Up the river from Mazagon

Malua
Harry Watson Smith
Tue 18 Sep 2012 19:59
Christopher Columbus set off from Spain from near the spot that we are currently anchored or so the cruising guide states. We left Rota after a few days land travel and set sail so to speak because we have had very little wind and the iron genny has been working overtime. We weaved our way through the numerous net buoys that are all over the shallower waters of this coast. It was a long uneventful day as we approached the entrance of the River Rio de Huelva. It is a well marked channel and very deep as we found out as we motored up river past large gaz and fuel processing plants and docks. We passed a number of large and powerful tugs who where busy escorting and large oil carrier was bound for sea.
We went quite a long way up the river where it divided and dropped the anchor in five meters of water. The current had just turned and the wind dropped so we settled down to a quiet night. In the morning the wind had come up and the current turned so we were drifting towards the bank. I had visions of the Canals of France with just mud under the keel however the wind dropped and the current took over and soon we where lying parallel to the bank with just over one meter below the keel.
The day was declared a lay day and we stayed anchored for the day to do the odd jobs that we had put on hold over the past week. The major one was to establish if the 8HP yamaha had in fact given up the ghost. After about three hours and numerous attempts to get it to start plus removing and cleaning the carburettor about four time it started and then continued to run. what a relief as I left the mother ship and headed up wind with the throttle half open. The motor continued to run and it was declared safe to use in open water. The tiny 2.8 HP put away for another day. We are due to anchor up some river over the next few days so the larger outboard will come in handy as we have to travel the longer distance to get into the marinas.
Anther magical moment on Malua