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
Finally we’re back in the water after a much longer-than-anticipated stay in the Portimao boatyard. We anchor overnight and due to swell and anticipated winds, we decide to head east back to Alvor for better protection and a more comfortable anchorage.
We drop anchor in a lovely spot and very tranquil! Exactly what we need after all these days of hard labor at the boatyard.
We settle in and cook one of our favorite meals: Quinoa “cookies” (pancakes) with spinach.
That night, the wind increases to 30 knots. Our new wind generator is working great until we try to shut it down when the winds get too strong and we try to shut it down… which it didn’t want to do. Wim will take a look into this. When the winds finally go below 16-17 knots, then it will switch off.
We wake up at 0300h and notice the German boat next to us has come closer. Well, we are in a strange angle with wind and current in opposite directions. Maybe they have a longer anchor chain out and that makes them swing a bit wider. We get back to sleep and although there’s a lot of wind, it’s quite calm.
At 0700h we wake up from a noise. We jump out of bed and we see the German boat “Tortuga” right beside us! Shit! Their anchor must be dragging! There’s nobody on that boat so we have to undertake immediate action! While we are putting our clothes and sail gear on the Tortuga hits Dione IV 😱
Sometimes the wind (we see guts of 35 knots, gale force) blows us a little bit away from the Tortuga so first thing we do is put out boat fenders and fold down the solar panels on the railing. Then we start the engine and the navigation systems. We have to get out of here now!
Wim starts to hoist the anchor. We have 30m of chain out so that will slowly pull us away from the Tortuga. Sher tries to push us away from them.
She’s not strong enough to keep us clear though, and the Tortuga is scratching our railing while the anchor winch pulls us forward. We change places: Wim pushing at full force and Sher operating the anchor winch. Slowly we move forward, sometimes touching. When we’re almost clear, Wim pushes the big bowsprit away and he shouts to Sher: Keep going! Keep pulling! The wind pushes the Tortuga heavily against us and touches a solar panel on the railing. Luckily just a scratch. One last big push while the anchor winch pulls us forward and with a vigorous force the Tortuga swings behind our stern! Missing us by only a few centimeters with her huge bowsprit! 🫡
We change places again: Sher behind the wheel and Wim at the anchor winch. The wind and the strong current (it’s right after spring tide so max current) push us in a crazy angle, the wind at the beam. The chain at an angle on the bow. In the past, this is where the anchor chain flipped out the roller, creating a big problem. Wait! This is why we’ve made the retaining bracket!
Wim hurries inside, takes the bracket and puts it on the chain roller foundation.
The chain is at a 90º angle off the bow and it rattles between the bracket and the roller but it goes perfectly well! Despite the terrible situation, Wim is cheering 😀. This is exactly like the plan was! After a couple of minutes, the anchor is up and Sher steers Dione IV down the river. We pass a catamaran, a man on their fore deck shouts and points saying, “there is my anchor! Keep going!” We sail well clear of him and drop our anchor. It has an immediate hold.
But when Wim rolls out the chain we get too close to a sand bank with our stern. We decide to hoist again and a move up into the wind a bit further.
Drop anchor again an drop 30m of chain in 5m of water.
We are safe!
That’s our maneuvering track.
Another narrow escape from a nasty situation!
We have long scratches all over our railing but luckily no serious damages. We can grind and polish those scratches.
A rainbow appears to cheer us up 🤗
We did well! No panic, perfect cooperation, doing exactly the right things, relying on our excellent gear (our fantastic new Vulcan anchor on top of that) and our great girl: Dione IV! We are so happy with all that!😀
When we look behind us we see the Tortuga run aground.
2 hours later, at low tide, she’s high and dry…
Today we have an early rise. At 0700h, we hoist our anchor and head out of Alvor. High tide was at 0500h and we have to get over the shallows.
After having motored a couple of hours, a light wind (5-8 knots) picks up. We set sail!
We make our way into the estuary by Faro and anchor near Culatra Island. A few of our friends are here: Antares, Smile, Zee van tijd and Zazoe.
Sher baked bread rolls for lunch. They are delicious!
While we are anchored here, we have time to get back to some projects… there’s never a shortage of things to work on!
