Sailing to Pomarao on Rio Guadiana, we passed a huge hydropower dam on the Rio Chanca.
Hydropower provides 13 to 18% of Portugal’s renewable energy. Wow.
We also passed this hydropower dam on our way to Pulo do Lobo.
Barragem do Chanca, PomaraoThe Location Barragem da Chanca near Pomarao on satellite (red line indicating the border between Spain and Portugal)Barragem da Chanca on satellite, showing the wider area (red marker indicating the dam).
The Alqueva Dam was completed in 2002. The dam creates a large reservoir from which the water runs throughout the region. Its’ strategic water reserve has sufficient capacity to last at least three successive years of drought. Also, it enabled the introduction of 120,000 hectares (300,000 acres) of new irrigated crops in the Alentejo region. Finally, it was also aimed at improving the employment situation in the region (for example in tourism).
The biggest hydropower dam in the Guadiana itself is the Alqueva Dam,, a 518.4-megawatt power station. It is located some 135 km further north of Pomarao
The Alqueva Dam is the largest dam and artificial lake (250 square kilometres) in Western Europe.[2]Unfortunately, the dam also caused side effects, such as the loss of prehistoric engravings and habitat of rare and endangered species including eagles, kites, wild boars, and the Iberian lynx. A Roman fort was submerged.[4]Also there are doubts on the efficiency of the irrigation project, like we saw at rio Mondego.
The dams greatly contribute to Portugal’s renewable energy sources (between 13 and 28%). Renewables account for 72 percent of Portugal’s consumption in the first 5 months of 2021. Thanks to these efforts, Portugal drastically brought down the number of coal fueled power stations and greenhouse-emissions.
We learnt how you can work on your paradise, right here and now. It started with a knock on the hull of our boat. “Hi guys, would you like some fresh vegetables?” Off course we do! Sailors quickly learn how to really appreciate fresh food.
You would expect the man on the boat with the straw hat and his dog offered us his lovely vegetables on a tropical island. But it is Rio Guadiana, ‘el Paraiso natural’.
Chris once was driving instructor. Now a fellow sailor. For 20 years he has sailed around the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. He has found his paradise here. He grows his own vegetables. When he has more than he can eat, he prepares it for wintertime. For example, he dries some of his vegetables. And, if there is more than he can handle, he exchanges them for ‘non-vegetables’, for example pasta, oil or vinegar.
We exchanged Chris’s cherry tomatoes, courgette and ‘pepino’ for rice and lentils.
We wish we could share this bowl of delicious cherry-tomatoes with you. But we can share some of his wisdom. For example: “Since I once had no money, I hardly use or need it anymore.” “Working on the land is hard, but it is so rewarding”. Our favourite: “Search your piece of paradise and work on it, every day.”
The most sustainable living is to sail globally and to act, buy, and enjoy locally. We enjoy both the village Alcoutim on the Portugese border of the Guadiana river, as well as Sanlucar de Guadiana on the Spanish side. Now the two sister villages prepared a special night of Fado and Flamenco.
Cuadro Flamenco Pura Esencia in Alcoutim on July 10th, 2021. Superb!
Fado singer Marta Alves and also the flamenco show with Cuadro Flamenco Pura Esencia offered high class performances. If you liked the Flamenco, also check out Marta’s fado here. Travel globally, enjoy locally!
Fossilfree around the World had lots of publicity in Spain lately. We did a great event with Sail-a-Future. And, we were very fortunate, because Marta Perez wrote good articles for Huelva24 and El Correo del Golfo. Thank you Marta! Also, our friends in Sanlucar de Guadiana sent Canalsur on our way. As you might know, this is the TV-channel of Andalucia. Andalucia has 8 million inhabitants, so this is quite an audience.
In the video, Inge shows Rossio the sustainable yacht. Rossio is really interested in the kitchen. We agree this is an important part of our sustainable lifestyle:) If you want to see more detailed information on what makes Ya a sustainable yacht, check out Youtube or www.fossilfreearoundtheworld.org
Our friend Philip urged us to go see the Pulo do Lobo. He was right. It is magnificent. Thewaterfall is located north of Mértola, in the Lower Alentejo. Pulo the Lobo means “wolf’s leap”. And when you stand there, you realise the wolf has to be pretty desperate to jump this fierce current.
Pulo de Lobo means Wolf’s leap; make sure you hear the sound as well. We did not go swimming.
Pulo do Lobo is the most dramatic stretch of the Guadiana , where the “river boils between harsh walls, the rushing of water, hit, flow and wind gnawing a millimetre per century per millennium, a nothing in eternity” wrote José Saramago, one of Portugal’s most famous writers (source).
We were also impressed by the boardwalks like we saw in Alvor, designed to enable tourism without damaging nature.
On board “Ya” Hetty van der Linde of Sailafuture got the brainwave to turn ‘sailafuture’ painted sails into Christmas bags with the children’s wishes. The bags can contain regional products and make lovely and sustainable Christmas gifts.
We introduced Hetty to the Mayor of Sanlucar de Guadiana, she described the idea and he was enthusiastic right away.
So, we asked two young future artists to test the paint on Ya’s glasses first. See here:
Future artists paint glasses on board of ‘Ya’ to see if this can work for making Christmas presents.
Thank you for those lovely drawings and we think the Christmas painting is also going to be a great success!
The children of Sanlucar de Guadiana learnt about climate change. Now they paint their future on a sail. They paint their images of their village and surroundings, their Paraiso Natural (Nature Paradise). See how they paint the sail, hoist it, and…. sail with it on the Ya.
Thanks to Sail A Future, AMPA, Talens, Puro Arte Huelva and all children of Sanlucar de Guadiana.
