As some of you know, the Rio de la Plata, or River of Silver, is shallow and there are some channels that are dredged to allow shipping to move. The direct route from Puerto Madero to San Fernando is 13 nautical mile (nm). It may only be transited with a rising tide and winds from the southeast as parts are only one meter in depth. We opted for caution and went the long route of 40 nm, through the dredged channels of Canal Mitre and Canal Honda. Our electronic charts only provided depths for Canal Mitre, a main shipping channel that continues to Paraguay. For Canal Honda, it was more Braille and a steady eye on the depth meter.
With less than 3 miles to go we ran aground. Conventional wisdom would say to stay near the center of a channel for the deepest water. Well, not in this case. Several powerboats went zipping by. One fellow in a small powerboat offered to help pull us to deeper water but his boat could not move us. A short time later another two powerboats, with English speakers, offered to help and there was success. The 5 meter depth was just a few feet away from the 1.3 meters that stopped Windarra in her tracks. With great relief and many thank you and gracias, we continued on.
The original plan was to stop at Club Barlovento. I had been in contact with Lisa of SV Randivag about the club (thank you SV Joyant for the contact). Unfortunately communication (our Spanish failed us) with them over the VHF and telephone was not working so we went to YCA San Fernando instead.
This is a large facility for over 300 boats in the water and 400 small powerboats stacked on shelves. It also has a full service yard with 2 travel lifts, a restaurant, bar, showers and swimming pools. We are med moored bow in but a little too far from shore so we need to call the lancha to get off the boat (and I am feeling too lazy to get the dingy off the foredeck).
We met Vivian, who is a lifeguard here at the pool. She works here 4 months of the year and spends the rest of her year living and working as crew on yachts in Europe. She speaks excellent English and she has been very helpful.
San Fernando is an upscale bedroom community for Buenos Aires. There are son beautiful homes but most have large, imposing fences and gates, each home a mini-fortress. A short walk away is a Carrefours super mercado. Yes a full store and not an express which we only found in downtown.
As today is New Year's Day, everything is closed so we will stay aboard. Tomorrow we will explore some more.
Happy New Year, 2016 to all from Elaine and Rich
No comments:
Post a Comment