All day, Sher works on the dinghy floor cover.
While Wim is continuing to work on the battery-pack charger. These batteries have a 230v charger but having the inverter on at an anchorage just for charging a battery pack is inefficient. Wim had a better idea: charging with a DC-DC converter, from our 12v service battery bank. We bought this DC-DC converter on Amazon, a while ago. It can handle 1500W (well, that is 1500 Chinese watts 😅) and will be set to convert 13v from our board net to 58v for the battery packs. It goes into a place behind the couch, after Wim has cut away an obsolete wooden box that was used for a HDD in the past.
And then back to the wind turbine. Wim is working with the manufacturer, but no good solution. Everything needs an investigation: at 20+ knots of wind, Wim hard-wires a short circuit at the studs where the cables from the mast come into the boat. Same problem! The wind generator stops generating energy but doesn’t stop spinning. Only at a wind speed of under 17 knots it stops. Hmmm.
Meanwhile, Sher continues the dinghy floor cover project…
The SailRite is running all day 🙂
We inflate the dinghy and add hooks and bungee cord to keep the dinghy cover in place.
Sher fits the floor cover.
It fits perfect!
Then we put the deflated floor in the dinghy and pump it to pressure. The floor holds the tube covers nicely in place on the inside. Dinghy fully dressed! 🤩
Happily afloat in her nice gown 😃
After lunch, we dinghy over to the island. We moor the dinghy in the little fishing port.
We wander through the village with it’s little houses.
A long wooden walkway leads through a dunes landscape to the beach at the ocean side.
Lovely ocean view!
On our way back through the village we buy some groceries and delicious Pastel de Nata at the bakery.
A view from the ferry terminal. Sher checks out the ferry timetable because she wants to go to Olhão and Faro tomorrow.
Sher is having a girls day with Sacha (from the boat “Smile”, which is in Olhão marina). They visit a fabric store and buy all kinds of nice fabric to sew clothes.
And of course, the storks of Faro are not to be missed!
These are the problems in a sailor’s life: the dilemma to choose with one is the most beautiful, the sunrise or the sunset? 😄
And that’s it for Portugal! We sail to Ayamonte on the Guardiana river, dividing Portugal and Spain. What an amazing time in Portugal!!!
The Captain’s Log – the complete story
March 4.
When we get back in the water we anchor in the outer bay (near the breakwaters) of Portimão. Anchoring in the inner bay isn’t permitted because of dredging operations. We enjoy being back at the water and the feeling of the movements of the boat. And, not to forget, we enjoy being able to use the sinks and the toilet again!
But we roll quite a lot. Swell enters the area and bounces around the breakwaters. Even when the wind is completely gone there’s still a lot of swell. Hm. And this will probably get worse because we have some very windy days to come…
That’s why we decide to move to Alvor. That’s a very tranquil anchorage with no swell at all. It’s only an hour sail.
We leave at lunchtime so that we can enter the shallow entrance of Rio de Alvor at high tide.
Once we are outside the breakwaters we have a very confused sea, throwing Dione IV around in all directions. There’s no wind.
After an hour we drop our anchor in exactly the same where we were before (2nd week of January).
It is a lovely spot and so tranquil! Exactly what we need after all these days of hard labor at the boatyard.
March 5.
We enjoy the relaxed day. It’s partially sunny and the wind picks up to 25 knots. We let the new wind generator run and it yields 300W at 20 knots of wind and 500W at 25 knots. At 1600h, the battery bank is full but there’s still sun and wind. So we turn the big boiler on to use some energy.
Wim installs a 230v socket for the SailRite sewing machine.
While pulling a cable along the MG battery bank, the MG Master LV BMS switches off it’s main contactor and we are without 12v power. We get an error message: “No communication with the batteries”. Hm. Wim checks the CANbus cables and sees one that has been kinked but not damaged or a loose RJ45 connector or such. He clears the kink and reboots the MG Master LV. The error is gone and we have all power back online. Strange…🤔
When the wind increases to 25-30 knots, the wind generator reaches 600-700W and we decide to turn it off. We engage the brake switch but nothing happens! Well, the wind generator doesn’t generate any power any more but it keeps spinning at full speed! Wim turns on the emergency switch that short-circuits the generator but still nothing happens. Hm. This isn’t funny… Obliviously the energy of the fast spinning rotor is bigger that the reverse magnetic field?? There’s nothing we can do… In gusts, it even spins faster and faster… Is it going to destroy itself?? 😱
Well, since the wind is north-west, it blows over land and that makes it very gusty. After 5 minutes, the wind drops down to 15 knots and the the rotor stops. Rotating slowly like it should do when it’s short-circuited. Hm. This requires some investigation…
We cook one of our favorite meals: Quinoa cookies with spinach.