We sailed the Guadiana river with friends. The Ya arrived at Pomarao, just next to where for nearly 100 years, the sailing cargo ships were loaded with copper ore from the mines. We started hiking along an old deserted railroad track, through rough nature. It led to the former copper mines. On the summit of the exploration about 1000 Portugese men worked there. But in the early 60s the English bosses closed it down from one day to another and shipped all gear with them. Now you can only find the railway sleepers. Here an impression in some images.
You build a large catamaran, you make a great and well thought technical system in it, including an efficient energy consumption, and then you discover you can live fossil free!
That is what Adrien did.
We stepped on board their catamaran dinghy -fossil free of course – and they brought us to their ‘Kata Lind’.
Adrien and Thelma built a 15-meter catamaran, they sailed her to the Mediterranean from Iceland, where their son was born. Then they bought a piece of land along the river Guadiana. This is when we met them.
Their ‘Kata Lind’, a 15-meter Caroff catamaran, lies well anchored just next to their land.
On the outside you can see this 15 m catamaran is designed and built to sail. Adrien tells: “we have built her light but very strong (thanks to the sandwich material and simplicity inside) and sailing with her is just…” – Adrien’s eyes start rolling in his head as he tries to find the best word and then shouts in French: “…Formidable!”.
Thelma is perhaps not such an enthusiastic sailor, but she likes the life around it. The freedom, always your home with you, with your own comfort, your own space. Space?
The space inside is enormous in comparison to our Ya. You see the ceiling? Adrien printed and painted the chart of the world on it.
There is so much space, you could organize a table tennis tournament in their saloon. And there are also 2 spacious bedrooms in each hull.
The development of the energy system
Adrien and Thelma built the ship in Iceland. We all know, it is cold up there. If you start thinking about energy systems in such a place, you think fossil, without doubt.
So did Adrien. He made a complete central heating system in the ship. He installed a water heater on propane gas. Very efficiently, he even wanted the hot air from the heating system to flow along the exhaust pipe to get back the wasted energy.
He wanted to make his own water. He found out that the little water makers are expensive and the industrial ones are cheap, especially in maintenance. But these big things need a lot of power. So, he uses the boat’s diesel engines to get this job done. And the engines can also propel the boat.
The electrical system is all 24 Volt. So, all wiring can be rather thin. He took a LiFePO4 battery bank, so there is nearly no inefficiency in storing.
All lighting is LED.
He wanted a big fridge and a big freezer. Everybody who has been on the ‘Ya’ knows what Adrien also knew: on cooling (and heating) three things are important:
Insulation
Insulation
Insulation
So, he insulated the refrigerator well and the freezer very well. They hardly take energy compared to all manufactured fridges and freezers, which are still very poorly insulated.
With over 15 centimetre of foam the fridge is well insulated. Now it hardly takes energy, so they can have a big fridge. They also have a large freezer, with even thicker insulation.
Growing to fossil freedom
Now the Kata Lind lies anchored: not in Iceland, but in the Algarve. With the solar panels to the south and a good wind turbine.
They bought an induction cooker, to replace the gas cooker. No problem for the batteries, plenty energy left.
Adrien behind the marble sink in the kitchen, and: with an induction cooker on it!
Adrien is an engineer in automatization and when you come aboard you can see he loves his job. So, he uses nearly 1 square meter on clocks and meters and so on, including an autopilot for further development. No problem for the batteries.
There is even a washing machine. And it runs on fossil free electricity and water. Still no problem for the energy system.
Their household is running on 6 to 7 m2 solar panels, flat on deck and standing, next to the windows. On a good sunny day, they can deliver up to 8 kWh or energy. You can consume the world with it! When the weather is bad, there is a good wind turbine to get the energy.
There are 6 to 7 m2 solar panels and a wind turbine. On the background you see the stairs leading to their piece of land.
Energy for the irrigation
They have a piece of land here and it needs to be irrigated in the dry and hot summer period. So, there is a strong pump, delivering some cubic meter of water. In the sunny weather the solar panels always deliver enough energy to keep the pump running.
A strong pump under the stairs (see inset) delivers the water for the very efficient drop by drop irrigation of the land. In the background you can see the mast of the Kata Lind.
The land will deliver their own vegetables, oranges, avocados and all. The freshest, and without any transport. This is the ultimate fossil free consumption.
We went for a first sail with our new battery-bank. On our way to Mertola, we saw lots of nets. In Penas de Aguia, we met a fisherman. He offered us fish, which we gladly accepted. It was ‘saboga’, (twait shad). We got 3 of them. He would have given us the two big buckets of fish he caught, because he only wanted to keep the eggs. The eggs are a local delicacy, like caviar. That’s why the fish in this time of year is the ‘queen’. The fish itself needs a special preparation because of the fine spines.
The fisherman cuts the last of 30 fish to get the eggs out, the delicacy. The little blue bucket shows the result of the catch. All the fishes except for the three we took, went overboard.
So the people only want the eggs of this fish. The fisherman regrets this. ‘If you prepare this fish well, it is delicious. I wish we could give the fish the people here don’t want, to people who are hungry.’ We carefully followed the fisherman’s instructions for preparing the fish. We have a lot to learn, because we still found a lot of spines. However, it was fresh and delicious! Getting to know the regional cuisine is always an adventure.
Cleaning the fish and taking out the eggs (source)The delicacy: the eggs of the twait shad (source)
The fisherman complained that in recent years the catches were getting smaller and smaller. We checked. In northern Europe, the twait shad populations are fading. This is caused primarily through overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction and migratory route obstruction. Consequently, for example the Irish and English governments have taken measures to protect this fish. We hope the balance on Guadiana river will be preserved in time. Only respectful fishing and eating will guarantee there’s always enough room for this queen of the river.
