La Plata-Riachuelo-Colonia-La Plata, january 6-11, 2009

We were planning to take some short vacations aboard Sirius, visiting Riachuelo, a very popular cruising destination for us Argentineans, at the other side of the River Plate, in our neighboring country, Uruguay. As it was the first time we were going to be aboard for so long, we prepared the boat for her second adventure, planning with great care all we should take with us for a pleasant eventless trip. We intended to depart on Tuesday, the 6 of January, before dawn, leaving our home port late in the evening. However, it took longer than we expected to store all the provisions, filling the water tanks, lashing the auxiliary dinghy (Siriusito ) on deck, besides tidying our personal belongings, such as chairs, sun shade umbrella, toys and bicycles, so we only managed to leave at eight o’clock in the morning. We had loaded the car with so much stuff that we were deeply concerned on how would we store all that gear aboard, but to our surprise, as if by a miracle, everything was stored neatly and we had to remember by heart where we kept our things. We didn’t use even one tenth of the storage space available!!.

In spite of having plotted the waypoint of Riachuelo’s entrance mark in our GPS, we were a bit uneasy, since, even with the assistance of binoculars, we couldn’t see that buoy. The passage across the River Plate had been a very pleasant reach under full canvas until approaching Uruguay, when, as usual in those waters, the wind weakened, obliging us to start the engine not to get delayed in entering port with daylight. When at last we saw the entrance buoy, we sailed bow on, doused the sails and entered the dredged narrow access channel protected by two long stone breakwaters.

As we entered, we noticed that the place was crowded, and we could count more than ninety other crafts, most of them sailboats. We said hello to a couple of friends aboard another boat and went to the harbour office wooden pier, to clear our papers. Next we went for a stroll along the waterfront, getting acquainted with the town, where we had never been before. Going back on board, we looked for a safe place to anchor, closer to the Riachuelo mouth. (Riachulo means rivulet in Spanish). We lashed Sirius bow cleat to a tree ashore, throwing two anchors from the stern as kedges. After we finished the tying up procedure, I installed our awning while my wife Carina prepared lunch.

Riachuelo is a place where you must have a dinghy. As we have no inflatable, we took our solid dinghy Siriusito and a kayak paddle, which made even more picturesque our presence in the place. Our daughter Florence in the front seat, Carina at the stern, and me paddling in the middle thwart, plus beach chairs, sun umbrella, toys and bags, was a sight to be seen. Paddling to the outside end of the breakwater and then returning along its other side to the coast, we disembarked on a white sanded beach crowded with people, in a place of rare beauty. There were many yachts anchored in front of where we were, and behind us lay a forest of pine trees inviting us to sit under their shades.

When I was finishing packing our gear in the dinghy to go back on board, somebody approached me asking if the dinghy had been as difficult to build as the twenty-eight footer. He took me by surprise. He had learned from the Argentinean yachting magazine “Bienvenidos a Bordo” which had just published an article about Sirius building saga. After a light conversation about amateur boat building with my new acquaintance, my mini-holidays actually began, playing with my daughter Flor on the sand and swimming in the river, where the water is much clearer than on our side of the stream. The day was very hot and the water temperature agreeable, so we remained playing in the river for most of the time. It is only possible to reach Riachuelo beaches by sea, so the place is absolutely safe. You can leave all your belongings unassisted, since nobody will touch them. Nowadays this is a privilege and just to save the trouble of bringing back aboard all the gear we brought ashore, we left them there for the night, having them next day ready to be used again. Riachuelo has public bathrooms and showers to be used with coins, but we had to go to the opposite place where we were to reach the public showers, nothing really difficult if you have an outboard motor for the dinghy, but rowing for two kilometers with a paddle is not very inviting. As Sirius has a pressurized water system, I disconnected the end of the hose that goes to the heads shower compartment, and joined it to a garden hose, taking it to the cockpit. Our awning has curtains, so we managed to afford the necessary privacy for a refreshing shower aboard, without having to deal with the mess of filling the shower bilge with rinsed water. Carina and Flor even had warm baths using our sun-shower hoisted on the boom. In thirty minutes we were all clean and nice smelling, ready for dinner, without having to wait in a long queue in front of the land showers!!! During the first night we were hit by a fierce ‘Pampeiro’ ( as the cold fronts are called in our region) that left me very nervous, as our kedges started to drag, since I hadn’t counted with winds from that direction. Held by the bow only, Sirius started to hit the bottom and its topside was dangerously getting too close to shore for comfort. Not managing to sleep with the wind gusting in our stays, I decided to improve our situation, taking the kedges farther away from the boat and farther apart from each other. Back to Sirius, I waited until the anchors had dug into the bottom mud, and began to take the boat out of the awkward situation. Slowly we started to reach deeper water and we were no more touching the ground. Now we could resume sleeping, however not before discovering the reason for the strange noise we heard, as if our hull was being scraped. Apparently fishes were feeding on the algae that were beginning to grow in Sirius hull bottom, so we had to cope with this serenade for the whole night. Next morning dawned as though nothing had happened during the night. A blue sky with hot sun presaged a marvelous beach day. But before the pleasure, we dedicated some time in improving Sirius situation, now crossing the kedges’ rodes to improve the angle between them. Since this job took up some time to be accomplished and the air temperature raised considerably, we decided to stay and have lunch aboard, leaving the afternoon for going ashore, finishing up with a walk to the pine forest, until reaching some dunes at the end of the beach where we spent the previous morning., planning to return the next day riding our bicycles. Back to Sirius, we had our bath ritual, followed by dinner and, satisfied, the three of us jumped into bed. For the first time we slept until late, and, after breakfast, laziness prevailed, indulging us in staying aboard, and it was nearly noon when we started to take any action. Not to make too ambitious plans for the afternoon, we decided to go to the eastside beach, which for us to reach was just jumping ashore and walking for about three hundred metres. Our prize for this choice was having a whole beach all to ourselves. There was absolutely no one there. We still haven’t discovered why yachties didn’t use it. It is a long stretch of beach, with compact sand, ideal for playing beach tennis. We decided to walk along its extent and to swim on its end tip. When becoming hungry we returned to the boat, not without trying to photograph a lizard of considerable size that I had already seen the morning before, but the brute ran away before I could take the photo.