That night, the wind increases and we see gusts of over 30 knots. The wind generator stays under control.
March 6.
When we wake up at 0300h, we notice the German boat next to us has come closer. Well, we are in a strange angle with wind and current in opposite directions. Maybe they have a longer anchor chain out and that makes them swing a bit wider. We get back to sleep and although there’s a lot of wind, it’s quite calm.
At 0700h we wake up from a noise. We jump out of bed and we see the German boat “Tortuga” right beside us! Shit! Their anchor must be dragging! There’s nobody on that boat so we have to undertake action! While we are putting our clothes and sail gear on the Tortuga hits Dione IV 😱
Sometimes the wind (we see guts of 35 knots, gale force) blows us a little bit away from the Tortuga so first thing we do is put out boat fenders and fold down the solar panels at the railing. Then start the engine and the navigation systems. We have to get out of here!
Wim starts to hoist the anchor. We have 30m of chain out so than will slowly pull us away from the Tortuga. Sher tries to push us away from each other.
She’s not strong enough to keep us clear and the Tortuga is scratching our railing while the anchor winch pulls us forward. We change places: Wim pushing at full force and Sher operating the anchor winch. Slowly we move forward, sometimes touching. When we’re almost clear, Wim pushes the big bowsprit away and he shouts to Sher: Keep going! Keep pulling! The wind pushes the Tortuga heavily against us and touches a solar panel on the railing. Luckily just a scratch. One last big push while the anchor winch pulls us forward and with a vigorous force the Tortuga swings behind our stern! Missing us by only a few centimeters with her huge bowsprit! 🫡
We change places again: Sher behind the wheel and Wim at the anchor winch. The wind and the strong current (it’s right after spring tide so max current) push us in a crazy angle, the wind at the beam. The chain at an angle on the bow. In the past, this where the chain flipped out the roll, creating a big problem. Wait! This is why we’ve made the bracket!
Wim hurries inside, takes the bracket and puts it on the chain roller foundation.
Te chain is at a 90º angle off the bow and it rattles between the bracket and the roller but it goes perfectly well! Despite the terrible situation, Wim is cheering 😀. This is exactly like the plan was! After a couple of minutes, the anchor is up and Sher steers Dione IV down the river. We pass a catamaran, a man on their fore deck shouts and points: there is my anchor! Keep going! We sail well clear of him and drop our anchor. It has an immediate hold.
But when Wim rolls out the chain we get too close to a sand bank with our stern. We decide to hoist again and a move up into the wind a bit further.
Drop anchor again an drop 30m of chain in 5m of water.
We are safe!
That’s our maneuvering track.
Another narrow escape from a nasty situation!
We have long scratches all over our railing but luckily no serious damages. We can grind and polish those scratches.
A rainbow appears to cheer us up 🤗
We did well! No panic, perfect cooperation, doing exactly the right things, relying on our perfect gear (our fantastic new Vulcan anchor on top of that) and great Dione IV!
We are so happy with all that!😀
When we look behind us we see the Tortuga run aground.
2 hours later, at low tide, she’s high and dry…
It’s a very windy but sunny day.
We do some experiments with the wind generator. We discover that under 18 knots of wind it will stop when we apply the brake. Over 20 knots of wind it won’t stop. Well, for the time being we can use it up to 20 knots, we conclude.
Kite surfers all around us. These guys have a great time in shallow, flat water with a strong wind!
We relax.
March 7.
