low tide and the area is shallow. So, carefully we move between the sandbanks.

In the red circle, there’s a sandbar. The chart says 1.1m at low tide at spring tide. But we’re almost at neap tide now (so, the tide doesn’t fall so deep) and we’re after low tide. But perhaps we’ll hit the bottom and we’ll have to wait until the tide rises…

Very slowly we let Dione IV drift over the sandbar. But it doesn’t get more shallow than 1.8m (we need 1.4m with our center board up). So, no problem.

There are a lot of boats anchored near the village. We stay away from them and find a nice quiet spot at the outside.

The area is really gorgeous! What a view: drying sandbanks on one side…

… and rocks on the other side.

January 12.

In Portimão, there’s a Seldén (Seldén is our masts brand) dealer. We ask for a quotation for a whisker pole for our jib.

We take some pictures of the details of the existing mast rail and car for him.

We want to have a second car on this rail so that we can fly the jib and the Yankee wing-on-wing on a downwind course. Also, the new whisker pole will be used to set the jib in strong winds (downwind) when we can’t use the Yankee.

And last but not least: it’s a second whisker pole for redundancy.

We’re planning to replace our wind generator for the new one. For that, we need an adapter flange. To mount the new wind generator to the existing base. Wim makes a drawing and sends it to the welder guy (named Rui) who’s going to do the welding work on the through-hull sensor positions. He answers he can make it. 👍🏻

Next challenge will be how to take the old wind generator down and put the new one up… We have several options:

Take the entire mizzen mast off the boat and to the work on the ground.
Lower the mizzen mast ourselves (it hinges backward) and do the work from a scaffolding (height will be about 5m from the ground when the boat is on the yard).
Leave the mast on the boat and de the work from a cherry picker of bosun’s chair in a crane. This seems to be the easiest way but we’re having difficulties to arrange this with the yard…
To be continued…

January 13.

Of course, we left the marina Portimão with a 100% charged battery bank. But since the days are short and the sun is at a low angle the solar panels have a bit trouble to keep up with our usage (the average yield is about 2kWh). On full sunny days we have just energy to cover our usage but on cloudy days the SOC (State Of Charge) decreases. Part of that problem is caused by the fact that the solar panels on the decksalon roof aren’t performing well. Over the last 2 years we’ve seen a constant decrease of yield. A number of times we’ve communicating with the supplier (Mito Solar) and doing measurements. After all, the conclusion is there’s something wrong with the connections between the cells. Since this is a manufacturing issue (we had the first generation of these panels, as early adapters in 2022), Mito Solar has generously offered to replace all panels. They have improved their technology and the cell connections are guaranteed now. We will have the new panels (exactly the same as the ones we have now) in spring. Then, we’ll have a big job removing the old panels, gluing the new one and connect the wires in the ceiling.

Anyway, up till that time we’ll have to be careful with our consumption of energy when we’re at anchor. We left the anchorage of Portimão with 80% SOC, motored an hour and arrived at Alvor with 90%. We cooked an extensive meal (Ottolenghi’s aubergine parmigiana, that serves us 4 days) and we went down to 66%. With a sunny day and a windy night we were back 90% again.

Very windy night! At around 0400h, we have 35 knots from the south and heavy rain. Good test for our new anchor… Well, that sits steady like a rock! Is was a little exiting…🫡 …But we’re happy it holds so well! ⚓

Sher is making a pattern for new boat fender covers.

Sun and wind! With almost a kilowatt we’re recovering from 3 hours oven time last evening 😅

And the day ends with a beautiful sunset 🤩

January 14.

The cupboards have their new stainless steel piano hinges and everything has been filled and sanded.

So we can paint the first layer of primer.

Since we ran out of epoxy primer that was bought in the Netherlands before we left, we have ordered a Spanish 2k primer on Amazon.

Paint the loose parts on the table.

When all is painted we get out to the village of Alvor to escape from the smell. Alvor appears to be a really lovely little village!

After a delicious sandwich lunch and a Pastel de Nata at a bakery we dinghy up the river. See if there are flamingo’s.

But we don’t see any flamingo’s and after a while we hit the bottom. It gets too shallow. This part of the river dries out at low tide.

While we cruise on the river to and from the village we pass a huge number of boats anchored here. Most of them look in a very bad state of maintenance. On a lot of these boats, there seem to be people living. Paupers, we guess. Next to us is a small German boat. They have 3 little children and 2 big dogs. We see them peeing over the railing all the time (the girls, too). Probably they have no working toilet… We see them in their dinghy with a huge bundle of empty water bottles, obviously getting water in the village.

When we get back on Dione IV, the wind has shifted to the north and Dione IV has turned. We’re very close to the sandbanks now. We barely stay away from it at low tide. But, no problem if we would touch the bank. It’s just sand, no rocks.

Rainier (from the boat “Zee van tijd”, anchored further down the river) has been flying his drone and sends us some great pictures! Thanks, Rainier!

And the day ends with a lovely sunset.

January 15.

In the morning, it appears that the new primer is still soft. It hasn’t cured completely yet. Well, it should, after 12 hours… Obviously we did something wrong with the A and B parts. We read the description on the Proa website: ah, the parts are 3.7:1 in weight, not in volume (as we did yesterday). The paint is pretty heavy and the accelerator is pretty lightweight so we’ve used too little of the accelerator.

We mix the right amounts using the kitchen scale and paint a second layer. O-oh… the new layer dissolves the previous layer… it wasn’t cured well enough. Well, let it cure and after that it will need some sanding…

It has been a rainy afternoon and the temperature dropped down to 14ºC. Inside is 18ºC and the humidity is somewhat high (70%) so we feel a bit chilly. We decide to light our Dickinson heater. After it has burned an hour, the temperature is nice and comfy 😊

But hadn’t expected that we would need the heater at the Algarve! We thought it would be needed again once we get to Antarctica! 😂

January 16.

We decide to let the paint cure for an extra day.So, time for another job: Sher has a new idea for the boat fender covers.

From plastic, she makes patterns that fit the cone-shaped top. The idea is, making the cover fit nicely around the top, the cover won’t shift down.

It takes her the whole day, readjusting and correcting the shape…

But by the end of the afternoon, there’s a good fit! It’s made out of fiber towel fabric with a double layer.

This is no boat fender pajama, this is a fender gown! 😄

January 17.

The nights are really cool: around 4ºC. So, in the early morning and in the evening we burn the Dickinson heater.

But the days are mostly sunny, with some clouds and a light rain shower sometimes. But the sun heats up our decksalon nicely so at around 10 o’clock we can turn the heat of and at 12 o’clock the companionway is open, most of the days. But as the sun sets at 5 o’clock, it cools down pretty quick.

The sunny parts of the day are just enough to keep our batteries at the same level (50-60%), with a little help from the wind generator. Although that’s not much, there’s not much wind.

Yesterday night we cooked Ottolenghi’s cauliflower salad. That needed an hour roasting in the oven and that would take the batteries down 10%. So, we decided to run the engine for an hour to compensate that. A nice side effect is that the engine heats the central heating system to the entire boat was thoroughly warm.

In the morning, Wim sands all the primer and after that, Sher paints with high gloss.

Tiny little rain showers but bright sunshine in between.

After a nice hot shower is so good to warm up near the fire! 😊

January 18.

The paint has cured and we decide that the satin looks good enough. The color is exactly the same as the glossy and the cupboards look a thousand time better than before!

Wim mounts the doors back in…