Colonia to Riachuelo

This morning we topped up on stores and paid the Hidrografica fee of around £5.00 per day.

We set off from Colonia with a brisk WNW wind and had a lovely sail round to Riachuello 8.8 miles away.

The jetty we visited yesterday. The long beach was practically empty.


A yacht aground inshore near Pinta Negro. We heard later that they had grounded while trying to recover dinghy.


Outer buoy, Riachuello approaches.


The approach to Riachuello was pretty straightforward. We were set a bit to the east and the water shoaled rapidly. It's best to maintain a straight line from the fairway buoy into the river proper.

Riachuello entrance.


Looking astern to seaward.


I had expected a few boats but this is a popular spot. There were boats everywhere. Moored bow into the trees, parallel to the shore on two anchors and various other permutations.



We moored just upstream from an aggregates plant. Initially I deployed our small Bruce. It now rests in 4 metres of muddy water. It being the first time the anchor has been deployed I failed to check that it was connected to the chain. It wasn't.

The CQR was then deployed astern and we got moorings ashore. However,the CQR did not set properly and dragged every time the wind gusted. After three failed resets I bought the Rocna down from the bow. At the second attempt it dug in well and we were secure.


Time to go over the side for a swim.