While Sher continues her sewing the dinghy floor cover, Wim realizes a little project that had been on the list for some time: a charger for the battery packs (for the dinghy motor and scooters). These batteries have a 230v charger but having the inverter on at an anchorage just for charging a battery pack is inefficient. Wim had a better idea: charging with a DC-DC converter, from our 12v service battery bank. We bought this DC-DC converter on Amazon, a while ago. It can handle 1500W (well, that is 1500 Chinese watts 😅) and will be set to convert 13v from our board net to 58v for the battery packs. It goes into a place behind the couch, after Wim has cut away an obsolete wooden box that was used for a HDD in the past.
The day ends with a gorgeous sunset 🤩
March 8.
Today we have an early rise. At 0700h, we hoist our anchor and head out of Alvor. High tide was at 0500h and we have to get over the shallows.
Once we are at sea, the sun rises. There’s no wind.
Our destination is the anchorage near the island Culatra, near Faro.
After having motored a couple of hours, a light wind (5-8 knots) picks up. We set sail!
After a wind shift from the north to the south and a few hours with no wind in between, we get to the entrance of the Faro estuary at 1515h.
There’s a strong current (about 4 knots on our stern) between the breakwaters, making the water whirl.
Even some eddy’s.
Once we’re in, the current eases down.
We drop anchor at the huge anchorage near Culatra.
A few of our friends are here: Antares, Smile, Zee van tijd and Zazoe.
Ingo (Antares) sends us this welcome picture 🤩
What a lovely day this was! And, of course, a lovely day should be closed with a lovely sunset!
March 9.
Sher baked bread rolls for lunch. They are delicious!
All day, she works on the dinghy floor cover.
While Wim is continuing the battery pack charger. Setting the output current of the DC-DC converter at 3A at 58,1v corresponds with 15A at the input (13,5v). So, about 200 watts. The heat sink of the converter gets pretty warm and the little fan turns on and off. So, we shouldn’t any higher and this is perfectly okay to charge the battery packs. The factory supplied charger does 3A, too. But this is what we mean by 1500 Chinese Watts… 200 is a safe value… Maybe 300, with the fan contentiously running 😅
Another experiment with the wind turbine. Wim has been communicating with the Turkish manufacturer and they say, probably there is something wrong with your stop switch. Hm. It worked perfectly with our previous wind generator, so why would it be malfunctioning now? Okay. Everything needs an investigation: at 20+ knots of wind, Wim hard-wires a short circuit at the studs where the cables from the mast come into the boat.
Same problem! The wind generator stops generating energy but doesn’t stop spinning. Only at a wind speed of under 17 knots it stops.
The Turkish engineer answers: your cables (3x 16mm2) should be fine to have big stopping torque. He doesn’t understand what’s going on. He says: you have to buy our stop-box. Wim doesn’t agree. He thinks our stop switch is fine. And even shot-circuiting before the stop switch doesn’t solve the problem. There is something else going on.
March 10.
Sher continues the dinghy floor cover project.
The SailRite is running all day 🙂
March 11.
We inflate the dinghy and add hooks and bungee cord to keep the dinghy cover in place.
Sher fits the floor cover.
It fits perfect!
Then we put the deflated floor in the dinghy and pump it to pressure. The floor holds the tube covers nicely in place on the inside. Dinghy fully dressed! 🤩
Happily afloat in her nice gown 😃
After lunch, we dinghy over to the island. We moor the dinghy in the little fishing port.
Our girl at anchor, in the distance.
Zoomed in…
We wander through the village with it’s little houses.
A long wooden walkway leads through a dunes landscape to the beach at the ocean side.
Lovely ocean view!
On our way back through the village we buy some groceries and delicious Pastel de Nata at a bakery.
A view from the ferry terminal. Sher checks out the ferry timetable because she wants to go to Olhão and Faro tomorrow.
In the evening we enjoy a gorgeous sunset.
March 12.
The day starts with a beautiful sunrise.
Sher is having a girls day with Sacha (from the boat “Smile”, which is in Olhão marina). They visit a fabric store and buy all kinds of nice fabric to sew clothes.
And of course, the storks of Faro are not to be missed!
These are the problems in a sailor’s life: the dilemma to choose with one is the most beautiful, the sunrise or the sunset? 😄
And that’s it for Portugal! We sail to Ayamonte on the Guardiana river, dividing Portugal and Spain. What an amazing time in Portugal!!!
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