That afternoon we gave up the intended bicycle ride to the dunes and stayed on the beach with the rest of the cruising people. After bathing, we decided to go till the mole to buy ice, as the cooler box ice had melted. So, the three of us went aboard the Siriusito, rowing for the two kilometers that separated us from the settlement, and to make things worse, with the wind on the nose. Luckily I had Flor singing on the bow seat, giving me strength to keep rowing. When we finally arrived we left the ice block already paid and went walking until reaching a restaurant called “Arenas”, seventeen blocks away from our anchorage, where we ordered our plates ( via VHF). There handiwork could be bought also, and there was a museum of strange articles, such like pencils, key holders, aluminium tins, ash-trays , telephone cards, perfume flasks , etc. some of these collections deserving to belong to the Guinness book of records. We picked up our ice block on the way back to the anchorage, and again to the Siriusito, rowing to our floating home, this time with the wind in our favour. This evening the meal was a fancy degustation of cheeses and sausages bought at the “Arenas”, served with an excellent Malbec. We slept like the Gods!

Early next day I carried the two bicycles in our tender and crossed the beach to try to reach Colonia on a dirt track ( 12 km ). Once more the Siriusito behaved marvelously well as a ferry. We decided to peddle a little under an inclement sun, but now profiting from the shade of the pine trees. We went on for some 4 km when Carina’s bycicle had its sprocket chain broken. As we had some rope at hand, I tried towing her with my bicycle until finding a gate shut with a padlock.

Back to the beach and starving, I tried to reach the wooden pier with the bicycle through a path opened by cows, but I didn’t manage, since in some places the bush was so dense that it was impossible to proceed. That night we organized a game to be played by the kids from all the boats, “the pirates’ boarding”, which consisted in gathering the children dressed up as “pirates”, and using their tenders, to board the boats involved in the dispute, to try to find the “treasure”. Flor with an eye patch like all “good” pirates must wear, went, together with more than thirty other children, hunting the many treasures hidden in the boats. Sirius wasn’t spared and her treasure of candies (marked with an X) was looted with total success. So there was nearly two hours between looting and the posterior division of the “earnings”, finally returning each kid to his boat to let the adrenaline settle down, while commenting about the “adventures”. The last two days we left to visit Colonia and have good meals in a restaurant. Because of this, I began to maneuver to say good by to Riachuelo and to prepare to leave for Colonia. Nearly five miles separates these two points, and, in lack of wind, we turned the Yanmar on, so as not to arrive after midday and to profit from a more pleasurable navigation, not having to endure the noon heat. When arriving at the port of Colonia, we noticed it was also crowded, with just a couple of places available. So, with the assistance of our dinghy, for our peace of mind, we preferred to lash the boat to a mooring buoy, not needing to perform complicated maneuvers to force our way to the pier. We had lunch aboard and rested a little in the shade of our awning, going ashore in the afternoon with our bicycles to peddle a bit through the city until reaching Ferrando Beach, where we cooled ourselves with a invigorating swim. Back to the beach we could contemplate a gorgeous sunset, next going to have dinner in a local restaurant to quench our craving to eat the things we didn’t have aboard. Back to Sirius, eating ice creams for dessert, completely exhausted, we went to bed, sleeping soon after.

I awoke early and went ashore to leave the clearance papers at the harbor office, taking the opportunity to buy something for our last breakfast aboard. We decided to walk around the city, and, killing time until midday, we had lunch in Colonia, before leaving for La Plata, departing at three P.M. We hoisted the mainsail while still tied to the buoy and motor-sailed to outside the harbour. After rounding the Santa Rita light house, we hoisted the jib and went in the direction of La Plata. The wind was coming from the south at 15-20 knots which, together with a flooding tide current, made us drift away from our course, obliging, after two miles of sailing to change tacks to get extra windward. After two miles in the new tack, we could already point towards our destination, as far as we sailed close hauled. Our average speed was 5,5 knots with the wind increasing in strength steadily, with waves growing in size proportionally. Suddenly, out of the blue came steaming towards us the fast running ferry, “Buquebus”, on a collision course. Carina, scared to death, asked me to change course and get out of the way, but I was certain that by her speed, she would cross our bows at a sufficient distance not to put us in danger. So, the ‘roaring monster” overtook us one hundred metres ahead, a close enough shave to frighten us. When we arrived at the entrance of the port there were a lot of boats at anchor in our way, obliging us to negotiate our progress with short tacks to avoid a collision. Then the river conditions deteriorated, with huge short-spaced waves coming from all directions, and the wind surpassing twenty five knots. Suddenly we saw an oil tanker moving in an erratic course. Worse still, we didn’t know if this giant had seen us, so we turned the motor on as an extra precaution. After this new fright, there was just one other boat to avoid, and finally we had free access to the canal. Still with a south wind, we were surfing huge waves coming from astern, reaching eight knots when riding their crests. As a farewell, and before entering the stone breakwater, a wave caught Sirius sideways, giving the three of us a bath from head to toe. We reported our safe arrival to the Argentinean port authorities, as well as the Uruguayans, going safely to our mooring at Martinoli boatyard, where we unloaded all the things we had taken, and, after a kiss of gratitude for the days lived and our return home in safety, we left Sirius until the next outing.